According to a new study, all employees like private rewards – a salary increase or glowing performance review that’s not broadcast to others in the workplace – but narcissists also want to have rewards made public for their colleagues to see, the researchers found.

For the paper, published Oct. 8 in Social Psychological and Personality Science, researchers conducted multiple surveys of full-time employees and found that people higher in narcissism were more likely to prefer, and were more motivated by, public rewards. Narcissists were also more likely than non-narcissists to accept a job with a better title than a job with higher pay.

“Overall people preferred private rewards to public rewards – which was somewhat surprising given how common public rewards are,” said first author Emily Zitek, associate professor of organizational behavior in the ILR School. “Narcissists like private rewards as well, but they also like public rewards, and they like them a lot more than non-narcissists do.”

The researchers conducted four different online surveys of employees, with more than 1,000 respondents overall. They asked participants to self-report their degree of narcissism and then describe how motivated they were by public and private rewards, how much they preferred one over the other and whether they preferred public title increases or private salary increases.

The study could help employers and managers improve workplace culture and understand what motivates different employees. Research shows that the best leaders tailor their management practices to the needs of those who work for them, Zitek said.

“This is part of that concept – recognizing what kinds of rewards are good for particular employees,” she said. “But it also shows that a lot of people find public rewards off-putting. And it might be the case that emphasizing public rewards attracts more narcissists to an organization.”

The researchers found evidence of why narcissists like public rewards: They care more about status and worry less about envy. While non-narcissists may be concerned about the effect of receiving a public reward on their workplace peers and their relationships with their peers, narcissists see a public reward as boosting their status.

“Narcissists may even desire others to be envious of them, because envy may indicate that others recognize their status,” Zitek said.

The research also calls into question the practice of title inflation, where companies give employees new and improved titles without changing the positions or salaries. Narcissists might enjoy the status endowed by the new title, but others generally won’t.

“I’d warn companies that title inflation might not be helping your employees as much as you think it is,” Zitek said. “It might actually be undermining your credibility.”

For Zitek, the research fits into a larger exploration of how narcissism and entitlement impact workplace dynamics; in a follow-up study, she is examining how narcissistic managers change employee behavior.

“It’s one of the main complaints you see: that someone is so hard to work with because they’re entitled or narcissistic,” Zitek said. “So, I do think it’s important to understand the pros and cons of those personality characteristics and how we can work with these people in workplaces and schools – so that people are happy, and we have functioning organizations.”

Co-authors of the study include Verena Krause of the University College London School of Management and Alexander H. Jordan of Harvard Medical School and McLean Hospital.