When we think of destructive and abusive leadership, several terms may come to mind: narcissistic, power hungry, selfish, egotistical. However, many great leaders also share these qualities, although to a lesser extent. Therein lies the paradox of destructive leader qualities – a small dosage of these qualities can be helpful in the leadership space, but too much can turn disastrous.
Researchers in this study (Laurijssen et al., 2024) focused on one type of destructive leader: primary psychopathic leaders. Primary psychopathic leaders are generally characterized by callousness, egocentricity, manipulative tendencies, and a lack of remorse. These leaders are associated with poor employee outcomes, such as higher burnout and higher turnover potential, even though their leadership may also be associated with benefits for the organization overall.
THE RESEARCH STUDIES
Over the course of three studies, the researchers focused on the boundaries that organizations can put in place to harness the power of primary psychopathic leaders, without leading to negative leader behavior or harming employees.
The first study involved 91 leaders participating in an online experiment to determine the organizational contexts that encourage leaders to engage in self-serving behavior. Overall, the researchers found that when organizations had unclear rules, no way of providing sanctions for misconduct, and low transparency of behavior, leaders high in primary psychopathy traits were far more likely to engage in self-serving behavior compared to those low in psychopathy traits.
Further, the researchers conducted two survey studies using real leader-follower pairs and teams. Across both studies, they collected data from 100 leader-follower pairs and 86 larger teams (multiple followers per leader). In both studies, the researchers found that leaders who were high in primary psychopathy traits only resorted to self-serving and abusive supervision behavior when there was little clarity on organizational rules and when organizational policies were weak.
PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS
There is an inherent paradox in primary psychopathic behaviors – they can provide benefits and also cause harm. Organizations who want to successfully navigate these tricky leadership behaviors should do the following:
- Establish and communicate clear rules and procedures. Organizations should explicitly emphasize and communicate the type of behavior that is or is not allowed.
- Appropriately use sanctions and punishments for rule-breakers. It is not enough to merely have rules in place; instead, rules must be enforced fairly, reliably, and evenly, without showing favoritism to certain people.
Laurijssen, L. M., Wisse, B., Sanders, S., & Sleebos, E. (2024). How to neutralize primary psychopathic leaders’ damaging impact: Rules, sanctions, and transparency. Journal of Business Ethics, 189, 365-383.
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