How to Cope from a Toxic Leadership: The Case of Public Organizations

Abstract

The career ladder system in Public Organizations tends to be hierarchical or top-down, where the existence of leadership is determined by higher leadership. This pattern is similar to most other organizations, where managerial determination is carried out by the top leader or a system where the policy rests with the top leader, causing staff elements not to take part in determining the leader. With this concept, at the managerial level, especially low and middle managers, tend to be more focused on working in accordance with the leaders above them, and pay less attention to the condition of their subordinates, because the one who determines their career pattern is the higher superior. Such levels of hierarchy are felt, especially in government organizations, resulting in staff elements only being able to accept whatever conditions their leaders have, and their only choice is to stay at work or leave. In Public Organizations in Indonesia, the possibility of employees resigning is very small, this is because employee retention in the government sector is good, and there is even a tendency to become a favorite job because the stability of civil servant is maintained. In the Regional Apparatus X, the research location, employee performance assessments are carried out every month through Employee Performance Targets and assessed by the direct superior, so in any case every employee must continue to perform, adapt and be loyal to any type of leader. To reduce bias, this research was conducted by first identifying whether the respondent had a toxic leader, because the perception of the same leader may be different for several staff members. Therefore, using the snowball sampling method, researchers determined respondents and got 15 respondents from Regional Apparatus Organization. The condition of a toxic leader is a crisis condition that may affects employee resilience in performing. Employee behavior in an effort to survive with a toxic leader and continue to perform needs to be understood as a crisis incident phenomenon in the organization. This research contribute to the development of SDGs 8, Decent Work and Economic Growth, specifically on Quality of Work.