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Shining a Light on Toxic Leadership

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Debating Bad Leadership

Part of the book series: Palgrave Debates in Business and Management ((PDBM))

Abstract

The term “toxic leadership” concerns unethical and destructive attitudes, behaviors and processes that are initiated or sustained by people in leadership positions. It is associated with damage to individuals and organizations, and often with the failure of executives’ careers. Research into this area has explored “dark side” aspects of personality, and other factors that appear to enable toxic leadership.

This chapter summarizes the academic research into the practices, the effects and the causes of destructive leadership. It suggests that the main value of shining a light on toxic leadership is to alert those who construct and operate corporate structures and processes to take action to prevent, minimize or forestall the damage it may cause.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. York Business School, York St John University, York, UK

    George Boak

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  1. George Boak
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Correspondence to George Boak .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Working Life and Innovation School of Business and Law, University of Agder, Grimstad, Norway

    Anders Örtenblad

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Boak, G. (2021). Shining a Light on Toxic Leadership. In: Örtenblad, A. (eds) Debating Bad Leadership. Palgrave Debates in Business and Management. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-65025-4_6

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