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
9 - The outer limits of toxic organizational behavior: corporate trauma in the form of disturbed leadership
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
Some leaders go far beyond the abnormal ways of functioning … They go off the deep end.
(Kets de Vries, 1995, p. 217)THE OUTER LIMITS OF TOXIC LEADERSHIP
This chapter discusses an unusual case. The consultation with Elija Engineering Ltd. morphed into leadership coaching and psychotherapy with the exalted leader of the Research and Development Division, Josh Julia. Under Julia the Elija Engineering company prospered as it expanded its reach into European and Asian markets. Julia's rising star gradually began to falter. Numerous reports came in respectfully inquiring as to the baffling, odd behavior of their leader and as to why he was increasingly absent and managing from a distance via his cell phone and email. Patience gradually gave way to impatience as world-class Japanese clients would not accept any substitute for their beloved Julia and Elija Engineers become increasingly dysfunctional and began to drift without his presence. As will be revealed, the enigma of Julia escalated to the point of my appearance as the external expert. The findings were totally unexpected and represented a first in my consulting work. The fate of Elija Engineering was in the hands of their wildly successful chief R&D engineer. The company CEO was in dire straits during our first meeting. Perhaps shell-shocked is the appropriate phrase to describe how he and many of the engineers felt about the “Julia situation.” Was there any rhyme or reason behind Julia's incredibly strange and troublesome behavior?
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Destructive Leaders and Dysfunctional OrganizationsA Therapeutic Approach, pp. 174 - 189Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009