The Causes and Consequences of Bad Leadership

Abstract

This topical issue of the Zeitschrift f r Psychologie focuses on negative forms of leadership, that is, destructive leadership in its different forms, rather than re-emphasizing the still more common focus on positive leadership (Schilling, 2009). Here, the quest is not to find the holy grail of what makes a leader successful and how this contributes to organizational success but rather the opposite: to prevent the damage bad leadership and destructive leaders can do to followers and organizations. In recent years, a quickly growing stream of research concerning the dark side of leadership has emerged (e.g., Bligh, Kohles, Pearce, Justin, & Stovall, 2007; Einarsen, Aasland, & Skogstad, 2007; Krasikova, Green, & LeBreton, 2013; Martinko, Harvey, Brees, & Mackey, 2013; Tepper, 2000, 2007), which underpins the importance of the topic. While different forms of destructive leadership (e.g., abusive supervision, petty tyranny, negative leadership, aversive leadership) can be distinguished, they all have been shown to negatively impact followers and organizations (e.g., Schyns & Schilling, 2013). However, so far, we know relatively little about the antecedents of destructive leadership or how its effect compares to constructive leadership. Hence, the aim of this issue is to deepen our understanding of the phenomenon by paying special attention to its antecedents and the comparison of constructive and destructive forms of leadership. In doing so, the papers compiled here add to the discussion about how to prevent destructive leadership. This topical issue starts off with a review paper by Pundt (2014) who outlines the theory of different ways in which charismatic leadership attempts can lead to abusive leadership perception and/or abusive leadership behavior. The author differentiates between failed charismatic attempts from the leader’s side (overdramatized charisma, overambitious charisma) and failed attempts due to followers’ reactions (refused charisma, disappointed charisma, and abandoned charisma). He argues that overdramatized charisma and overambitious charisma can lead to abusive leadership perceptions, while overambitious charisma, refused charisma, disappointed charisma, and abandoned charisma can lead to abusive leadership behaviors. The paper acknowledges the process character of leadership by incorporating followers’ reactions to leadership behavior and appreciating that this reaction triggers another reaction in the leader, potentially altering leadership perceptions or behaviors. Similarly, May, Wesche, Heinitz, and Kerschreiter (2014) take an integrative view of negative leadership by looking at the interaction process between leaders and followers in coping with negative leadership. They argue that destructive leader behavior as perceived by followers leads to different types of follower coping, namely approachoriented coping (problem-focused or emotion-focused) and avoidance-oriented coping (problem-focused or emotion-focused). Depending on how these coping strategies are perceived by the leader, their destructive leadership behavior is either enforced (due to perceptions of the follower coping behavior as either aggressive/retaliatory or submissive) or potentially altered into a more constructive leadership approach (due to perceptions of the follower coping behavior as constructive). Keller Hansbrough and Jones (2014) focus on the leaders’ part in abusive supervision by considering leader narcissism as an antecedent of abusive leadership. They develop a model that explains how narcissistic leaders’ cognitive processes contribute to abusive supervision, insofar as narcissistic leaders’ cognitive processes lead them to justify their abusive behavior. Specifically, the authors argue that narcissistic leaders’ implicit leadership theories comprise elements of tyranny, that is, for them, tyrannical leadership characterizes typical leaders, including themselves (thus, their abusive behavior is normal for leaders). In addition, Keller Hansbrough and Jones argue that narcissistic