博客來Since the early 1900s scholars have researched leadership and it is one of the most researched topics of our time. Understanding how to be a strong leader and what makes a good leader is something that we continue to strive to understand. Research ponders various positive leadership models such as transformational, servant, authentic, charismatic, situational ethical leadership to name a few. Yet, we find that a small number of our leaders are truly transformational. While scholars continue to provide examples of positive and influential leaders we still struggle to understand what a dysfunctional leader is. Practitioners and followers are quick to identify a leader that is a nightmare yet, they can’t name what type of dysfunction that leader possesses. Day in and day out we struggle with these leaders and how to intervene when dysfunctional behaviour arises. This is most evident with recent scandals that have plagued media with characters such as Bernie Madoff, Dennis Kozlowski, Tyco, Enron’s Kenneth Lay and Jeff Skilling to name a few.
It is vital to understand the importance of dysfunctional leadership and its impact to organizations, followers and society. Recent literature focuses on the psychology of dysfunctional leadership and the destruction towards organizations. Little has been written in regards to the characteristics, traits, behaviours of dysfunctional leaders. In addition little has been included on how to deal with this types of behaviour within organizations. Individual books have been written on each of these types of characteristics but no one book has been written that focuses on all of these characteristics and studying the subtle differences of these behaviours, interventions to address this type of behaviour or how to recognize the impact to our organizations.
Understanding and Recognizing Dysfunctional Leadership will be of interest to professionals and researchers in this field.
