Abusive Leadership Behavior, Research Paper Example

Abusive leadership

There is an adage that says “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. This saying assumes greater significance in our times as we thrive in what has come to be known as the corporate age. So, we exist in an age which has no space for the weak and the slow; the corporate age is fast moving with the deep seated ability to out do each other imbibed in all of us. One has to maintain competitive edge over the other and the survival of the fittest dictum that rules. Huge multinational companies and corporate biggies which could be organizations or the governments exercise might over each other to emerge victorious and show the world that there exists none like them (Cozby, 2012). Their grand designs to prove their greatness leads them to further employ individuals to serve their own interests. These workers are required to function in accordance with the ambitions of the corporate, successfully run their organizations and in the process the corporate giants wring the best out of them and hope to deduce all that they have to offer in terms of skills. Amidst all these ambitions to outperform the other, reports often emerge of about the heads of organizations for being disreputable and corrupt. Their autocratic attitude and dictatorial personalities have come out in the open many a times. These are the people who have caused the collapse of an organization and led to many a crisis with the results being disastrous. Leadership is one of the most important ingredients for the success of any organization and strong leadership helps the organization in climbing the ladder of success.

Theories of leadership

“Great Man” Theories:

Great man theories rely on the assumption that the aptitude for leadership is innate and intrinsic- that perhaps great leaders are born and cannot be made. These theories depict these great men as larger than life, of epic proportions, mythic and ordained to rise to their roles as leaders when the need arises. The term “Great Man” was coined since, at that time, leaders were thought to be only males especially in relation with military leadership.

Trait Theories

Related in certain ways to the “Great Man” theories, trait theories presume that people inherit certain attributes and qualities that lead them to become worthy of being leaders or more suitable to leadership. Trait theories recognize particular personality or behavioral individuality common among leaders. But the logical question that arises is that if these particular qualities are possessed by leaders alone then how one explains people who have such persona but do not go on to become leaders. This dilemma is one of the problems in applying the trait theories to explain leadership.

Power and its effects on leaders

One of the primary reasons for an able, hard working person turning into an unrecognizable abusive leader is selfishness and narcissist behavior. Organizations often tend to ignore the behavioral characteristics of an employee when hiring and seldom look into these aspects. Their energies are instead focused on technical and academic achievements while screening candidates. More often than not, these very technically sound people go on to lead the organizations and in most cases it is next to impossible to sense any traces of dysfunctional behavioral patterns existing in these individuals. During the preliminary phase of their association with the organization it becomes difficult to gauge their behavior.

An author in his description of toxic leaders says that they are “maladjusted, malcontent, and often malevolent, even malicious.

Their capacity to possess short term goals and the knack to execute the same with little respect for the opinions of others is one of the most distinct and hard hitting traits of abusive leaders. One cannot put his finger on exactly what is essentially the one single most defining bad quality of such a leader but in fact as a whole their behavior is a collective effect of inward thinking, self preservation, conceited attitude towards his juniors and a huge appetite for power. The consequences of the tenure of abusive leaders can go much beyond their occupancy at the top job itself and extend at times to the eventual termination of the organizations.

Dark side of leadership

The authors were extremely fascinated and engrossed in investigating what they call this “dark side of leadership.”

Abusive Leadership impact Employee relationship

A sequence of surveys which called and encouraged individuals to share their opinions on workplace relations led researchers to conduct several studies on the subject. They carefully calculated employee’s view of how badly they treat their supervisor really is the extent to which they felt that a reward awaited them in lieu of their bad attitude (Creswell, 2013). All these were taken into consideration keeping in mind the employee’s power distance orientation.

Given the fact that the entire process by which the subordinates replicate the behavior of their superior is primarily based on social learning theory, the study results can be useful in recommending methods to organizations as to how to clip this particular modeling procedure. The most apparent method to do so is to eliminate the model itself. This can be achieved by executing a uncompromising policy towards abusive monitoring and simply expelling those who disobey the observation of this policy. But zero-acceptance policies can be extremely callous and cannot necessarily be applied in all situations (Blumen, 2005). In such circumstances, certain other penalties can be imposed, such as unpaid leave etc.

Researchers believe that in case the defaulting individual is publicly punished, the possibility of juniors emulating such abusive behavior reduce considerably. Also, an increase in the awareness levels of supervisors of the impending impact of their behavior over the subordinates and on the company as a whole, can lead to higher motivation among them to alter their behavior (Kellerman, 2004).  This can be useful especially when aligned with learning to endow monitors with new attitudes in which to work together and behave with others.

Conclusion

To conclude, one needs to state that abusive leadership behavior is a phenomenon that needs to be nipped in the bud lest it spreads in an organization threatening its very existence. No organization must make the mistake of ignoring it and unleashing the monster of the dark side of leadership. Narcissist and self centered individuals can ruin the very tenet of the functioning of an organization. If found, immediate action needs to be taken to simply eradicate it by following methods suggested by researchers. These include public reprimands as well as sound training in learning and unlearning the basic behavioral aspects of leading.

References

Cozby, P. C. (2012). Methods in behavioral research. Boston, MA McGraw Hill Higher Education.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. 4th ed. Thousand Oaks, CA   Sage Publications.

Blumen, J. L. (2005). The Allure of Toxic Leaders: why followers rarely escape their clutches. Ivey Business Journal , 1-9.

Kellerman, B. (2004). Bad leadership: what it is, how it happens, why it matters. In B. Kellerman. Boston: Harvard Business School Press.