Chapter 4: Understanding The Causes Of Destructive Leadership Behavior: A Dual-Process Model

While much attention has been given to effective leadership and its implications for employees and organizations, the idea of destructive leadership is relatively new. Destructive leadership behavior (DLB) describes behavior by a leader, supervisor, or manager that violates the legitimate interest of the organization by undermining or sabotaging the organization’s goals, tasks, or resources or by affecting subordinates’ motivation, well-being, or job satisfaction (Einarsen, Aasland, & Skogstad, 2007). Accordingly, destructive leaders are usually viewed as pursuing selfish goals, controlling and coercing their subordinates, and compromising subordinates’ quality of life (Padilla, Hogan, & Kaiser, 2007).

The consequences of DLB have been studied rather extensively. Destructive leaders cause substantial harm to their subordinates as well as the organization as a whole. DLB often precipitates subordinates’ deviant or counterproductive behavior (Mitchell & Ambrose, 2007), leading to lower profits and decreased customer satisfaction (Detert, Trevino, Burris, & Andiappan, 2007). Further, hostile leaders often have subordinates who are less committed to their organizations and less satisfied with their jobs (Schaubroeck, Walumbwa, Ganster, & Kepes, 2007). Tepper (2000) found that subordinates who reported higher levels of abuse from their superiors were more likely to leave their jobs, which increased the risk of human capital loss for the organization. Similarly, abusive leadership behaviors have been found to be negatively related to subordinates’ organizational citizenship behaviors and affective commitment (Aryee, Chen, Sun, & Debrah, 2007). With outcomes such as these, DLB is clearly harmful to the organization’s bottom line, but the detrimental effects do not stop there. Subordinates are also likely to suffer in the wake of DLBs. Schaubroeck and colleagues (2007) found that subordinates with hostile leaders had increased anxiety levels. In addition, subordinates with abusive supervisors are more likely to have more family problems (Hoobler & Brass, 2006; Tepper, 2000) and suffer from psychological distress (Tepper, 2000; Yagil, 2006). Further, employees who have a destructive leader also report higher levels of emotional exhaustion (Grandey, Kern, & Frone, 2007).