Article Hubris in leadership: A peril of unbridled intuition?

Research attests to the perils of hubristic leadership in politics, the military and business organ-izations, however whilst researchers have identified hubris ’ correspondences with personality disorders and various organizational and individual level factors, the cognitive and affective ante-cedents of hubris have been largely overlooked. In this paper we argue that intuition, existing as it does at the nexus of cognition and affect, is a central factor and that when intuition becomes misunderstood, unchecked or unbridled within the ‘cognitive economy ’ of a powerful individual hubristic behaviour is more likely to appear. In what follows we will: review the concepts of hubris, Hubris Syndrome and intuition; propose intuition as an overlooked cognitive and affective source of leaders ’ hubris; discuss the relationship between unbridled intuition and hubris; suggest how the perils of hubristic leadership stemming from unbridled intuition might be avoided or mitigated