An Assessment of The Effect of Generation Y And Z Executives' Perceptions of Religion on Narcissistic Personality Traits and Reflections Thereof on Business Life
Authors: YÖRÜK KARAKILIÇ Nilüfer , MADİKOVA ÖZER Aizat 
Published: December 2023

Management, defined as doing business through others, plays the most important role among the functions in a metaphorical analogy as the heart of the business. The importance of the decisions taken within management and the vision, experience, personality traits and behaviors of managers in the realization of the main and subsidiary objectives of the business is self-evident. Thus, the personality structure of individuals at management levels affects their styles and the decisions they make in management processes. Religion is a socio-cultural value that regulates the individual’s life with others in society by conveying the rules, regulations, orders, and prohibitions regarding the life of human are in the social order, including the orders and prohibitions of Allah. Religion, as an element of culture, contains values that vary for everyone. It is associated with belief as a concept. The beliefs that occupy an important place in religion have deeply affected individuals in giving meaning to the world, existence, and life. An individual's religious perceptions permeate every aspect of their life. Religious perceptions transform into virtuous behaviors in the individual with faith in Allah or should do so. Hence, it is a necessity for a person with high religious perceptions to strive to establish a lifestyle per the commandments of Allah. Religion is the values that lead people to good, truth, beauty, virtuous behavior, selflessness, to help, to empathize, namely, to be a good servant and human being. Thus, we can say that religious orientations, which make the individual a good person who is beneficial to society, play a crucial role in the formation of personality traits and their development for the better. Since personality is a encompasses an individual's entire lifestyle, narcissistic personality traits encompass all the behaviors that affect a person's life. Narcissistic personality structure has a state where the person sees themselves as better and superior. In terms of religious perceptions, the formation of narcissistic personality traits is related to it. The stronger the religious values that direct the person toward the good and true, the more the self-centered structure is polished, and reveals a personality structure that treats others thoughtfully, doesn’t despise, distances from arrogance, cares for society, and is far from prioritizing oneself. We know from the verses and hadiths that the arrogant behavior of a person is considered one of the most disliked characteristics of Allah. Arrogance and humiliating others are among the characteristics of the narcissistic personality that religion won’t tolerate. This study aims to determine the effect of religious perceptions of generation Y and Z managers on narcissistic personality and evaluate their reflections on business life.

In the study, a scale consisting of 24 statements was used to measure the perception of religion, and one consisting of 18 statements from nine admiration dimensions and nine competition dimensions for narcissism. Validity and reliability analyses were conducted to ensure the construct validity. After entering the data into the SPSS-25 program, confidence analysis and exploratory factor analysis were performed, and structural equation modeling was performed in the AMOS-19 program to determine the effects of it on each other.

The study results have also shown that religious perceptions have effective results on narcissism. We see that religious values command a person to be humble, modest, respectful, loving and respectful, caring, helpful, and avoiding arrogant behavior through their wealth, titles, and children, in short, with what they own, both in their life and society. It is clear that these rules and regulations of religion don’t tolerate narcissism, which are defined as pathological. When narcissistic traits appear in business life, it legitimizes a thought and behavioral mechanism that makes it appropriate to engage in unethical behavior for one's interests without regard. After examining the analysis results, we see that religious perceptions play a role in narcissistic behaviors.