How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes

By B. Schyns, Jan Schilling. 2013

1,129 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Abstract While the focus on constructive leadership still dominates leadership research, an increasing number of studies investigate different forms of destructive leadership. This meta-analysis integrates different conceptualizations of destructive leadership and analyzes the relationship between destructive leadership and outcome variables. The search for articles yielded more than 200 studies of which 57 could be included in the meta-analysis. Results indicate the expected negative correlations with positive followers' outcomes and behaviors (e.g., attitudes towards the leader, well-being, and individual performance) and positive correlations with negative outcomes (e.g., turnover intention, resistance towards the leader, counterproductive work behavior). As expected, the highest correlation arises between destructive leadership and attitudes towards the leader. Surprisingly, the next highest correlation was found between destructive leadership and counterproductive work behavior. After discussing the results, an agenda for future research is proposed. Given the negative impact of destructive leadership, more knowledge is especially necessary regarding what triggers destructive leadership.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/99553acd758e89710ab64ff4c69d9850c3febe25

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In Clinical Psychology

In Organizational Behavior and Human Resource Management

In Social Psychology

Citations in the corpus

Abusive Supervision Through the Lens of Employee State Paranoia (2014, result): “This is precisely the finding of one recent meta-analysis of research concerning abusive supervision and damaging leadership (Schyns & Schilling, 2013).”
A process model of self-regulation and leadership: How attentional resource capacity and negative emotions influence constructive and destructive leadership (2015, background): “There are good reasons for this shift in focus, as mounting evidence suggests that destructive leadership harms themental and physical health of employees and degrades organizational performance (Aasland et al., 2010; Hershcovis & Rafferty, 2012; Schyns & Schilling, 2013).”
Does ethical leadership reduce turnover intention? The mediating effects of psychological empowerment and organizational identification (2020, background): “…leadership styles (transactional, transformational, etc.) have been sufficiently investigated in the literature (e.g., Hughes, Avey, & Nixon, 2010; Schyns & Schilling, 2013), ethical leadership’s influence on turnover intention still remains ambiguous with only a few studies empirically testing…”
The Destructiveness of Laissez-Faire Leadership Behavior (2015, background): “…such as transformational and transactional leadership, have been the primary focus of leadership research (cf. Hiller, DeChurch, Murase, & Doty, 2011; Schyns & Schilling, 2012), destructive leadership behaviors have received less attention (Skogstad, Einarsen, Torsheim, Aasland, & Hetland, 2007).”
#Trending topics in careers: a review and future research agenda (2017, background): “For example, it would be important to find out what the role of certain dark personality traits (O’Boyle et al., 2012) or destructive leadership (Schyns and Schilling, 2013) would be on the career development of individuals.”
We have emotions but can’t show them! Authoritarian leadership, emotion suppression climate, and team performance (2020, background): “However, recent research postulates that they are distinct because, unlike authoritarian leadership, autocratic leadership is often not considered destructive or on the “dark-side” of leadership (Dotlich and Cairo, 2003; Harms et al., 2018; Krasikova et al., 2013; Schyns and Schilling, 2013).”
Knowledge Sharing, Abusive Supervision, and Support (2015, background): “Although both these types of leader behaviors bring harmful results, such as low satisfaction and poor employee performance, the consequences of abusive supervision are much more severe than those of laissez-faire supervision (Schyns & Schilling, 2013).”
Leadership behaviour and leader self-reported well-being: A review, integration and meta-analytic examination (2020, background): “While the attention in leadership research has recently shifted towards dark sides of leadership and follower outcomes (e.g. Schyns & Schilling, 2013), the implications of such leadership for leaders themselves, especially their well-being, have been studied less systematically.”
Main and interactive effects of weekly transformational and laissez‐faire leadership on followers’ trust in the leader and leader effectiveness (2019, neutral): “Yet, some researchers wonder whether it is appropriate to categorize laissez-faire leadership as a form of destructive leadership (Schyns & Schilling, 2013).”