An Exploratory Study On TOXIC Leadership and Its Impact on Organisation; A Leadership Perspective

Toxic leadership (Marcia Whicker 1996) which was linked with a number of dysfunctional leadership styles can produce negativity in an organisation and induces toxic culture with employees having only two options: conform to the rules or leave the organisaton. The word “toxic” comes from the Greek “toxikon” which means “arrow poison”. In a literal sense, the term in its original form thus means to kill (poison) in a targeted way (arrow). Toxic organisations and leaders therefore are those who deliberately destroy the fabric of the institution. Any employee staying in the toxic style will mostly be in the loosing end of their career and usually gets disappointed believing that the situation will change, or moonlight(trying for better opportunity while working in one organisatino) secretly for a better career. Others, start accepting the toxic leadership as normal and faces unusual stresses. The organisation will die a slow death as it radiates depressed workforce. It usually looks like a termite-infested house, the organization crumbles from within mostly without the knowledge of the very fellow workers inside the organisation.