How Bad Leaders Can Drive Out Good Leaders

Abstract

Destructive leadership has been thoroughly described in the literature. As the term itself indicates, destructive leadership is a leadership style that violates the well-being or job satisfaction of subordinates, and destroys value for the organization directly, or through less motivated and effective employees. Despite such negative effects, some members might prosper from it and may even support destructive leadership. Worse, sometimes destructive leaders are promoted. If the organization rewards destructive leaders with promotions and responsibility, followers may see these behaviors as a way to get ahead and destructive behavior can become a part of the organizational culture. The literature still reports increased turnover intentions. In the current article, the consequences of destructive leadership on leaders and followers are examined. Specifically, destructive leadership is examined through a literature review and by using Gresham's law as an analogy. Gresham's law states that “bad money drives out good money,” and the current article demonstrates that a Gresham-tendency can also be observed for leaders under certain circumstances. Thus, the current study converts Gresham's law into a conceptual model for the evolution of destructive leadership in organizations. The proposed model qualitatively describes how various types of destructive leaders influence the organization under certain circumstances.