University at Buffalo School of Management

20 Buffalo Business Autumn 2019 Insights Ampadu four-time award recipient Alex Ampadu, clinical associate professor of accounting and law, was recognized with the Milton Plesur Excellence in Teaching Award from UB's undergraduate Student Association at a ceremony last spring. Named for a beloved UB professor, the annual award rec- ognizes outstanding professors who create an atmosphere of creativity, enthusiasm and participation in their classrooms. Students nominate instructors from across the university who have inspired, excited or positively aff ected them. Ampadu is the fi rst recipient in the award's history to be honored four times. He previously received the Plesur award in 1998, 2006 and 2010. x Ampadu Narcissists curb team performance, according to a new study from the School of Management. Recently published in the Academy of Management Journal, the study found NBA teams with higher av- erage and maximum levels of narcissism, as well as high- er narcissist members in key roles (point guard), had poor- er coordination and lower overall performance. Narcissism is characterized by a gran- diose sense of self-importance—believing you're more important and special than others—and a lack of empathy. "Narcissists prevent good things from happening," says lead author Emily Grijalva, assistant professor of organi- zation and human resources. "Over time, lower levels of narcissism result in teams being able to fully capitalize on the benefi ts of getting to know each other." In addition, the coordination and per- formance diff erences between low and high narcissism teams strengthened over Narcissists make bad teammates—in the NBA and your workplace time. Teams with lower narcissism saw im- provements in coordination, while teams with higher narcissism stagnated, failing to achieve the benefi ts that normally occur as team mem- bers get to know each other. For the study, the researchers developed a coding guide to analyze the narcissism levels of nearly 35,000 tweets and the Twitter profi le pictures of about 400 NBA players. They then used the results of every game from the 2013- 14 regular season—2,460 games total—to de- termine how narcissists impact overall team performance. Study co-author Timothy Maynes, assis- tant professor of organization and human resources, says companies should consider narcissism when forming teams and avoid put- ting highly narcissistic members in the most critical roles. "Narcissists tend to be attracted to power- ful positions and are likely to emerge as lead- ers," says Maynes. "It may be easier to submit to narcissists' demands in the short term, but this will result in long-term costs to the team." When you can't avoid putting narcissists on a team, the researchers say to base at least some compensation on team performance, which will force members to depend on one an- other and narcissists to behave more collegially. Grijalva and Maynes collaborated on the study with School of Management doc- toral student Katie Badura, as well as Steven Whiting, associate professor of management at the University of Central Florida College of Business. x Grijalva Maynes

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