Toxic Leadership in the U.S. Military
Abstract
Several researchers have examined different kinds of negative leadership styles such as petty tyranny and destructive leadership. The current study examined toxic leadership, an issue of major concern to the U.S. military. The DEOMI Climate Scale (DEOCS), which consists of subscales dealing with equal opportunity and organizational effectiveness, and the Toxic Leadership Scale, which consists of subscales dealing with self-promotion, abusive supervision, unpredictability, narcissism, and authoritarian leadership, were administered to 5,181 military personnel. Males perceived more abusive supervision and more authoritarian leadership than females. Blacks perceived all aspects of toxic leadership to be worse than Whites. There was an interaction of rank and seniority for abusive supervision and narcissism. Enlisted military perceived more abusive supervision and narcissism than officers. Senior personnel perceived less abusive supervision and narcissism than junior personnel, but this decrease was much greater for senior officers than for senior enlisted. The toxic leadership scales had stronger correlations withthe organizational effectiveness scales of the DEOCS (-.211 to -.477) than with the equal opportunity scales (-.102 to -.343). In regression analyses in which the equal opportunity scales were entered first and toxic leadership were entered second to predict each of organizationaleffectiveness subscales the R2s ranged from .067 to .142. The implications of this research will be discussed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 2013
- Accession Number
- AD1070292
Entities
People
- Daniel P. Mcdonald
- Stephen A. Truhon
Organizations
- Defense Equal Opportunity Management Institute