Society and organizational leadership: Investigating the sociocultural construction of toxic and constructive leaders in Ghana

Abstract

Toxic leadership phenomenon persists in many institutions at the expense of organisational progress and performance. This article explores the centrality of sociocultural values in leadership formation in Ghanaian organisations. Through the lens of the constructivist paradigm and ethnomethodology research design, fifteen (15) in-depth interviews were analysed. The study revealed that society’s underlying sociocultural values systems fundamentally impact the construction of toxic organisational leaders through complicity and condoning malpractice, impertinence to time, and nonchalance towards leaders’ toxic behaviours. Context, in this regard, has an inbred role in making a leader either toxic or constructive. Society and its organisational setups must positively impact the co-creation of constructive leadership by nurturing values that demand leadership accountability and reward constructive leadership for its significant impact in engendering organisational progress.