Title: Toxicity in leadership: exploring its dimensions in the Indian context

Authors: Nivedita Singh; Santoshi Sengupta; Santosh Dev

Addresses: Jaypee Business School, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Sector 62, Noida, India ' Jaypee Business School, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Sector 62, Noida, India ' Jaypee Business School, Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Sector 62, Noida, India

Abstract: For decades, scholarly research on leadership have attempted to ascertain the traits, behaviours, styles and outcomes of great and effective leadership, very few have resolutely attempted to understand the nature and consequences of dark side or dysfunctional leadership. This study attempts to address the taxonomy deficits in toxic leadership as applicable in Indian context. The focus of the paper is on identification of factors of toxic leadership based on Destructive Leadership Questionnaire (DLQ) and toxic leadership scale (TLS). The identified factors of toxicity in leaders are viewed from subordinate's 'cognitive schema' perspective in Indian organisations. Exploratory Factor analysis on 150 samples yielded eight factors of perceived toxicity of a leader. Co-relation and regression analysis was also done in order to identify their determinants. The results contribute to developing research stream that examines toxic leadership and have both theoretical and practical implications.

Keywords: toxic leadership; destructive leadership questionnaire; DLQ; EFA; exploratory factor analysis; India; dysfunctional leadership.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMP.2017.083078

International Journal of Management Practice, 2017 Vol.10 No.2, pp.109 - 130

Received: 28 Jan 2016
Accepted: 14 Mar 2016
Published online: 20 Mar 2017 *

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