Reference no: EM133761796
Case: Write a reflective essay on your experience with toxic leadership.
The first half of your Reflective essay (2-3 pages) requires you to reflect on your experience with toxic leadership. Which of the six typologies of toxic leadership (see below) did this leader represent? What were the behaviors this toxic leader use? What were the environments the toxic leader created? How did you cope with the toxic leader? What was the end outcome?
The second half of your essay (2-3 pages) requires you to reflect on a time when you were a toxic leader.
What were you doing? What were the typologies you exhibited?
Were you aware of your toxic leadership at the time?
How did you find out you were toxic? What did you do when you became aware of your toxicity?
How did it effect your team?
Did anyone support your toxic style?
The toxic leader typologies to choose from are:
1) Narcissism. Narcissistic leaders can carry many attractive leadership qualities and traits. Researchers suggest that the emergent leadership traits common in narcissists help toxic individuals promote into leadership positions in the first place. However, qualities and traits initially viewed as positive can begin to decrease as the narcissistic individual spends more time around the followers. Once the group becomes more acquainted with the leader's narcissistic, toxic style, the followers become more disengaged while productivity plummets.
2) Abuse of Power. Some forms of toxic leadership consist of the abuse and degradation of employees. This type of toxic leadership includes leaders who abuse authority positions by consistently degrading employees, ridiculing employees in public, forcing employees to undergo physical and psychological pains, and promoting divisiveness between colleagues. These leaders create environments of low morale, stress, anxiety, depression, distrust, fear, high turnover, everyone for themselves culture, low growth, low motivation, and increase in litigation on their firms.
3) Egocentricism. Egocentric leaders are selfish and self-centered resulting in negative views of the organization and negative feelings of wellbeing and self-worth. This creates environments of low creativity and low productivity.
4) Emotional Dysregulation. These toxic leaders lack emotional intelligence. Their inability to demonstrate empathy or regulate their emotions results in workplace environments riddled with fear and high turnover.
5) Ineffectiveness. This type of toxic leadership consisted of micromanaging, blaming, and setting unrealistic goals led to organizational toxicity. These toxic behaviors resulted in toxic organizational cultures where employees were less committed to the organization leading to high turnover rates and low levels of job satisfaction and productivity.
6) Moral Corruption. Unethical leader behaviors include lying, stealing, promoting unethical behavior and corruption. These leader behaviors resulted in organizational climates that hindered creativity and productivity and lowered morale.