Literature
Table 1: Harmful behaviors and leadership theories
- Abusive
- Tyrannical
- Destructive
- Bullying
- Toxic
- Laissez-faire
Subjectivity: Is someone’s jerk another’s inspiration??
- Situational leadership theory
- Lipman-Blumen (2005) recognize multiple dimensions to toxicity including impact.
- Hunt (1984) argues social-construction theory explains different opinions as a function of psychology and relations.
Study 1 (Qual)
- Snowball sample (N=215) is surveyed
- Results: Table 2. Typology of toxic leader behavior and rhetoric
- Results: Figure 1. Direct and vicarious experiences
Study 2 (Quant)
- Leader Behavior Assessment (LBA) of 51 behaviors (Likert 1..7)
- Convenience sampling of students (N=269)
- Results: Table 3. Harmful leader behaviors: Means and % endorsement.
Are you surprised about degree of agreement about harmfulness?
Weaknesses and limitations?
Variables??
Identify variables associated with the interpretation of potentially toxic expression (e.g., intention).
- intention (unthinking, positive, negative)
- effect (unnoticed, unaffected, affected)
- specificity (person, group)
- context (circumstances, norms)
- modality (verbal, nonverbal, online)
- tactics (Table 2, p. 385) …
Tactics 1
- Attack on followers’ self-esteem
- Demeaning/marginalizing, or degrading
- Ridiculing
- Mocking
- Lack of integrity
- Being deceptive
- Blaming others for leader’s mistakes
- Bending the rules to meet goals
- Abusiveness
- Displaying anger
- Emotional volatility
- Coercing
- Social exclusion
- Excluding individuals from social functions
Tactics 2
- Divisiveness
- Ostracizing employee
- Inciting employee to chastise another
- Promoting inequity
- Exhibiting favoritism (e.g., selective in promotions)
- Favoring members of entourage
- Threat to followers’ security
- Using physical acts of aggression
- Threatening employees’ job security
- Forcing people to endure hardships
- Laissez-faire
- Ignoring comments/ideas
- Disengagement
- Stifling dissent
- Being rigid