Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: leaders and organizations in search of treatment
- 1 Hubris and narcissism: the dark underbelly of leadership
- 2 The enigma of an unintentionally toxic leader: an emotionally turbulent, destructive and impulsive workplace
- 3 The narcissistic leader: world-renowned and quite arrogant
- 4 Leader sabotage and the dysfunctional organization: the fish rots from the head down
- 5 The obsessive compulsive leader: a manager's mandate for perfection or destruction
- 6 The borderline leader: when brilliance and psychopathology coexist
- 7 Trouble at the top: high-toxicity implications of a leader with antisocial personality disorder
- 8 Histrionic leadership: the allure of the toxic leader in a volatile industry
- 9 The outer limits of toxic organizational behavior: corporate trauma in the form of disturbed leadership
- 10 Destructive leaders and dysfunctional organizations: tearing downs the walls of professional greed, hubris, toxic genius and psychopathology
- References
- Index
2 - The enigma of an unintentionally toxic leader: an emotionally turbulent, destructive and impulsive workplace
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 25 January 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction: leaders and organizations in search of treatment
- 1 Hubris and narcissism: the dark underbelly of leadership
- 2 The enigma of an unintentionally toxic leader: an emotionally turbulent, destructive and impulsive workplace
- 3 The narcissistic leader: world-renowned and quite arrogant
- 4 Leader sabotage and the dysfunctional organization: the fish rots from the head down
- 5 The obsessive compulsive leader: a manager's mandate for perfection or destruction
- 6 The borderline leader: when brilliance and psychopathology coexist
- 7 Trouble at the top: high-toxicity implications of a leader with antisocial personality disorder
- 8 Histrionic leadership: the allure of the toxic leader in a volatile industry
- 9 The outer limits of toxic organizational behavior: corporate trauma in the form of disturbed leadership
- 10 Destructive leaders and dysfunctional organizations: tearing downs the walls of professional greed, hubris, toxic genius and psychopathology
- References
- Index
Summary
When I am at a business lunch and really need to listen to the conversation, I can only get part of the story because I am trying so hard to shut out the noise of other conversations and distractions in the room. I am aware of meaningless word fragments that come catapulting at me from every direction, of dishes clattering, phones ringing, people moving about. The people with me seem to have a fence around them that protects them from this barrage of noise and activity. I don't have a fence.
(Miller and Blum, 1996, p. 36)ANTIDOTES TO A DYSFUNCTIONAL AGENDA
Alongside well-established research into positive leadership (e.g., see Luthans, Youssef & Avolio, 2007; Nelson & Cooper, 2007) a darker and dysfunctional side of organizational behavior has recently emerged as a topic of serious concern to management researchers, practitioners and consultants (e.g., see Goldman, 2006a, 2008 a,b; Griffin & O'Leary-Kelly, 2004; Kellerman, 2004; Kets de Vries, 2006; Lipman-Blumen, 2005; and Lubit, 2004). Influenced by the role of toxic leaders in the disturbing corporate practices of Bear Stearns, Enron, Arthur Andersen and Fortune 500s, both public and private sectors seek assessments, downside protection, alternatives and antidotes to the dysfunctional and hurtful agendas undermining organizational life. How can organizations better anticipate destructive leader behaviors that derail corporate covenants?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Destructive Leaders and Dysfunctional OrganizationsA Therapeutic Approach, pp. 27 - 39Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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