Unethical Abusive Leadership Behavior, Research Paper Example

There is a limited emphasis on education and training in many educational institutions with respect to abusive forms of leadership behavior. This practice is far too common in many organizations and poses a threat to their integrity and strength within a given environment. Abusive leadership creates significant discord within an organization, it limits employee creativity, and it prevents employee empowerment in many areas (Liu, Liao, & Loi, 2012; Murari, 2013). Leadership which is all powerful may also be largely destructive and limit organizational abilities at a high level (Krasikova, Green, & Lebreton, 2013; Shu, 2011). In general, employees who feel threatened by abusive leaders are not likely to perform to the best of their ability and may interfere with their psychological strength (Jun & Longzeng, 2012).

Leaders who abuse their power are often viewed as bullies, thereby creating a toxic work environment that is difficult to sustain (Einarsen, Skogstad, & Glaso, 2013). At the same time, this behavior is largely unjust for employees and limits their overall potential and motivation (Hoobler & Hu, 2013). Many abusive leaders possess narcissistic tendencies, thereby creating a limit to the productivity that might be achieved (Keller Hansbrough & Jones, 2014). Ethical behaviors are consistently called into question and may pose a threat to leaders who abuse their employees in one form or another, thereby creating an even greater divide within the organization (Bisenbeib & Brodbeck, 2014). Most importantly, employees must aim to make the best of a negative situation and address the problem as directly as possible without fear of repercussion (May, Wesche, Heinitz, & Kerschreiter, 2014). This process enables abusive leaders to potentially be removed from power under specific circumstances and to be effective in meeting the needs of employees through improved leadership potential within the work environment that will not compromise their wellbeing (May et.al, 2014).

References

Einarsen, S., Skogstad, A., & Glasø, L. (2013). When Leaders are Bullies. The Wiley-Blackwell handbook of the psychology of leadership, change, and organizational development, 129-154.

Eisenbeiß, S. A., & Brodbeck, F. (2014). Ethical and Unethical Leadership: A Cross-Cultural and Cross-Sectoral Analysis. Journal of business ethics, 122(2), 343-359.

Hoobler, J. M., & Hu, J. (2013). A model of injustice, abusive supervision, and negative affect. The Leadership Quarterly, 24(1), 256-269.

Jun, W. W. W. W. L., & Longzeng, W. U. (2012). Abusive Supervision, Perceived Psychological Safety and Voice Behavior [J]. Chinese Journal of Management, 1, 014.

Keller Hansbrough, T., & Jones, G. E. (2014). Inside the minds of narcissists: How narcissistic leaders’ cognitive processes contribute to abusive supervision. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 222(4), 214.

Krasikova, D. V., Green, S. G., & LeBreton, J. M. (2013). Destructive leadership a theoretical review, integration, and future research agenda. Journal of Management, 39(5), 1308-1338.

Liu, D., Liao, H., & Loi, R. (2012). The dark side of leadership: A three-level investigation of the cascading effect of abusive supervision on employee creativity. Academy of Management Journal, amj-2010.

May, D., Wesche, J. S., Heinitz, K., & Kerschreiter, R. (2014). Coping with destructive leadership: Putting forward an integrated theoretical framework for the interaction process between leaders and followers. Zeitschrift für Psychologie, 222(4), 203.

Murari, K. (2013). Abusive leadership–a Barrier to Employee Empowerment. European Journal of Business and Management, 5(4), 8-21.

Shu, M. Y. R. L. (2011). Study on Relationship between Abusive Leadership and Team Performance Under the Conditions of Uncertain Business Environment. Journal of Hunan Finance and Economics University, 4, 023.