- September 12, 2012
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
In this essay the problem of toxic leadership is going to be briefly reviewed, but from the other side it is going to be stated on the level needed to understand main topic points. With increasing frequency in leadership, business, and management literature appeared such terms as toxic leadership, toxic management, and toxic culture. In order to shed light on aspects of toxic leadership’s comprehension we should mention that the appearance of this social phenomena totally depends on psychosocial needs of contemporary population. It explains a tendency among modern society to seek authoritative, even prevailing characteristics amongst corporate and political leaders . Barbara Kellerman divide toxicity in leadership in seven groups (for example, incompetent, callous, evil etc.).
The most important elements for a board which let us consider if one is trying to avoid toxic leadership are: leaders, followers, and circumstances. Leader selection is a crucial nuance of avoiding toxic results. The information about the person, who is going to be promoted in leader position, is available to selectors and voters. In the case with elections on high level (such as electing president) the information can be obtained by voters or followers. The future behavior and actions are influenced by the past ones.
So when you are informed about the person’s past (who can hold the post) you can foresee his future actions. There is a contradiction: such information is not always full or available. Knowledge of tendencies and backgrounds is useful in determining suitability of particular pretenders for leadership posts. It is suggested that the reason leaders misbehave ethically is because they willingly go against what they know to be wrong.
Our core focus is on the determining main critical leader factors. They are: narcissism, negative life themes, personalized use of power, charisma, and an ideology of hate. Charisma have not just positive influence upon the person’s activity, but also negative.
It can cause making mistakes and destructive energy or leading successful work. Moral and ethics separate constructive from destructive charismatic leaders. Early life experience, childhood, persuasions form the leader’s activity. Despite the hard work such people should possess energy to share with people, stamina. Similarly, skilled public speakers with a benevolent worldview and socialized motives are less likely to be destructive. Toxic leadership takes its toll on people wherever it occurs.