Toxic leadership is caused by lack of self-confidence, lack of self-awareness and shortage of self-awareness. The consequences of destructive leadership are dire and can even lead to a downfall of an organisation. Employing a qualitative analysis approach, with secondary data to analyse the tell-tale signs of a leader with such traits, the effects of destructive leadership on the employees, the outcomes of this kind of leadership and the possible strategies the subordinates staff adopt when dealing with such a leader. The study applied the usage of the phenomenological strategy, which aimed at pinpointing experiences as answered by the respondents. Questionnaire and case studies interviews were used to address the following questions relating to toxic leadership:
What are the general attributes exhibited by toxic leaders?
The effects toxic leaders have on their subordinates?
The feeling and reactions of the employees after encountering a toxic leader within the place of work?
How are toxic leaders perceived by their subordinates?
What are the instigations of toxic behaviors in a leader?
The qualitative data for the research were extracted from two areas. The information obtained from various secondary sources such as survey and document data; and several source studies namely surveys, interviews and case studies which are based on toxic leadership. The aspect of generation of theory rather than testing the hypothesis was employed to enhance the prediction and explanation of real life in various researches setting to come up with solid arguments for the generalisability of findings. The subject targets of the researcher are the respondents in the cooperate world, who in one way or another have experienced toxic leadership or are experiencing toxic leadership at the time. The respondents were a sample of toxic leaders and the subordinates. In case 1, for instance, 11 toxic leaders who are CEOs or CMSs in an organisation were concerned together with 110 senior-level executives were sampled.
This data has enabled the researcher to analyze the toxic leaders and the effects they have on employees by assessing the comments expressed by those who experienced such working circumstances; how the respondents felt when dealing with such kind of leaders, how these leaders are perceived by their subordinates and what the outcomes of toxic leadership instigate. The approach used in this research analysis, namely indicative case study research, is aimed at revealing particular attributes rather than a conclusive description with regard to toxic leaders. From the methodology, the following are the results of the research:
• The subordinates describe poisonous leaders as being arrogant and not showing due respect to their juniors. The respondents stated that the toxic leaders displayed significant levels of prejudice on employees who are not submissive to them. Further, these leaders disregard teamwork in a workplace and use their position in authority to subject their juniors to cruel punishments;
• The victims of toxic leadership tend to be unmotivated in their workplace since their leaders do not owe the necessary respect the subordinates deserve;
• Toxic leaders hold their employees incommunicado, therefore, the latter do not speak up their minds to the superiors for fear of retribution;
• Fear of toxic leaders erodes self-confidence in the subordinates.
• Employees perceive toxic leaders as self-centered, self-oriented and only minding about self-appraisal in each given situation;
• The aftermath of toxic leadership stirs up a sense of job dissatisfaction which may result in a mass exodus of highly skilled employees.
Findings and analysis
The researcher applied initiated interviews and case studies while extracting essential data for analysis of the report.
Case study 1
The Leadership Odyssey
The study involved middle-level executives from several organisations who expressed their thoughts on the toxic leaders they have worked with. Due to the researcher encountering challenges while gathering information on toxic leaders, a purposive approach of sampling was used. The questionnaire found that regardless of the levels of the executives, the view of toxic leadership was similar. However, further comparison indicated that higher levels of leadership exhibit traits of corruption and dishonesty, being rude and tending to abuse their subordinates to greater extent than the middle-levels executives. The outcomes of toxic leadership on the junior employees were found to be common in application of different sampling approaches. These impacts include the following:
• Loss of self-confidence;
• Disturbed family life;
• Powerlessness;
• Anxiety;
• Fear;
• The desire to quit the job.
Case study 2
From the toxic leadership questionnaire used to capture information of toxic leadership in an organisation inferences were recorded. The respondents were employees from different organisations. The results showed Chronbach’s Alpha to be more than 95% when toxic leadership was measured using, “eight items from a 15-item toxic leadership scale”. The resulting impacts of toxic leadership on employees were found to be as follow: job stress, loss of self-esteem, lack of job satisfaction and depression. This case study, however, shows that predicting job stress is not necessarily based on narcissism and self-promotion.
Case study 3
This study investigated typical responses by the employees experiencing toxic leadership. The research results indicate significant challenge in collecting data to be the unavailability of respondents due to fear of toxic administration or because they ceased working for a particular organization. Non-formal definitions of toxic leadership were not used to avoid influencing the response by the participants. This research focused on the attributes of toxic leaders, the impact of toxic leadership on an employee and the strategies employed by the victims of toxic leadership.
There was consistency in the view of toxic perceptions by the employees. These behaviors were found to be bullying and intimidating practices, narcissistic behaviors, micromanaging behaviors, passive and manipulating behaviors. The impacts of such behaviour were found to be negative on the employees. These effects are the following:
• Life stress;
• High doubt on oneself;
• Depression;
• Anxiety;
• Mistrust;
• Anger;
• Fear;
• Insomnia;
• Hair loss;
• Skin rashes;
• Headache.
The research concluded that there are maladaptive techniques employed by subordinate staffs when dealing with toxic leadership. Besides, the researcher noted that there is likely-hood of adverse consequences of toxic leadership in an organization if not put in check. Concerning the solution last resorted by subordinates who experience toxic leadership, the researcher found quitting as the most common avoidance strategy.
