Leadership and the development of dominant and countercultures: A narcissistic perspective

This article uses a case study analysis to analyse a leadership scenario that permits a dominant culture and a counterculture to develop and coexist simultaneously within a single organisation. Research findings are presented to show the circumstances under which the leadership of a reactive narcissistic founder‐leader can give rise to the coexistence of a dominant and a counterculture through an incremental development process. By employing the “successful‐idealising” concepts of Gagliardi, the case demonstrates how such a leader can allow antagonistic organisational values to exist in a marginalised state alongside those of the dominant culture, as long as such values fall within the latitude of tolerance of the leader. The circumstances under which this process can occur are analysed within the context of the case.