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Toxic Leadership and Workplace Bullying: The Role of Followers and Possible Coping Strategies

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The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Well-Being

Abstract

Toxic leaders and toxic leadership practices cause many problems for organizations and individuals. It has become apparent that such leaders consistently lead organizations to failure in the long run and hurt personal and health well-being of individuals. Within this context toxic leadership practices may also cause increase in workplace bullying behaviors among followers, and they play an important role on this relationship. They would be witness of the process, and they either vaguely accept or try to stop the process. However, if it does not stop, one of the possible solutions for victims may come from in the form of coping strategies. It is the argument that coping strategies may not be able stop abusive behavior of bullies but it helps victims to alleviate stress-related mental and health issues in the short and long term. This chapter looks for answers to the question that how under toxic leadership workplace bullying victims struggle and engage into coping strategies in order to reduce stress-related health and mental problems and what is the role of followers in this process if there is any.

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  1. Kuwait College of Science and Technology, Kuwait, Kuwait

    Bekir Emre Kurtulmuş

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  1. Woodbury University, Burbank, CA, USA

    Satinder K. Dhiman

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Kurtulmuş, B.E. (2021). Toxic Leadership and Workplace Bullying: The Role of Followers and Possible Coping Strategies. In: Dhiman, S.K. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Workplace Well-Being. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30025-8_24

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