How the Narcissistic Personality of Instructors Affects Graduate Student Creativity

In recent years, due to the arrival of the knowledge economy era, the research on how to improve the innovation ability of postgraduate students has received widespread attention. Previous studies have paid more attention to the management style of tutors and relatively neglected the influence of tutors‘ negative personality on graduate students’ creative ability. Based on resource preservation theory and leader-member exchange theory, this paper explores the mechanisms and boundary effects of tutors‘ narcissistic personality affecting graduate students’ creative performance. Through the analysis of data from 359 graduate students from different majors and grades at three time points, the results show that: mentor narcissistic personality has a significant negative effect on graduate student creative performance; mentor self-interested tendency and graduate student work withdrawal mediate the role of mentor narcissistic personality and graduate student creative performance; mentor self-interested tendency and graduate student work withdrawal play the role of a chain mediation; mentor vision not only negatively moderated the relationship between mentor narcissistic personality and mentor self-interested tendencies, but also negatively moderated the mediating mechanism of mentor narcissistic personality-mentor self-interested tendencies-graduate student creative performance and the mediating mechanism of mentor narcissistic personality-mentor self-interested tendencies-graduate student creative performance -the chain mediating mechanism of graduate student work withdrawal-graduate student creative performance. The findings of this study can help to fully understand the internal mechanism and boundary conditions of tutor narcissistic personality affecting graduate students‘ creative performance, and at the same time can provide better practical guidance for the cultivation of graduate students’ creative ability.