Understanding and Recognizing Dysfunctional Leadership

The Impact of Dysfunctional Leadership on Organizations and Followers

Annette B. Roter

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2017
• Print ISBN: 9781472485656
• eBook ISBN: 9781317005162
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Since the early twentieth century, scholars have researched leadership and it is one of the most researched topics of our time. Understanding how to be a strong leader and what makes a good leader is something that we continue to strive to understand. Research ponders various positive leadership models such as transformational, servant, authentic, charismatic, situational and ethical leadership to name a few. Yet, we find that a small number of our leaders are truly transformational. While scholars continue to provide examples of positive and influential leaders, we still struggle to understand what a dysfunctional leader is. Practitioners and followers are quick to identify a leader that is a nightmare, yet they can't name what type of dysfunction that leader possesses. Day in and day out, we struggle with these leaders and how to intervene when dysfunctional behavior arises. This is most evident with recent scandals that have plagued the media involving characters such as Bernie Madoff, Dennis Kozlowski, Tyco, Enron's Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling.

It is vital to understand the importance of dysfunctional leadership and its impact on organizations, followers and society. The recent literature focuses on the psychology of dysfunctional leadership and the destruction of organizations. Little has been written in relation to the characteristics, traits and behaviors of dysfunctional leaders. In addition, little has been included on how to deal with this types of behavior within organizations. Individual books have been written on each of these types of characteristics, but no one book has been written that focuses on all of these characteristics and studies the subtle differences of these behaviors, interventions that can be employed to address this type of behavior and how to recognize the impact on our organizations.

Understanding and Recognizing Dysfunctional Leadership will be of interest to professionals and researchers in this field.

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Part I

Introduction to dysfunctional leadership

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Chapter 1

Introduction to dysfunctional leadership

At some point in our careers, we will experience a leader who is less than stellar. For many of us, we are no strangers to the concept of a dysfunctional leader and will either experience this phenomenon directly or indirectly throughout our careers. However, many who have witnessed or experienced dysfunctional leadership are left wondering what is happening in relation to this type of behavior, as it is not normal and is something that they have not experienced before. People question the leader and then in turn question themselves; after all, aren’t leaders supposed to act in the best interests of the organization? Don’t we expect our leaders to treat followers with respect and dignity? After experiencing a dysfunctional leader, it makes a person wonder “what is this insane behavior?”

Dysfunctional leadership behaviors are beginning to gain attention from scholars and the media. These behaviors include physical and psychological abuse. In recent years, this type of behavior has received more and more attention as the topic continues to be researched. However, despite being researched on a more frequent basis, this type of leadership is not studied in schools or organizations. Many people do not know how to address the problem or situation when confronted with this behavior.

Leadership

Leadership functions as the visionary, the guiding force and, most importantly, the role model for followers within the organization. The leaders of an organization are faced with many different opportunities and challenges. Today’s world demands leaders who provide a foundation for the organization to move forward. Leadership needs to be free of egos and the promotion of personal agendas. The behaviors and characteristics of a leader influence the actions of employees within the organization. Positive follower experiences correlate with higher job satisfaction, commitment and willingness to stay with the organization, and increased productivity. Negative experiences with a leader will drive a decrease in employee commitment to the organization, higher turnover rates, lower job satisfaction and a reduction in productivity. Because of these aspects, one can easily assert that the behavior of the leader impacts both the follower and the organization.

The construct of leadership can be difficult to understand. While there are a number of leadership models and theories, the concepts of leadership still remain a confusing topic. Different models ranging from autocratic to democratic, transactional to transformational and numerous others exist. During the history of leadership studies, thousands of books and articles pertaining to the topic have been written. Critics argue that most of the results are insignificant and fail to address the true concepts of leadership. Without an understanding of leadership, individuals and organizations are at a disadvantage in their ability to truly identify and develop effective leaders. In addition, organizations struggle with identifying and addressing the constructs of negative leadership. If it is difficult to understand the positive models of leadership, it is equally difficult to decipher the dysfunctional side of leadership. Modern leadership studies continue to explore what makes a great leader, but without a clear understanding of the different constructs of leadership, organizations will continue to struggle with identifying the good, the bad and the destructive behaviors of leadership.

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The focus on the constructive aspects of leadership provides insights into leaders who support their followers, provide a clear and defining vision, and provide a work environment that is satisfying and engaging. However, that is not always the case with leadership. In many cases, employees will stumble upon a leader who does not support their followers. Instead, the leader undermines, belittles, and does not provide a clear and articulate leadership approach. Yet, research on the topic of dysfunctional leadership is limited. The topic is still new and the approaches are fragmented. With recent revelations of wrongdoing in leadership, focusing on the abuse of power and leadership in areas such as politics, religion and business, one could argue that there is a need for further exploration into the negative sides of leadership. In order to understand the negative sides of leadership, it is important to identify and to decipher the theories related to the topic of dysfunctional leadership.

Dysfunctional leadership

Dysfunctional leadership negatively impacts followers and the organization. Researchers have said that it takes only one bad leader to take down a whole organization. This has been demonstrated through the course of the last several years with the downfall of organizations such as Arthur Andersen, Enron, Tyco, and WorldCom. While these examples are large in scale, organizations all over the world are faced with varying levels of dysfunction within their leadership ranks and continue to struggle with identifying and defining dysfunctional leadership behaviors. In addition, these organizations wrestle with what to do with these types of behaviors and it becomes the proverbial elephant in the room. Organizations adopt the philosophy of “if we don’t talk about it or address it, then maybe it does not exist.” The problem with this mindset is that the negative leadership behavior continues to occur and will only continue to fester the longer it is ignored. In the meantime, morale erodes, productivity declines and turnover increases, while employees suffer with the actions of the dysfunctional leader.

A history of dysfunctional leadership

Through the years, there have been several different titles or names associated with dysfunctional leadership, including petty tyranny, toxic leadership, destructive leadership, bad leadership, leadership derailment, evil leadership, narcissism, and Machiavellian leadership. The evolution of dysfunctional and destructive types of leadership can be traced back hundreds and thousands of years. The following provides insights into several leaders throughout history who can be classified as dysfunctional leaders:

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• Caligula, Roman Emperor (37–41 ad): Caligula led through the use of fear, cruelty and extravagances, and was known for his insatiable lusts. During his rule, he was known for having affairs with his sisters and with his opponents’ wives. He declared himself to be a living god and his horse was treated better than his followers; living in a marble stable, it was named a senator and had 18 servants tending to it. After four years of destructive leadership, Caligula was eventually assassinated.

• Genghis Khan (founder and ruler of the Mongol Empire, 1206–1227): In his early years, Genghis Khan led a difficult life. He experienced poverty, imprisonment and persecution, but was known as a military genius. By 1206, he was the ruler of most of Mongolia and was given the title Genghis Khan, “Ruler of the Universe.” As his military forces moved through the country, they slaughtered or imprisoned those they conquered. He was responsible for killing over 40 million people during his rule. He utilized tyranny, genocide and carnage as part of his military strategy and leadership tactics.

• Ivan IV “The Terrible” (Tsar of Russia, 1533–1584): Ivan showed his cruelty and vengeance early in his childhood. He handed down his first death sentence at the age of 13. During his early reign, he was influenced by his wife, who was considered to be extremely kind and compassionate. It is believed that she was poisoned and murdered. It was after this point that Ivan’s leadership changed. He believed in killing people and that proving their guilt was pointless. Some believed that Ivan took great pleasure in killing others and coming up with new methods of torture, and would use techniques such as burning people at the stake, boiling people and impaling them on sticks. It was during his leadership that Russia doubled in size and he was believed to be quite strategic, intelligent and talented at conquering other territories.

While history provides many different examples of dysfunctional leaders, it was not until recently that scholarly research surfaced relating to the topic. The works of Freud have been linked to narcissism from a psychoanalytical approach and, in the 1980s, research emerged on dysfunctional leadership traits from this viewpoint. Dysfunctional leadership at this time was termed as paranoid, compulsive, dramatic, depressive and schizoid. Researchers Kets de Vries and Miller (1985) found that negative leadership behaviors have a significant impact on followers and organizations. Their research indicates that these behaviors can cause organizational environments and cultures to transform in order to accommodate the dysfunction of the leader. These changes result in the culture becoming dysfunctional. Other researchers described ineffective leaders as suffering from a dysfunctional point of view. Later, Bing (1992) used the terms “problem boss” and “crazy boss,” and then went on to label them as the bully, the narcissist, the paranoid and the disaster hunter. He found that these leaders were extremely successful and motivated depending on their dysfunction. Also noted was that it was their followers who suffered the impact of these leaders for months and even years following the event.

Defining dysfunctional leadership

There is an over-abundance of definitions and nomenclatures related to dysfunctional leadership. There is no single agreement on one name or one clear definition. Dysfunctional leadership has many different names, including toxic leadership, the Dark Side of Leadership and the Dark Triad. Researchers have primarily focused on leadership that has gone bad. For example, Kets de Vries (2001) explained that some leaders go far beyond the normal ways of functioning – they go off the deep end. Later in his research, he expanded upon this by explaining that all leaders, whether in organizations, communities or other countries, are susceptible to the darker side of power. Tepper and Duffy (2002) went on to describe dysfunctional behavior or abusive leadership as behavior that negatively impacts an individual’s ability to create and maintain relationships with others, to be successful in the organization or to form a favorable reputation in the workplace. These behaviors are alleged to be thoughtless and result in frequent harm to the follower. Finally, Kellerman (2004) simply reiterates that there are two types of leaders: good leaders and bad leaders.

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Researchers found that the definition of dysfunctional leadership depends upon the interpretation of each individual and can have many different meanings. In order to provide some construct upon this type of leadership, different definitions emerged to address the phenomenon. One definition suggested that dysfunctional leaders are characterized by destructive behaviors, such as leaving their followers worse off than they found them. Traits associated with dysfunctional leadership include lack of integrity, insatiable ambition, arrogance and reckless regard for one’s actions. As we can see, dysfunctional leadership remains a topic that has not been systematically researched and leaves much room for interpretation in relation to the definition or meaning.

Is a dysfunctional leader truly a leader?

We understand that the themes of positive leadership include the ability to inspire, motivate, provide a guiding vision and lead followers toward the successful completion of a goal or strategy. In contrast, the definition of dysfunctional leadership is an individual who leads with power, causing harm either psychologically, physically or both. There are many people who believe that a leader is someone positive and therefore if we look at someone as a dysfunctional leader, they cannot be classified as such. However, they still hold the title of leader. We see many examples of dysfunctional leaders who meet the definition of positive leadership based on their ability to inspire, motivate and provide a vision, guidance and strategy to lead people. An extreme example of a dysfunctional leader who would characterize this definition of leadership would be Adolf Hitler. As we know, his negative influence has had a major impact on the twentieth century. Yet, he was able to inspire, mobilize and direct his followers. He was viewed as someone who would take Germany forward to address the problems that the country was facing. During the early stages of his period of leadership, he was extremely charismatic; he was able to inspire millions to follow him through his mesmerizing speeches (Kellerman, 2004). He possessed qualities of positive leadership and was a strong visionary for Germany. However, the darker side of his leadership caused the death and destruction of millions of people, and the devastation he imposed is something that humankind hopes never to experience again. So the question still remains: was Hitler a leader or something other than what we would consider to be a leader? Through what we understand of leadership, he is one who can be classified as a dysfunctional leader.

Burns (1978) was unwilling to label individuals who obliterate and attack their followers as leaders. Instead, he labeled these individuals as power wielders. He believed that what sets these individuals apart from leaders was the treatment of their followers. Power wielders do not treat followers as people but as objects, and whose goal is the meeting of personal gains and the achievement of their own agendas. Once the follower was of no use to the power wielder, they were simply tossed aside.

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The debate on whether or not these individuals are truly leaders is far from settled. For the sake of this book, we will use the term “dysfunctional leader” or “dysfunctional leadership.” This term is used in order to provide context to the topic and to focus specifically on dysfunction at a leadership level.

Dysfunction in today’s work environment

The world in which we work today has changed dramatically. Organizational leaders are asked to become leaner while working with fewer resources in a complex, volatile and ambiguous environment. We are asking leaders to adapt quickly to these changes. In addition, organizations have become highly competitive, causing the workplace to become a predatory environment full of leaders who are bullies, narcissists, psychopaths and tyrants. Dysfunctional leadership is not isolated to just one industry; we find dysfunction in all industries, as well as at all levels of leadership.

Researchers Erickson and Freud (1962) explained that during times of complexity and multifaceted relationship, it is important to focus on civility and treating others with respect. In today’s work environment, we find complexity relating to global interactions, rapid changes in technology and competing resources. These complex interactions have placed an increasing amount of stress on leaders, causing them to step outside of their normal boundaries. Often, these stressors, coupled with low levels of emotional intelligence, force leaders to take on dysfunctional leadership behaviors in order to achieve results and to survive the complexity of the work demands placed upon them.

The reality of a dysfunctional leader is that they will eventually self-destruct. Before they actually self-destruct, they will inflict as much damage and harm on individuals, teams and...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Understanding and Recognizing Dysfunctional Leadership
• Title
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• PART I Introduction to Dysfunctional Leadership
• PART II The Dark Triad
• PART III Addressing Dysfunctional Leadership from an Organizational and Individual Standpoint
• Index