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> the idea that narcissism has increased among college students over the last 25 years is worrisome from an organizational perspective. Millennials are the next

> the idea that narcissism has increased among college students over the last 25 years is worrisome from an organizational perspective. Millennials are the next generation of leaders. When i was in school, everyone was raving at me, barking madly that all of us students had to be the leaders of tomorrow. Maybe it's because everyone is obsessed with who gets to be a leader that people presume that they should be leaders. Millenials are also the next generation of followers, or workers, or you know, discarding hierarchical considerations: millenials are the next generation of humans. Which is tautological. Looking at the current field of candidates for leader of the most powerful (by a few metrics, but not all) government of the world, i think the bar has been set very low for millenials and the people who write articles like this merely have some heavily tinted rose-colored glasses on about their "generation of leaders". That said, i don't think it's surprising that people in positions of power in a hierarchical structure, like a university setting, are biased towards people like them and hence create a selection effect within that power structure. Isn't that the basic observation that validates affirmative action? Nepotism, cronyism are commonly understood terms, but clearly they are specific cases of a general phenomenon. You cannot separate the exercise of power from its social implications. People being social creatures, they will exercise their power in ways that have social consequences. That's why people are put in positions of power in the first place.

asQuirreL 11y ago
This is an interesting point, and one I've seen from the other side as well: When leaving secondary (high) school, for university, a common piece of advice is: "You may have been one of the smartest people here, but be careful, you probably won't be where you're going, so you have to manage your expectations." But if everyone is being told this, then those who could become some of the "smartest people at university", are being told it too, and some of these people could be unnecessarily lowering their expectations. I've always thought this was a great shame.
- danharaj 11y ago
  Preoccupation with status hardly helps cultivate the virtue that status was supposed to indicate.
- SixSigma 11y ago
  > manage your expectations is not the same as "reduce your achievements"
anigbrowl 11y ago
The 'leadership culture' was something I noticed when I moved to the US from London. Where I'm from kids are mostly told they need to worry about getting a job, here in the US the grooming to hold a leadership/supervisory position is much more explicit and intense. Perhaps due to the hereditary aristocracy in the UK and many other european countries, it's implicit that social leaders will most likely be those born into aristocratic or well-off families, as has been the case through most of history, whereas in the US anyone can play (theoretically at least). I've never quite got used to it, though I don't necessarily think it's bad.

asQuirreL 11y ago

This is an interesting point, and one I've seen from the other side as well: When leaving secondary (high) school, for university, a common piece of advice is: "You may have been one of the smartest people here, but be careful, you probably won't be where you're going, so you have to manage your expectations." But if everyone is being told this, then those who could become some of the "smartest people at university", are being told it too, and some of these people could be unnecessarily lowering their expectations. I've always thought this was a great shame.

danharaj 11y ago
Preoccupation with status hardly helps cultivate the virtue that status was supposed to indicate.
SixSigma 11y ago
> manage your expectations is not the same as "reduce your achievements"

anigbrowl 11y ago

The 'leadership culture' was something I noticed when I moved to the US from London. Where I'm from kids are mostly told they need to worry about getting a job, here in the US the grooming to hold a leadership/supervisory position is much more explicit and intense. Perhaps due to the hereditary aristocracy in the UK and many other european countries, it's implicit that social leaders will most likely be those born into aristocratic or well-off families, as has been the case through most of history, whereas in the US anyone can play (theoretically at least). I've never quite got used to it, though I don't necessarily think it's bad.