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Destructive Leadership: A Critique of Leader-Centric Perspectives and Toward a More Holistic Definition

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Christian Thoroughgood at Villanova University
Christian Thoroughgood
Katina B. Sawyer
Katina B. Sawyer
Katina B. Sawyer
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Art Padilla
Art Padilla
Art Padilla
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Laura Gail Lunsford at Campbell University
Laura Gail Lunsford
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Abstract and Figures

Over the last 25 years, there has been an increasing fascination with the “dark” side of leadership. The term “destructive leadership” has been used as an overarching expression to describe various “bad” leader behaviors believed to be associated with harmful consequences for followers and organizations. Yet, there is a general consensus and appreciation in the broader leadership literature that leadership represents much more than the behaviors of those in positions of influence. It is a dynamic, cocreational process between leaders, followers, and environments, the product of which contributes to group and organizational outcomes. In this paper, we argue that, despite this more holistic recognition of leadership processes within the broader leadership literature, current conceptualizations and analyses of destructive leadership continue to focus too heavily on behaviors and characteristics of “bad” leaders. In our view, to achieve a more balanced understanding of destructive leadership, it is important to adopt more integrative approaches that are based in the contemporary leadership discourse and that recognize flawed or toxic leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments as interdependent elements of a broader destructive leadership process. To this end, we offer a critique of the destructive leadership literature, propose a broader definition of destructive leadership, and highlight gaps in our understanding of leaders, followers, and environments in contributing to destructive leadership processes. Finally, we conclude by discussing strategies for examining destructive leadership in a broader, more holistic fashion.
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Destructive Leadership: A Critique of Leader-Centric
Perspectives and Toward a More Holistic Definition
Christian N. Thoroughgood
1
•Katina B. Sawyer
1
•Art Padilla
2
•Laura Lunsford
3
Received: 8 February 2016 / Accepted: 28 June 2016 / Published online: 6 July 2016
Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht 2016
Abstract Over the last 25 years, there has been an
increasing fascination with the ‘‘dark’’ side of leadership.
The term ‘‘destructive leadership’’ has been used as an
overarching expression to describe various ‘‘bad’’ leader
behaviors believed to be associated with harmful conse-
quences for followers and organizations. Yet, there is a
general consensus and appreciation in the broader leader-
ship literature that leadership represents much more than
the behaviors of those in positions of influence. It is a
dynamic, cocreational process between leaders, followers,
and environments, the product of which contributes to
group and organizational outcomes. In this paper, we argue
that, despite this more holistic recognition of leadership
processes within the broader leadership literature, current
conceptualizations and analyses of destructive leadership
continue to focus too heavily on behaviors and character-
istics of ‘‘bad’’ leaders. In our view, to achieve a more
balanced understanding of destructive leadership, it is
important to adopt more integrative approaches that are
based in the contemporary leadership discourse and that
recognize flawed or toxic leaders, susceptible followers,
and conducive environments as interdependent elements of
a broader destructive leadership process. To this end, we
offer a critique of the destructive leadership literature,
propose a broader definition of destructive leadership, and
highlight gaps in our understanding of leaders, followers,
and environments in contributing to destructive leadership
processes. Finally, we conclude by discussing strategies for
examining destructive leadership in a broader, more
holistic fashion.
Keywords Destructive leadership Toxic leadership
Leadership processes Followers Environments
It is difficult to understand the universe if you only study one planet.
—Miyamoto Musashi (Kaufman 2003, p. 12)
Leadership has critical implications for groups, organiza-
tions, and societies. When it succeeds, its constituents
prosper. When it goes wrong, teams lose, armies are
defeated, organizations falter, and societies suffer. The
bankruptcies of Enron and Worldcom, the tragic events at
Jonestown, the scandals at Penn State and in the Catholic
Church, and the widespread poverty in Germany after the
fall of Hitler all highlight the destructive potential of
leadership on organizations of various forms and purposes.
Yet, when destructive leadership episodes occur, news
headlines often focus on leaders, rather than the group
processes and the larger historical, institutional, and soci-
etal forces that also contribute to the outcomes.
&Christian N. Thoroughgood
Christian.Thoroughgood@gmail.com
Katina B. Sawyer
Katina.Sawyer@gmail.com
Art Padilla
Padilla2005@gmail.com
Laura Lunsford
lglunsfo@email.arizona.edu
1
Department of Psychology, Villanova University, 800 E.
Lancaster Avenue, Suite 119, St. Mary’s Hall, Villanova,
PA 19085, USA
2
Eller College of Management, University of Arizona, 1130
East Helen Street, McClelland Hall 417,
P.O. Box 210108, Tucson, AZ 85721-0108, USA
3
Department of Psychology, University of Arizona – South,
1503 E. University of Boulevard, P.O. Box 210068, Tucson,
AZ 85721, USA
123
J Bus Ethics (2018) 151:627–649
https://doi.org/10.1007/s10551-016-3257-9
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... suffer, and armies are defeated Nurani et al., 2021;Thoroughgood et al., 2018). Previously various researchers have explored productive leadership (Wei et al., 2016) but very few studies highlighted the darker side of leadership (Naseer et al., 2016). ...
... Extant research has stressed the significance of the dark side of leadership (Kawiana et al., 2021;Paais & Pattiruhu, 2020;Pancasila et al., 2020;Saleh et al., 2022;Mackey et al., 2019;Neves & Schyns, 2018;Thoroughgood et al., 2018;Naseer et al., 2016;Spain et al., 2016). A systematic analysis by Mackey et al. (2019) revealed that darker side of leadership has a constructive effect on organizational deviance. ...
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