Arrogance - The 13th Human Factor

Merriam-Webster’s dictionary defines arrogant as, “having or showing the insulting attitude of people who believe that they are better, smarter or more important than other people.” We have all run into arrogant people and our first encounter was probably in academia. Intellectual arrogance was a major concern in a 1984 study of American graduate business students and in an earlier study in 1971 of arrogance focusing on the Harvard Business School. We can  relate by asking yourself what is your immediate feeling if someone says they are a professor at Harvard, Yale, Oxford or Stanford? Now, what if I said I am a professor at the University of Illinois or Lewis University? Harvard and those other schools carry an attitude of elitism. This attitude is not unique to the professors — it has filtered down to the students as well.

Arrogance occurs in every occupation and every profession. A multi-university study assessed more than 500 business students’ perceptions of arrogance in academic, business and professional (non-business) environments. Statistical analyses were conducted to compare students’ views of these different occupational groups (Haan et al, 2007). With what I wrote in the first paragraph, it was revealed that educators were found to be less arrogant than non-educators with college administrators coming in seventh; politicians, lawyers, entertainers, athletes, managers and doctors led the list. That said, it was surprising to find that graduate business students were significantly more arrogant than undergraduate business students, college professors, non-tenured faculty and adjunct instructors. We produce business grad students who are more arrogant than their professors. If that isn’t scary enough, some of those over-arrogant grad students become over-arrogant grad school professors who will produce more arrogant grad students.

Arrogance and humility are considered to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. Both are traits that people perceive in others and assume that people do not see in them. People identify others as being more arrogant or more humble than they see themselves. These perceptions often stem from how people handle success. Justin Bieber is not handling it well. People who are successful are automatically presumed to be arrogant unless they openly attribute their success to others such as mentors and coaches, or even luck, and then they are perceived as humble. On the other hand, if one ascribes their success through self-aggrandizing or as the result of one’s self-created abilities or skills, it will solidify people’s presumption of arrogance. This indicates that this person sees himself or herself as being better than others.

Given that arrogance and humility are polar opposites, we, no doubt, have had personal experience with intellectual arrogance outside of academia. Intellectual humility is a rarity and is best described in this anecdote.

“There was an elderly professor in my department and he had been passionately keen on a particular theory for a number of years. One day an American visiting researcher came and he completely and utterly disproved our old man’s hypothesis. The old man strode to the front, shook his hand and said, ‘My dear fellow, I wish to thank you. I have been wrong these 15 years.’ And we all clapped our hands raw. That was the scientific ideal, of somebody who had a lot invested, a lifetime almost invested in a theory, and he was rejoicing that he had been shown wrong and that scientific truth had been advanced” (Dawkins, 2006).

The elderly professor did not treat the theory as his own and disconfirmed any threats to “his theory.” Rather, he cared only for the truth.

professional arrogance

Administrators and managers exhibit professional arrogance when their actions and decisions are based on position, power, ego or the need to impress their superiors instead of doing what is best for the employees or organization. Administrators and managers might say they value employee input as a pacifying measure but, in reality, their actions display they only accept input that agrees with their own. At times this can lead others to sacrifice quality and safety in order to meet the numbers and appease their superiors. Thus the problem peeks from behind the curtain.

Professional arrogance puts the individual on a solitary venture. The social consequence of professional arrogance is that people who are modest about their accomplishments are liked more, and people are more compassionate if they lose their power and are willing to assist. On the other hand, the professional arrogant individual will have compadres only as long as they remain successful.

The following list if from the article “Twelve Signs Arrogance is Running Your Company” by Alaina Love:

Arrogance is running your company if:

1.  You hire and develop great people but then fail to listen to their input if it is non-conformist thinking.

2.  Your company rationalizes its mistakes instead of learning from them.

3.  Your company focuses almost exclusively on financial success with little regard for legacy and social impact.

4.  Your company lobbies against sound regulations because they might add complexity to the way you operate.

5.  Your leaders pat themselves on the back when the company succeeds financially, even success derived from market forces rather than actual performance.

6.  Your leaders believe the company can’t fail.

7.  Your leaders dictate more than they listen.

8.  The company underestimates its competition and minimizes the success competitors achieve.

9.  Access to top leadership in the company requires wading through multiple layers of bureaucracy.

10.  There is a focus on amassing the trappings of success: large, well-appointed offices, chauffeured cars, private jets and the like.

11.  Your company doesn’t become a partner in a merger; it takes over, losing the value of the culture and learning the other organization might have provided.

12.  Your company suffers from “Not Invented Here Syndrome,” believing it holds the monopoly on great ideas, so that innovations coming from the outside (“Not Invented Here”) are deemed to hold little value.

If you answered “yes” to more than six of these signs, your company has a dangerously high arrogance index (Love, 2010).

It is important to note that businesses are not inherently arrogant but become that way from the culture that is cultivated over time by the attitude of those who work there. The auto industry expressed arrogance in the 1950s and 1960s at the upstart Japanese auto market.

Examples of arrogant employees and bosses abound. All you have to do is Google “arrogant leaders” and you will get more than 16 million hits. Research has shown that arrogance is a useful predictor of performance where arrogance scores were negatively related to task performance rating (Johnson, et al, 2010). In other words, the more arrogant you are, the lower your performance. Not what you thought was it? Why do the arrogant rise so fast? Arrogance breeds arrogance. A just organization will not accept arrogant behaviors, but a culture that is run by arrogance will be more accepting of like behavior and less tolerant of others.

intelligence and arrogance

Another interesting article compared the two fundamental components of competency: intelligence and arrogance (Birchfield, 2013). The article is graphically depicted below. Is it just me or does it appear that high intelligence and high arrogance are traits of academics and serial killers?

Typically high levels of arrogance are associated with low self-esteem, low general intelligence, poor job performance, and low organizational citizenship behaviors. The research suggests that arrogance is actually a defensive play to mask inadequacies (Johnson, et al, 2010; Bauer, 2008; Johnson and Saboe, 2011). Didn’t see that one coming, did you?

The problem is that managers have power over work assignments, promotional opportunities and performance reviews. These place subordinates of arrogant managers in a precarious position.

What is one to do when confronted with an arrogant manager? You have two choices. If you say nothing, you are subjected to criticism and unrealistic demands as you give the appearance of a victim and an easy target. If you speak up, it will result in backlash and the arrogant manager’s behavior will likely become worse. Pick your battles wisely. There were times when I stayed silent but mostly I had trouble keeping my mouth shut. It doesn’t end pretty either way. I eventually left those companies.

The best advice is not to become an arrogant manager — but if you don’t know you are arrogant and no one is going to tell you, then what? All I can say is that I will leave you with the following.

Cherokee Wisdom of the Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people. He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

“One is Evil. It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority and ego.

“The other is Good. It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather, “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.” 

References:

Bauer, J.; Cho, E.; Johnson, R. E.; Silverman, S.B. (October 2008). Acting superior but actually inferior? Relationships of arrogance with motivation and cognitive ability.

Birchfield, Reg (March 2013). Arrogance watch. management.co.nz.

Dawkins, R. (Writer). (2006). The root of all evil? Part 1: The God.

Delusion. [Documentary. Quote begins at 00:13:32]. United Kingdom: Channel 4.

Haan, P.; Britt, M.; Weinstein, A. (2007) Business students’ perceptions of arrogance in academia. College Student Journal, 41,1.

Johnson, R. E., and Saboe, K. (2011). Measuring implicit traits in organizational research: Development of an indirect measure of employee implicit self-concept. Organizational Research Methods, 14, 530–547.

Johnson, R. E.; Silverman, S. B.; Shymsunder, A.; Swee, H.; Rodopman, O. B.; Bauer, J.; and Chao, E. (2010). Acting superior but actually inferior: Correlates and consequences of workplace arrogance. Human Performance, 23, 403–427.

Love, A. (Dec. 22, 2010). Twelve Signs Arrogance Is Running Your Company, Business Week.com

Patrick Kinane is an FAA-certificated A&P with IA and commercial pilot with instrument rating. He has 50 years of experience in aviation maintenance. He is an ASQ senior member with quality auditor and quality systems/organizational excellence manager certifications. He is an RABQSA-certified AS9100 and AS9110 aerospace industry experienced auditor and ISO9001 business improvement/quality management systems auditor. He earned a bachelor of science degree in aviation maintenance management, a master’s of science degree in education, and a Ph.D. in organizational psychology. Kinane is presently a senior quality management systems auditor for AAR CORP and a professor of organizational behavior at DeVry University.