Logotyp: till Försvarshögskolans hemsida

The overall purpose of the study is to investigate narcissistic leadership in the Swedish Armed Forces. Since research on narcissism in the Swedish Armed Forces is an unexplored area the research design has an open and unconditional attitude to the research area. This open and explorative approach is achieved through using the method Grounded Theory. The results show that the informants have experienced narcissistic leadership in the Swedish Armed Forces. In addition, the results indicate that such leadership, from a career point of view, can be competitive, but over time is doomed to fail. The empirical data illustrates examples of that military leaders with narcissistic personality traits can advance in the hierarchy and potentially cause harm to the organization. Empirical data also indicates that there are many difficulties associated with identifying narcissists in the Swedish Armed Forces. This can possibly be correlated with the fact that the traits associated with grandiose narcissism substantially overlaps with what we think of as transformational leadership. The aim of the study is relevant since destructive narcissistic leaders annually lead several companies and organizations to ruin, causing great expense and much suffering among their followers.