In Consideration of a Toxic Workplace: A Suitable Place for Treatment

This chapter suggests that all workplaces will be, to some degree, toxic and that such conditions are to be expected and thus to be viewed as a regular feature of organisational life. It advocates that those in positions of organisational leadership should anticipate, prepare for and handle more openly and frankly the dynamics, features and characteristics of a toxic workplace as described rather more than currently appears to be the case. Whilst much is rightly made of the critical impact of leadership behaviour on an organisation’s well-being this may not be the primary determinant of an organisation’s health and condition. In considering organisational toxicity this chapter asserts that more attention should be given to considering the internal culture of an organisation and the organisation’s external environment in combination with an examination of leadership behaviour-in-context.

[1]  Yiannis Gabriel,et al.  Organizations in Depth , 1999 .

[2]  Michael M. Lombardo,et al.  Off the Track: Why and How Successful Executives Get Derailed , 1983 .

[3]  Michael Maccoby,et al.  Narcissistic Leaders The Incredible Pros, the Inevitable Cons , 2004 .

[4]  M. Hersen,et al.  Handbook of mental health in the workplace , 2002 .

[5]  Russell W. McCalley,et al.  Patterns of Management Power , 2002 .

[6]  P. Zimbardo,et al.  The cognitive control of motivation. , 1966, Transactions of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[7]  K. Sulkowicz.  Worse than enemies. The CEO's destructive confidant. , 2004, Harvard Business Review.

[8]  Abraham Zaleznik,et al.  Power and the corporate mind , 1975 .

[9]  D. Paulhus,et al.  The Dark Triad of personality: Narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy , 2002 .

[10]  Daniel Sankowsky,et al.  The charismatic leader as narcissist: Understanding the abuse of power , 1995 .

[11]  Lynn R Offerman.  When followers become toxic. , 2004, Harvard business review.

[12]  Joan R. Kofodimos.  Why Executives Lose Their Balance , 1989 .

[13]  P. Zimbardo.  DIVISION OF PSYCHOLOGY: THE COGNITIVE CONTROL OF MOTIVATION* , 1966 .

[14]  S. Robinson,et al.  The Toxic Handler , 1999 .

[15]  Sydney Finkelstein,et al.  Why smart executives fail , 2005 .

[16]  M. K. D. Vries.  Leaders who self-destruct: The causes and cures , 1989 .

[17]  Scott Adams,et al.  The Dilbert Principle , 1996 .

[18]  P. Zimbardo.  The Lucifer Effect: Understanding How Good People Turn Evil , 2007 .

[19]  Roy Lubit,et al.  The long-term organizational impact of destructively narcissistic managers , 2002 .

[20]  N. Smith,et al.  From Grace to Disgrace: The Rise and Fall of Arthur Andersen , 2004 .

[21]  R. Charan,et al.  Why CEOs fail. , 1999, Fortune.

[22]  R. H. Waterman,et al.  In Search of Excellence , 1983 .

[23]  Kets de Vries Mf.  Managers can drive their subordinates mad. , 1979 .

[24]  M. Beer,et al.  The Silent Killers of Strategy Implementation and Learning , 2000 .

[25]  John Kenneth Galbraith,et al.  The Age of Uncertainty , 1977 .

[26]  Terry L. Price.  Explaining ethical failures of leadership , 2000 .

[27]  Blake E. Ashforth,et al.  Business as usual: The acceptance and perpetuation of corruption in organizations , 2004 .

[28]  Mark J. Stein.  The Othello Conundrum: The Inner Contagion of Leadership , 2005 .

[29]  Dennis Tourish,et al.  Charismatic Leadership and Corporate Cultism at Enron: The Elimination of Dissent, the Promotion of Conformity and Organizational Collapse , 2005 .

[30]  Jerry B. Harvey,et al.  The Abilene Paradox and Other Meditations on Management , 1988 .

[31]  A. D. Jones,et al.  Obedience to Authority , 1974 .

[32]  P. Babiak.  When Psychopaths go to Work: A Case Study of an Industrial Psychopath , 1995 .

[33]  Marc D. Street.  Groupthink , 1997 .

[34]  Robert D. Smither,et al.  Personality: Theories And Applications , 2001 .

[35]  Jonathan Gosling,et al.  Leadership Competencies: Time to Change the Tune? , 2006 .

[36]  Joyce Hogan,et al.  Assessing Leadership: A View from the Dark Side , 2001 .

[37]  K. D. Vries,et al.  The Dark Side of Entrepreneurship , 1985 .

[38]  Peter J. Frost,et al.  Toxic emotions at work , 2003 .

[39]  Rakesh Khurana,et al.  The curse of the superstar CEO. , 2002, Harvard business review.

[40]  R. Hogan,et al.  Personality psychology in the workplace , 2001 .

[41]  A. Furnham,et al.  The Dark Side of Behaviour at Work , 2004 .

[42]  C. Fred Alford.  Whistleblowers: Broken Lives and Organizational Power , 2001 .

[43]  Jay A. Conger,et al.  The dark side of leadership , 1990 .

[44]  R. Hare,et al.  Snakes in Suits , 2006 .