Chapter 10: Destructive Leadership Episodes: Why Can’t We Learn From Them?

The main purposes of our chapter are to foster more thought about destructive leadership as a process rather than a person and about how to prevent or minimize negative impacts of toxic episodes. We focus on destructive leadership using the university as the organizational vehicle through which to examine it. The toxic triangle model frames our analysis of three university scandals: Nassar and Michigan State University; Sandusky and Pennsylvania State University; and the fake (“paper”) classes at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. In addition to a destructive leader, susceptible followers and conducive environments must be present for destructive leadership outcomes to occur. Our analysis takes a holistic view of leadership and attempts to integrate the literature with work on leadermember exchange and whistleblowers. The time dimension over which toxic episodes unfold is also examined. We argue that additional interdisciplinary work is needed to integrate relevant literatures. The role of checks and balances need more careful examination to inform a broader analysis of conducive environments. Organizational leaders should consider how to strengthen internal checks and balances, such as boards of trustees, to limit toxic environmental influences.