Psychology Of Leadership

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5.2 Discussion. Toxic Leadership-Followership

Getting Started

In the Burke (2017) article on toxic leaders that is assigned for this discussion forum, you will learn that research suggests roughly half of all leaders fail to meet their organizational goals. Many of those failures may be traced to toxicity in the workplace; the list of words used to describe such leaders is long: dysfunctional, stupid, destructive, narcissistic, flawed, derailed, abusive, and more. Burke (2017) asserted that “toxic leaders are associated with negative attitudes toward leaders, poorer job performance, lower psychological health of employees, greater intentions to quit, and more counterproductive job behavior by employees” (p. 10). The author further stated that toxic leadership behaviors are possible to change…but doing so is not easy.

Upon successful completion of this discussion, you will be able to:

  • Explain characteristics of toxic leadership and the resultant effects on followers.
  • Compare and contrast toxic leader (and/or follower) behaviors with leader (and/or follower) behaviors that are considered healthy.

Instructions

  1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
  2. Review the information in the Getting Started section.
  3. View the Vimeo video entitled “Toxic leadership characteristics” (video transcript(Word document)):
  4. Read the three short articles entitled “Toxic leaders: Exploring the dark side(new tab),” “Toxic leadership(PDF document)(pp.36-37),” and “The power of authentic leadership(new tab).”
  5. Frame your initial post of 250-300 words no later than Day Four around the following thought-starter questions:
    1. Compare and contrast at least three different toxic leader (and or follower) behaviors with leader (and or follower) behaviors that would be considered healthy, such as authentic leadership.
    2. Think about a toxic leader or follower with whom you have worked in the past (or present). Without identifying them, analyze which one or two behaviors they have exhibited that you consider most toxic.
    3. What might you be able to do to address toxic behaviors in your organization? What would that require of you?