Study Finds CEOs Pushing Return-to-Office Mandates Share One Trait: Narcissism
A six-year study by Wharton's Adam Grant with Marissa Shandell and Courtney Elliott, using proxies like CEO pay-package size and photo size in annual reports, found narcissism predicts RTO enthusiasm — in-person settings let leaders "direct and inspire" (and be admired) in ways video calls don't. An experimental prime (reflecting on Steve Jobs' and Larry Ellison's egos) causally increased opposition to remote work among the same leaders.
This reframes RTO mandates as a leadership-psychology issue rather than a pure productivity argument, which matters for anyone advising on change management around hybrid policy — the stated rationale and the actual driver may not be the same thing.
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