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
8 - Histrionic leadership: the allure of the toxic leader in a volatile industry
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
The anguish of the client, is fundamental to all consultation: No pain, no problem; no problem, no need for a consultant. Despite what anyone may say, no organization undertakes consultation “to make things better” unless someone hurts. Therefore, the basic question for every consultant regardless of the reason for a consultation request is, “Where is the pain?”
(Levinson, 2002, p. 63)COMPLEX EMOTIONAL CONSTELLATIONS IN A LEADER
A full range of emotional volatility fills every workplace. From the vantage points of organizational behavior, psychology and leadership there is evidence that it is the dark side of emotional expression that solicits an extraordinary amount of attention in the workplace (e.g., see Ashforth & Humphrey, 1995; Goleman, 1995; Kanfer & Kantrowitz, 2002; Lord, Klimoski and Kanfer, 2002). Whereas, the emotionally intelligent leader is correlated with high motivation and productivity (e.g., see Goleman, 1995), it is the perception of emotional negligence and something felt as dysfunctional that brings an organization's affective or feeling side increasingly into consciousness. In essence, the primary attention paid to emotions in organizations is as “a source of disturbance” (Armstrong, 2005, p. 91). While the charming, charismatic, sensitive and empathic boss catches the eye of subordinates, it is the turbulent, excessive and abusive emotional extremes that brings organizations to the offices of coaches and consultants.
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- Information
- Destructive Leaders and Dysfunctional OrganizationsA Therapeutic Approach, pp. 156 - 173Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009
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