{"id":9085,"date":"2026-06-25T10:21:43","date_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=9085"},"modified":"2026-06-25T10:21:43","modified_gmt":"2026-06-25T10:21:43","slug":"a-6-year-study-shows-which-ceos-are-pushing-rto-mandates-the-ones-with-the-biggest-egos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/?p=9085","title":{"rendered":"A 6 year study shows which CEOs are pushing RTO mandates: The ones with the biggest egos"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

Good morning<\/strong>. Claire Zillman writing from London this morning. CEOs have offered many different reasons for calling workers back into the office\u2014despite research that suggests working from home can be as effective, if not more effective, than in-office work. Amazon\u2019s Andy Jassy says in-person collaboration is \u201csimpler and more effective.\u201d Jamie Dimon calls Zoom-heavy work \u201cmanagement by Hollywood Squares.\u201d Instagram\u2019s Adam Mosseri says five days in-office breeds creativity. Larry Fink even floated the idea that getting bodies back in chairs could help beat inflation.<\/p>\n

\n

These are the arguments CEOs have made publicly. But a new study suggests there\u2019s a less flattering explanation that nobody has put in a memo. A Wharton study co-authored by organizational psychologist Adam Grant found that leader narcissism is directly associated with resistance to remote work. The main reason? Power is easier to perform in person.<\/p>\n

In the six-year study, researchers collected data on Fortune 500 CEOs, using behavioral proxies\u2014signature size, photo size in annual reports, pay gap relative to peers\u2014to construct narcissism scores. The higher the score, the more likely a CEO was to publicly oppose remote and hybrid work and seek additional status (like a board chairmanship). In a separate experiment, CEOs whose egos were primed\u2014by reflecting on the assertive leadership styles of Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison\u2014showed significantly greater opposition to working from home than a control group.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe higher the opinions of themselves leaders expressed, the more they coveted power and status\u2014and the more they favored return-to-office mandates,\u201d the authors wrote in a New York Times <\/em>opinion piece.<\/p>\n

Grant and his coauthors warn that ego may be blinding CEOs to the upside of more flexible working arrangements\u2014a perk employees love\u2014and motivating them to impose full-time in-office mandates that could backfire.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The study should be a wakeup call for leaders: There may be totally legitimate reasons to call employees back into the office, but massaging the boss\u2019s ego isn\u2019t one of them.<\/p>\n

Contact CEO Daily via Diane Brady at diane.brady@fortune.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Top leadership news<\/h3>\n

Zohran Mamdani goes three for three in congressional endorsements<\/b><\/p>\n

New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s backed candidates <\/span>swept<\/span> three House Democratic primaries Tuesday, unseating two incumbents and prompting Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to declare him “the leader of the Democratic Party.” The bigger concern for Fortune 500 CEOs, analysts say, is what a more progressive Albany legislature\u2014energized, perhaps, by these NYC primary victories\u2014means for corporate taxes in New York.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

AI is going to be an \u2018earthquake\u2019<\/b><\/p>\n

Author Robert Wright, whose new book argues AI could be a new evolutionary force for humanity, <\/span>told <\/span>Fortune<\/span><\/i> that Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei’s framing of AI as an existential race with China is a “suicidal ideology” that forecloses the global coordination needed to manage the technology safely. “When you look at all the fronts\u2014economic, cultural, political, personal, family, psychological and so on\u2014it is going to be an earthquake,” Wright said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The U.S. could lose nearly $500 billion by driving away international STEM students<\/b><\/p>\n

A Peterson Institute paper published Tuesday <\/span>found<\/span> that a one-third drop in foreign-born STEM graduates over the next decade would cost the U.S. economy between $240 billion and $481 billion, as immigration crackdowns push talent to competitor countries. “These high-skill STEM workers lost to the United States won’t disappear. They will supply their talents instead to competitor countries,\u201d the authors wrote.<\/span><\/p>\n

The markets<\/h3>\n

S&P 500 <\/b>futures are up 0.7% this morning. The last session closed down 0.1%. <\/span>South Korea\u2019s KOSPI <\/b>rose 5.4%, while <\/span>Japan\u2019s Nikkei 225 <\/b>rose 4.6%. <\/span>Hong Kong\u2019s Hang Seng Index <\/b>fell 1.4%, while <\/span>Mainland China\u2019s CSI 300 <\/b>rose 1.6%. <\/span>India\u2019s NIFTY 50 <\/b>is up 0.1%, while the <\/span>STOXX Europe 600 <\/b>is up 0.6% in morning trading. Shares in<\/span> SK Hynix <\/b>surged 13.1% after the chipmaker unveiled plans for a $29 billion U.S. listing. <\/span>Bitcoin <\/b>has dropped below $62,000.<\/span><\/p>\n

Around the watercooler<\/h3>\n

\u2018Wipe out and change are different\u2019: Amazon exec slams AI job apocalypse fears as he hires thousands of Gen Z grads<\/span> by Preston Fore<\/span><\/p>\n

Ray Dalio just finished a 10-day trip to China. He says global leaders know America \u2018doesn\u2019t have what it takes to fight to maintain its empire\u2019<\/span> by Nick Lichtenberg<\/span><\/p>\n

Exclusive: Vinod Khosla wanted \u2018every available dollar\u2019 of Runlayer\u2019s funding round. It just raised $30 million to govern the agent workforce<\/span> by Lily Mae Lazarus<\/span><\/p>\n

Trump mistakes the bully pulpit for bullying leadership \u2014 history\u2019s villains were never heroes<\/span> by Jeffrey Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian<\/span><\/p>\n

CEO Daily is curated and edited by Joseph Abrams, Jason Ma, Claire Zillman, and Lee Clifford.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

#year #study #shows #CEOs #pushing #RTO #mandates #biggest #egos<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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