How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes

Leadership Quarterly

Volumn 24, Issue 1, 2013, Pages 138-158

  Schyns, Birgit ^a   Schilling, Jan ^b  

^a DURHAM UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

^b University of Applied Administrative Sciences   (Germany)

Author keywords

Abusive supervision; Destructive leadership; Leadership; Meta analysis; Outcomes

Indexed keywords

EID: 84872426034     PISSN: 10489843     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/j.leaqua.2012.09.001     Document Type: Article

References (118)

1. Aasland M.S., Skogstad A., Notelaers G., Nielsen M.B., Einarsen S. The prevalence of destructive leadership behaviour. British Journal of Management 2010, 21:438-452.
2. Aquino K., Byron K. Dominating interpersonal behavior and perceived victimization in groups: Evidence for a curvilinear relationship. Journal of Management 2002, 28:69-87.
3. *Aryee S., Chen Z.X., Sun L.Y., Debrah Y.A. Examining the mediating and moderating influences on the relationships between abusive supervision and contextual performance in a Chinese context. Paper presented at the 4th Asia Academy Management Conference, December 16-18, Shanghai, China 2004.
4. *Aryee S., Chen Z.X., Sun L.Y., Debrah Y.A. Antecedents and outcomes of abusive supervision: Test of a trickle-down model. Journal of Applied Psychology 2007, 92:191-201.
5. *Aryee S., Sun L.Y., Chen Z.X.G., Debrah Y.A. Abusive supervision and contextual performance: The mediating role of emotional exhaustion and the moderating role of work unit structure. Management and Organization Review 2008, 4:393-411.
6. Ashforth B.E. Petty tyranny in organizations. Human Relations 1994, 47:755-778.
7. *Ashforth B.E. Petty tyranny in organizations: A preliminary examination of antecedents and consequences. Canadian Journal of Administrative Sciences 1997, 14:126-140.
8. *Bamberger P.A., Bacharach S.B. Abusive supervision and subordinate problem drinking: Taking resistance, stress and subordinate personality into account. Human Relations 2006, 59:723-752.
9. Bardes M., Piccolo R.F. Aspects of goals and reward systems as antecedents of destructive leadership. When leadership goes wrong: Destructive leadership, mistakes, and ethical failures 2010, Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC. B. Schyns, T. Hansbrough (Eds.).
10. Bass B.M. Leadership and performance beyond expectations 1985, Free Press, New York.
11. Baumeister R.F., Bratslavsky E., Finkenauer C., Vohs K.D. Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology 2001, 5:323-370.
12. Bies R.J., Tripp T.M. The study of revenge in the workplace: Conceptual, ideological, and empirical issues. Counterproductive work behavior: Investigations of actors and targets 2005, 65-81. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC. S. Fox, P.E. Spector (Eds.).
13. *Biron M. Negative reciprocity and the association between perceived organizational ethical values and organizational deviance. Human Relations 2010, 63:875-897.
14. *Bligh M., Kohles J.C., Pearce C.L., Justin J.E., Stovall J.F. When the romance is over: Follower perspectives of aversive leadership. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2007, 56:528-557.
15. Borenstein M., Hedges L., Higgins J., Rothstein H. Comprehensive meta-analysis version 2 2005, Biostat, Englewood, NJ.
16. Bowling N.A., Beehr T.A. Workplace harassment from the victim's perspective: A theoretical model and meta-analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology 2006, 91:998-1012.
17. *Bowling N.A., Beehr T.A., Bennett M.M., Watson C.P. Target personality and workplace victimization: A prospective analysis. Work and Stress 2010, 24:140-158.
18. *Breaux D., Perrewe P., Hall A., Frink D., Hochwarter W. Time to try a little tenderness? The detrimental effects of accountability when coupled with abusive supervision. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies. 2008, 11:111-122.
19. *Brown M.E., Trevino L.K., Harrison D.A. Ethical leadership: A social learning perspective for construct development and testing. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2005, 97:117-134.
20. Brunswick E. Perception and the representative design of psychological experiments 1956, University of California Press, Berkeley. 2nd ed.
21. Burns J. Transformational leadership 2003, Atlantic Monthly Press, New York.
22. *Burris E.R., Detert J.R., Chiaburu D.S. Quitting before leaving: The mediating effects of psychological attachment and detachment on voice. Journal of Applied Psychology 2008, 93:912-9222.
23. *Chen H.C., Kao H.S.R. Chinese paternalistic leadership and non-Chinese subordinates' psychological health. International Journal of Human Resource Management 2009, 20:2533-2546.
24. Colquitt J.A., Conlon D.E., Wesson M.J., Porter C.O.L.H., Ng K.Y. Justice at the millennium: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of organizational justice research. Journal of Applied Psychology 2001, 86:425-445.
25. Conger J.A. The dark side of leadership. Organizational Dynamics 1990, 19:44-55.
26. Conger J.A. Qualitative research as the cornerstone methodology for understanding leadership. The Leadership Quarterly 1998, 9:107-121.
27. Costa P.T., McCrae R.R. Revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-R) and NEO Five-Factor (NEO-FFI) Inventory Professional Manual 1992, PAR, Odessa, FL.
28. *De Hoogh A.H.B., Den Hartog D.N. Ethical and despotic leadership, relationships with leader's social responsibility, top management team effectiveness and subordinates' optimism: A multi-method study. The Leadership Quarterly 2008, 19:297-311.
29. *Detert J.R., Trevino L.K., Burris E.R., Andiappan M. Managerial modes of influence and counterproductivity in organizations: A longitudinal business-unit-level investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology 2007, 92:993-1005.
30. *Duffy M.K., Ferrier W.J. Birds of a feather? How supervisor-subordinate dissimilarity moderates the influence of supervisor behaviors on workplace attitudes. Group Organization Management 2003, 28:217-248.
31. *Duffy M.K., Ganster D.C., Pagon M. Social undermining in the workplace. Academy of Management Journal 2002, 45:331-351.
32. *Duffy M.K., Ganster D.C., Shaw J.D., Johnson J.L., Pagon M. The social context of undermining behavior at work. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2006, 101:105-126.
33. *Dupre K.E., Inness M., Connelly C.E., Barling J., Hoption C. Workplace aggression in teenage part-time employees. Journal of Applied Psychology 2006, 91:987-997.
34. Einarsen S., Aasland M.S., Skogstad A. Destructive leadership behaviour: A definition and conceptual model. The Leadership Quarterly 2007, 18:207-216.
35. Einarsen S., Hoel H., Zapf D., Cooper C.L. The concept of bullying at work: The European tradition. Bullying and emotional abuse in the workplace: International perspectives in research and practice 2003, 3-30. Taylor & Francis, London. S. Einarsen, H. Hoel, D. Zapf, C.L. Cooper (Eds.).
36. *Einarsen S., Skogstad A., Leseth A.M.S.B., Aasland M.S. Destructive leadership: A behavioural model. Forskningved Institutt for samfunnspsykologi 2002, 2002:55-59.
37. *Elangovan A.R., Xie J.L. Effects of perceived power of supervisor on subordinate work attitudes. Leadership and Organization Development Journal 2000, 21:319-328.
38. Ferris G.R., Zinko R., Brouer R.L., Buckley M.R., Harvey M.G. Strategic bullying as a supplementary, balanced perspective on destructive leadership. The Leadership Quarterly 2007, 18:195-206.
39. *Fox S., Stallworth L.E. The battered apple: An application of stressor-emotion-control/support theory to teachers' experience of violence and bullying. Human Relations 2010, 63:927-954.
40. Fuller J.B., Patterson C.E.P., Hester K., Stringer D.Y. A quantitative review of research on charismatic leadership. Psychological Reports 1996, 78:271-287.
41. Gastil J. A meta-analytic review of the productivity and satisfaction of democratic and autocratic leadership. Small Group Research 1994, 25:384-410.
42. Gerstner C.R., Day D.V. Meta-analytic review of leader-member exchange theory: Correlates and construct issues. Journal of Applied Psychology 1997, 82:827-844.
43. *Gould-Williams J. HR practices, organizational climate and employee outcomes: Evaluating social exchange relationships in local government. International Journal of Human Resource Management 2007, 18:1627-1647.
44. Graen G.B., Uhl-Bien M. Development of leader-member exchange (LMX) theory of leadership over 25 years: Applying a multi-level multi-domain perspective. The Leadership Quarterly 1995, 6:219-247.
45. *Grandey A.A., Kern J.H., Frone M.R. Verbal abuse from outsiders versus insiders: Comparing frequent, impact on emotional exhaustion, and the role of emotional labor. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 2007, 12:63-79.
46. *Harris K.J., Kacmar K.M., Zivnuska S. An investigation of abusive supervision as a predictor of performance and the meaning of work as a moderator of the relationship. The Leadership Quarterly 2007, 18:252-263.
47. *Harvey S., Keashly L. Lowered trust in management as a mediating state between abusive supervision, work attitudes and intention to leave. ASBBSE E-Journal 2006, 2(1). (Retrieved from: http://www.asbbs.org/files/2006/ASBBS%20E-Journal%202006%20HTM%20Files/lowered%20trust%20asbbs%20e-journal%202006.pdf).
48. *Harvey P., Stoner J., Hochwarter W., Kacmar C. Coping with abusive supervision: The neutralizing effects of ingratiation and positive affect on negative employee outcomes. The Leadership Quarterly 2007, 18:264-280.
49. *Hauge L.J., Skogstad A., Einarsen S. Relationships between stressful work environments and bullying: Results of a large representative study. Work and Stress 2007, 21:220-242.
50. Hershcovis M.S. Incivility, social undermining, bullying. Oh My! A call to reconcile constructs within workplace aggression research. Journal of Organizational Behavior 2011, 32:499-519.
51. Hershcovis M.S., Barling J. Towards a multi-foci approach to workplace aggression: A meta-analytic review of outcomes from different perpetrators. Journal of Organizational Behavior 2010, 31:24-44.
52. *Hobman E.V., Restubog S.L.D., Bordia P., Tang R.L. Abusive supervision in advising relationships: Investigating the role of social support. Applied Psychology: An International Review 2009, 58:233-256.
53. Hofstede G. Culture's consequences: Comparing values, behaviors, institutions, and organizations across nations 2001, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
54. *Hoobler J.M., Brass D.J. Abusive supervision and family undermining as displaced aggression. Journal of Applied Psychology 2006, 91:1125-1133.
55. Howell J.M. Two faces of charisma: Socialized and personalized leadership in organizations. Charismatic leadership: The elusive factor in organizational effectiveness 1998, 213-236. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, CA. J.A. Conger, R.N. Kanungo (Eds.).
56. Hubert A.B., van Veldhoven M.J.P.M. Risk sectors for undesirable behaviour and mobbing. European Journal of Work and Organizational Psychology 2001, 10:415-424.
57. Hunter J.E., Schmidt F.L. Methods of meta-analysis - Correcting error and bias in research findings 2004, Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA.
58. Inness M., Barling J., Turner N. Understanding supervisor-targeted aggression: A within-person, between-jobs design. Journal of Applied Psychology 2005, 90:731-739.
59. Judge T.A., Piccolo R. Transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic test of their relative validity. Journal of Applied Psychology 2004, 89:755-768.
60. Judge T.A., Colbert A.E., Ilies R. Intelligence and leadership: A quantitative review and test of theoretical propositions. Journal of Applied Psychology 2004, 89:542-552.
61. Judge T.A., Piccolo R.F., Ilies R. The forgotten ones? A re-examination of consideration, initiating structure, and leadership effectiveness. Journal of Applied Psychology 2004, 89:36-51.
62. Keashly L., Trott V., MacLean L.M. Abusive behavior in the workplace: A preliminary investigation. Violence and Victims 1994, 9:341-357.
63. Kellerman B. Bad leadership: What it is, how it happens, why it matters 2004, Harvard Business School Press, Boston, MA.
64. *Kiazad K., Restubog S.L.D., Zagenczyk T.J., Kiewitz C., Tang R.L. In pursuit of power: The role of authoritarian leadership in the relationship between supervisors' Machiavellianism and subordinates' perceptions of abusive supervisory power. Journal of Research in Personality 2010, 44:512-519.
65. *Kim T.Y., Shapiro D.L. Retaliation against supervisory mistreatment: Negative emotion, group membership, and cross-cultural difference. International Journal of Conflict Management 2008, 19:339-358.
66. Kuoppala J., Lamminpaa A., Liira J., Vainio H. Leadership, job well-being, and health effects - A systematic review and a meta-analysis. Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2008, 50:904-915.
67. Kusy M., Holloway E. Toxic workplace!: Managing toxic personalities and their systems of power 2009, John Wiley, San Francisco, CA.
68. *Lim V.K.G., Teo T.S.H. Mind your E-manners: Impact of cyber incivility on employees' work attitude and behavior. Information Management 2009, 46:419-425.
69. Lipman-Blumen J. The allure of toxic leaders: Why we follow destructive bosses and corrupt politicians-and how we can survive them 2004, Oxford University Press, New York.
70. Locke K. The grounded theory approach to qualitative research. Measuring and analyzing behavior in organizations - Advances in measurement and data analysis 2002, 17-43. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. F. Drasgow, N. Schmitt (Eds.).
71. Lowe K.B., Kroeck K.G., Sivasubramaniam N. Effectiveness correlates of transformational and transactional leadership: A meta-analytic review of the MLQ literature. The Leadership Quarterly 1996, 7:385-425.
72. Maddi S.R. Hardiness: The courage to grow from stresses. The Journal of Positive Psychology 2006, 1:160-168.
73. *Mayer, D. M., Bardes, M., Hoobler, J. M., Wayne, S. J., & Marinova, S. V. (submitted for publication). The (bad) apple doesn't fall far from the tree: A trickle-down model of abusive supervision. Manuscript (Personnel Psychology).
74. Meyer J.P., Stanley D.J., Herscovitch L., Topolnytsky L. Affective, continuance, and normative commitment to the organization: A meta-analysis of antecedents, correlates, and consequences. Journal of Vocational Behavior 2002, 61:20-52.
75. *Mitchell M.S., Ambrose M.L. Abusive supervision and workplace deviance and the moderating effects of negative reciprocity beliefs. Journal of Applied Psychology 2007, 92:1159-1168.
76. Mulvey P.W., Padilla A. The environment of destructive leadership. When leadership goes wrong: Destructive leadership, mistakes and ethical failures 2010, Information Age Publishing, Charlotte, NC. B. Schyns, T. Hansbrough (Eds.).
77. *Nyberg A., Westerlund H., Magnusson Hanson L.L., Theorell T. Managerial leadership is associated with self-reported sickness absence and sickness presenteeism among Swedish men and women. Scandinavian Journal of Public Health 2008, 36:803-811.
78. Padilla A., Hogan R., Kaiser R.B. The toxic triangle: Destructive leaders, susceptible followers, and conducive environments. The Leadership Quarterly 2007, 18:176-194.
79. Paulhus D.L., Williams K.M. The dark triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellism, and psychopathy. Journal of Research in Personality 2002, 36:556-563.
80. Podsakoff P.M., Bommer W.H., Podsakoff N.P., MacKenzie S.B. Relationships between leader reward and punishment behavior and subordinate attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors: A meta-analytic review of existing and new research. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2006, 99:113-142.
81. *Rafferty A.E., Restubog S.L.D., Jimmieson N.L. Losing sleep: Examining the cascading effects of supervisors' experience of injustice on subordinates' psychological health. Work and Stress 2010, 24:36-55.
82. *Reed G.E., Bullis R.C. The impact of destructive leadership on senior military officers and civilian employees. Armed Forces & Society 2009, 36:5-18.
83. Rodriguez-Munoz A., Baillien E., De Witte H., Moreno-Jimenez B., Pastor J.C. Cross-lagged relationships between workplace bullying, job satisfaction and engagement: Two longitudinal studies. Work and Stress 2009, 23:225-243.
84. *Rooney J.A., Gottlieb B.H. Development and initial validation of a measure of supportive and unsupportive managerial behaviors. Journal of Vocational Behavior 2007, 71:186-203.
85. *Rooney J.A., Gottlieb B.H., Newby-Clark I.R. How support-related managerial behaviors influence employees: An integrated model. Journal of Managerial Psychology 2009, 24:410-427.
86. Rosenthal R. The file drawer problem and tolerance for null results. Psychological Bulletin 1979, 86:638-641.
87. Sackett D.L. Bias in analytic research. Journal of Chronic Diseases 1979, 32:51-63.
88. Schilling J. On the pragmatics of qualitative assessment: Designing the process for content analysis. European Journal of Psychological Assessment 2006, 22:28-37.
89. Schilling J. From ineffectiveness to destruction: A qualitative study on the meaning of negative leadership. Leadership 2009, 5:102-128.
90. Seligman M.E.P. Helplessness: On depression, development and death 1975, Freeman, San Francisco.
91. Skogstad A., Einarsen S., Torsheim T., Aasland M., Hetland H. The destructiveness of Laissez-faire leadership behaviour. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology 2007, 12(1):80-92.
92. Spector P.E., Fox S. The stressor-emotion model of counterproductive work behavior. Counterproductive work behavior: Investigations of actors and targets 2005, 151-174. American Psychological Association, Washington, DC. S. Fox, P.E. Spector (Eds.).
93. Sutton R.I. The no asshole rule: Building a civilized workplace and surviving one that isn't 2007, Warner Business Books, New York.
94. *Tate B.W., Jacobs R.R. Progressing by stepping back: An assessment of negative leader behavior. Poster presented at the 2010 SIOP conference in Chicago 2010.
95. *Tepper B.J. Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal 2000, 43:178-190.
96. Tepper B.J. Abusive supervision in work organizations: Review synthesis, and research agenda. Journal of Management 2007, 33:261-289.
97. *Tepper B.J., Carr J.C., Breaux D.M., Geider S., Hu C., Hua W. Abusive supervision, intentions to quit, and employees' workplace deviance: A power/dependence analysis. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2009, 109:156-167.
98. *Tepper B.J., Duffy M.K., Henle C.A., Lambert L.S. Procedural injustice, victim precipitation, and abusive supervision. Personnel Psychology 2006, 59:101-123.
99. *Tepper B.J., Duffy M.K., Hoobler J., Ensley M.D. Moderators of the relationships between coworkers' organizational citizenship behavior and fellow employees' attitudes. Journal of Applied Psychology 2004, 89:455-465.
100. *Tepper B.J., Duffy M.K., Shaw J.D. Personality moderators of the relationship between abusive supervision and subordinates' resistance. Journal of Applied Psychology 2001, 86:974-983.
101. Tepper B.J., Henle C.A. A case for recognizing distinctions among constructs that capture interpersonal mistreatment in work organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior 2011, 32:487-498.
102. *Tepper B.J., Henle C.A., Lambert L.S., Giacalone R.A., Duffy M.K. Abusive supervision and subordinates' organization deviance. Journal of Applied Psychology 2008, 93:721-732.
103. *Tepper B.J., Moss S.E., Lockhart D.E., Carr J.C. Abusive supervision, upward maintenance communication, and subordinates' psychological distress. Academy of Management Journal 2007, 50:1169-1180.
104. *Thau S., Aquino K., Bommer W.H. How employee race moderates the relationship between non-contingent punishment and organizational citizenship behaviors: A test of the Negative Adaptation Hypothesis. Social Justice Research 2008, 21:297-312.
105. *Thau S., Bennett R.J., Mitchell M.S., Marrs M.B. How management style moderates the relationship between abusive supervision and workplace deviance: An uncertainty management theory perspective. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes 2009, 108:79-92.
106. *Thau S., Mitchell M.S. Self-gain or self-regulation impairment? Tests of competing explanations of the supervisor abuse and employee deviance relationship through perceptions of distributive justice perceptions. Journal of Applied Psychology 2010, 95:1009-1031.
107. Thoroughgood C.N., Tate B.W., Sawyer K.B., Jacobs R. Bad to the bone: Empirically defining and measuring destructive leader behavior. Journal of Leadership and Organizational Studies 2012, 19:230-255.
108. Van Dick R., Christ O., Stellmacher J., Wagner U., Ahlswede O., Grubba C., et al. Should I stay or should I go? Explaining turnover intentions with organizational identification and job satisfaction. British Journal of Management 2004, 15:351-360.
109. Walumbwa F.O., Avolio B.J., Gardner W.L., Wernsing T.S., Peterson S.J. Authentic leadership: Development and validation of a theory-based measure. Journal of Management 2008, 34:89-126.
110. Wang G., Oh I.-S., Courtright S.H., Colbert A.E. Transformational leadership and performance across criteria and levels: A meta-analytic review of 25 years of research. Group and Organization Management 2011, 36:223-270.
111. Wanous J.P., Reichers R.E., Hudy J.T. Overall job satisfaction: How good are single-item measures?. Journal of Applied Psychology 2000, 82:247-252.
112. *Wu T.Y., Hu C. Abusive supervision and employee emotional exhaustion: Dispositional antecedents and boundaries. Group and Organization Management 2009, 34:143-169.
113. *Yagil D. Employees' attribution of abusive supervisory behaviors. International Journal of Organizational Analysis 2005, 13:307-326.
114. *Yagil D. The relationship of abusive and supportive workplace supervision to employee burnout and upward influence tactics. Journal of Emotional Abuse 2006, 6:49-65.
115. Yammarino F.J., Dionne S.D., Chun J.U., Dansereau F. Leadership and levels of analysis: A state-of-the-science review. The Leadership Quarterly 2005, 16:879-919.
116. Yukl G. Leadership in organizations 2006, Pearson-Prentice. Hall, Upper Saddle River, NJ. 6th ed.
117. Yukl G., van Fleet D.D. Theory and research on leadership in organizations. Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology 1992, 147-199. Consulting Psychologists Press, Palo Alto. M.D. Dunette, L.M. Hough (Eds.).
118. *Zellars K.L., Tepper B.J., Duffy M.K. Abusive supervision and subordinates' organizational citizenship behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology 2002, 87:1068-1076.