Destructive leadership Destructive leadership is an oxymoronic term which gives us two different conflicting ideas at the same time. The two words destructive and leadership do not go hand in hand. This is because of the fact that a leader is someone who needs to encourage all his followers at all points of time and work for the general good of the company (Breevaart et al .,2014). In other words, the work of a leader is to do something constructive and not something destructive. On contrary destructive leadership is a very strange and unexpected behavior that is often seen on part of the leaders. Destructive leadership is considered to be very much harmful for the employees and for the overall company as a whole (Skogstad et al., 2015). Destructive leaders are very much self centered and are always eager towards insulting their employees. They do not make any good or positive use of their power and position. Destructive leaders misuse their power. They indulge themselves in unprofessional practices like shouting at their subordinates and bullying them.
Figure1: Toxic leadership or Destructive Leadership Source: (workplaceleadership.2013) Self reflection I believe that destructive leadership is very harmful for the workers. However, it must be kept in and that it is also possible for a leader to show both constructive and destructive behaviors. This is because of the fact that there can be many ethical dilemmas from which the leaders can suffer (Mehta & Maheshwari., 2014). However I believe that a destructive leader is one who gains more power based on other factors as well like that conducive work environment and susceptible followers. I was the employee of an organization where we were not at all happy with the work environment and also with the kind of leadership that was prevalent. I often found the leader (manager) to be very rude towards all the employees. I remember that once there was a team meeting where I was in charge of providing a presentation. However, after I completed
delivering my presentation I was called by our manager at his cabin. On entering his cabin, I was shocked at the behavior that I got from my manager (Krasikova, Green & LeBreton., 2013). In spite of knowing the fact that I was a fresher and was delivering a profession al presentation for the first time, he expected it to be of a very high quality. He was very unhappy with my work and shouted at me. He also abused me of not having any technical knowhow. After shouting on me he asked me to undergo a thorough training under the supervision of one of my superior. I was really very much de motivated after this and lost myself confidence. It is from that training session that I realized the destructive leadership was a result of the conducive environment and the susceptible followers that were present in this organization. Many of my seniors were constantly bullying each other and many of their subordinates. There was a lack of mutual understanding and respect among the workers. There were problems like racial discrimination, inequality in the salary structure and favoritism that was largely prevalent in the organization. The workplace environment was very unruly and weak. There was no team spirit among the workers. The employees also suffered from the lack of low confidence, instability and low maturity. Conclusion Thus, I could conclude that all these factors together led to the corruption of the leaders and thus, it gave rise to the destruct the leadership. All these conditions contribute to the destructive behavior of the leaders because they know that there will be none to revolt against their behavior. Hence, efforts must be made by the manager and also by the employees to develop themselves as per the ethics and the professional standards.
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