The Dark Side of Leadership: Measurement, Assessment, and Intervention

AbstractThis manuscript addresses derailment, narcissism, and Machiavellianism individually, discusses the assessment of dark leadership, and describes various strategies intended to address dark leadership in organizational settings. Kellerman (2004) suggested that despite decades of unconditional positive regard toward leaders and leadership, "flawed leaders are everywhere" (p. 41), and in many cases, bad or unworthy individuals hold leadership positions successfully. The multifaceted study of these leaders and their behavior is dark leadership. Dark leadership encompasses the concepts of derailment, narcissism, and Machiavellianism. The research conducted over the past five years, along with a hand full of seminal sources presented here, describe the empirical work on dark leadership within these three facets.The Dark Side of Leadership: Measurement, Assessment, and InterventionBoddy, Ladyshewski, and Galvin (2010) stated, "Leadership tends to be written about as if it were always positive, ethical, and good" (p. 125). However, Kellerman (2004) suggested that despite decades of unconditional positive regard toward leaders and leadership, "flawed leaders are everywhere" (p. 41), and in many cases, bad or unworthy individuals hold leadership positions successfully. The multifaceted study of these leaders and their behavior is dark leadership. Dark leadership encompasses the concepts of derailment (Burke, 2006; Hogan & Hogan, 2001; 2002), narcissism (Conger, 1990; 2002; Higgs, 2009; Maccoby, 2004), and Machiavellianism (Judge, Piccolo, & Kosalka, 2009; Tepper, 2000; 2007). The research conducted over the past five years, along with a hand full of seminal sources presented here, describe the empirical work on dark leadership within these three facets. While the majority of empirical literature viewed these facets individually, a few scholars also attempted consolidation of dark leadership (Padilla, Hogan, & Kaiser, 2007; Paulhus & Williams, 2002); however, to date those attempts yielded no fruitful outcomes, and the researchers investigating dark leadership continued to follow disparate paths (Higgs, 2009). This manuscript addresses derailment, narcissism, and Machiavellianism individually, discusses the assessment of dark leadership, and describes various strategies intended to address dark leadership in organizational settings. The discussion begins with leader derailment.Dark Leadership as DerailmentSeveral scholars characterized leader derailment as dark leadership (Conger, 1990; Burke, 2006; Kets De Vries & Balazs, 2011). Conger (1990; 2002) attributed derailment to problems of vision, impressionmanagement, and general management. Leaders who emphasize their personal vision at the expense of the organization's health, demonstrate poor general management capabilities, and possess poor interpersonal skills, engender dark leadership outcomes. Burke (2006) argued that derailment manifests in several ways. Leaders reach a plateau of development and fail to progress, leaders receive demotion or termination, or leaders fail to achieve organizational objectives unexpectedly. Researchers attempt to understand derailment in an effort to prevent derailment (Burke, 2006). Derailment studies approached derailment in relation to a variety of factors.Derailment studies examined destructive leaders' behaviors (Aasland, Skogstad, Notelars, Nielsen, & Einarsen, 2010; Reed & Bullis, 2009; Shaw, Ericksen, & Harvey, 2011 ), derailment likelihood (Gentry & Shanock, 2008; Dai, De Meuse, & Gaeddert, 2011; Zhang & Chandrasekar, 2011), leader personality traits (Harms, Spain, & Hannah, 2011), and viewed derailment as a "special case of organizational failure" (Capretta, Clark, & Dai, 2008, p. 48). Studies aimed at leader derailment sorted leaders into constructive versus destructive types (Aasland et al., 2010), examined derailment antecedents such as functional orientation and interpersonal skill (Gentry & Shanock, 2008), correlated derailment with personality traits (Harms et al. …