Industrial and Organizational Psychology Commons^™

Destructive Leadership, Ben Shaw, Anthony Erickson, Michael G. Harvey

Anthony Erickson

Our research, based on factor and cluster analyses of 127 questions answered by a combined sample of 1165 respondents from around the world, suggests that there are a variety of ways for leaders to be harmful to the people they supervise and the organisations to which they belong. Seven “types” of destructive leaders based on cluster analyses of factor scores are described in the panels to the right. Destructive leadership lowers productivity and financial performance. It makes employees angry, lowers their self-esteem and causes them to engage in more “political” behaviour.