Toxic Leadership

Abstract

Abstract Much of the literature on leadership emphasises the positive, transformational aspects and avoids or ignores the more destructive or darker characteristics of leaders. Toxic leaders have been defined as “leaders who engage in numerous destructive behaviours and who exhibit certain dysfunctional personal characteristics”. There is some overlap with the concept of toxic leadership and other types of leadership definitions or approaches such as destructive leadership, bullying, and styles of leadership such as autocratic, lassiez faire, and non‐contingent punishment leadership. However one of the key distinguishing attributes of toxic leadership is the multi‐dimensional nature of the concept and the influence of the organisational context on the toxic leader's behaviour. Organizational settings and institutions may actually encourage toxic behaviour and isolate leaders from outside scrutiny. Therefore, to deal effectively with toxic leaders and understand their behaviour, it is often important to analyse the leader's behaviour in context.