Gestionnaire parfois destructif, parfois constructif, mythe ou réalité? : étude des amalgames de leadership destructif et constructif et de leurs relations avec l’épanouissement au travail et l’habilitation comportementale

The scientific literature generally focuses on forms of destructive and constructive leadership and their consequences in isolation. Little attention has been paid to the positioning of destructive behaviors in relation to constructive behaviors. However, the examination of their combinations is an important matter considering that a leader who is perceived as a source of stress and support could be more deleterious for his employees than a leader who is more clearly perceived as a source of stress. This phenomenon, called within-domain exacerbation, suggests that a leadership profile characterized by both destructive and constructive behaviors would be more deleterious for employees’ well-being and performance than one more clearly characterized by destructive behaviors. This phenomenon is theoretically explained by perception of the leader’s behaviors uncertainty. This thesis proposes through two articles to examine how leaders combine destructive and constructive behaviors and how these combinations are related with thriving at work and behavioral empowerment, respectively indicators of well-being and performance. It also proposes to verify if these combinations are related to perceptions of the leader’s behaviors uncertainty. The first article examines combinations of petty tyranny and transformational leadership perceived by 2104 employees of a police organization. Results show that leaders of this organization do combine these behaviors and that a profile characterized by slightly below average levels of petty tyranny and transformational leadership appears to be more deleterious for employees thriving and behavioral empowerment, compared to a more clearly destructive profile and a more constructive profile. The second article considers a broader set of behaviors representative of the destructive-constructive leadership spectrum. Combinations of leadership behaviors and their vii relations with thriving, behavioral empowerment, and the leader’s behaviors uncertainty were investigated through the perception of 305 employees of an organization working in the natural resource industry. Results also show leaders of this organization do combine destructive and constructive behaviors. Some leaders present a generally constructive profile, but characterized by higher levels of destructive behaviors, compared to others who present a more clearly constructive profile. A destructive leadership profile was also observed and is related to the lowest levels of thriving and behaviors empowerment, and the highest level of uncertainty, not supporting the presence of within-domain exacerbation. However, within-domain exacerbation is observed in the presence of specific dyadic combination of leadership behaviors. This thesis contributes to improve our understanding of the leadership profiles typically presented by leaders. It also contributes to the identification of the precise conditions under which within-domain exacerbation is elicited when leadership behaviors are considered. This phenomenon is only observed on thriving at work and behavioral empowerment when leaders present a specific dyadic combination of destructive and constructive behaviors which rely on the same influence mechanism. Moreover, only one of these specific combinations is related to perception of uncertainty, suggesting more than one mechanism could underpin within-domain exacerbation.

Keyphrases: Within-domain exacerbation, Leadership profiles, Destructive leadership, Constructive leadership, Thriving at work, Behavioral empowerment, Perceived uncertainty of the leader’s behaviors, Person-centered analysis