Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
N. Eva, M. Robin, S. Sendjaya, D. Dierendonck, R. Liden (2019)
Servant Leadership: A systematic review and call for future researchThe Leadership Quarterly
Mary Uhl‐Bien, Michael Arena (2017)
Complexity leadership: Enabling people and organizations for adaptability.Organizational Dynamics, 46
L. Tummers, E. Knies (2013)
Leadership and Meaningful Work in the Public SectorO&M: Personnel Management eJournal
Stephen Brookes, Keith Grint (2010)
The New Public Leadership ChallengeHuman Resource Management International Digest, 19
B. Schyns, Jan Schilling (2013)
How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta-analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomesLeadership Quarterly, 24
Lynn Harland, Wayne Harrison, James Jones, R. Reiter‐Palmon (2005)
Leadership Behaviors and Subordinate ResilienceJournal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 11
(2011)
Management derailment.
Q. Miao, Alexander Newman, G. Schwarz, Lin Xu (2014)
SERVANT LEADERSHIP, TRUST, AND THE ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT OF PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES IN CHINAPublic Administration, 92
P. Beatty, G. Willis (2007)
Research Synthesis: The Practice of Cognitive InterviewingPublic Opinion Quarterly, 71
(2019)
Results from Victoria University’s 2019 IPANZ member survey
Jesús Valero, Kyujin Jung, Simon Andrew (2015)
Does transformational leadership build resilient public and nonprofit organizationsDisaster Prevention and Management, 24
E. Berman, J. West (2003)
WHAT IS MANAGERIAL MEDIOCRITY? Definition, Prevalence, and Negative Impact (Part 1)Public Performance & Management Review, 27
D. Parris, J. Peachey (2013)
A Systematic Literature Review of Servant Leadership Theory in Organizational ContextsJournal of Business Ethics, 113
Rick Vogel, Doris Masal (2015)
Public Leadership: A review of the literature and framework for future researchPublic Management Review, 17
Charles Levine (1979)
More on cutback management: hard questions for hard timesPublic Administration Review, 39
Rick Vogel, Fabian Homberg, A. Gericke (2016)
Abusive supervision, public service motivation, and employee deviance: the moderating role of employment sector, 4
D. Gursoy, C. Chi, Ersem Karadag (2013)
Generational differences in work values and attitudes among frontline and service contact employeesInternational Journal of Hospitality Management, 32
H. Hsieh, S. Shannon (2005)
Three Approaches to Qualitative Content AnalysisQualitative Health Research, 15
C. Pearce (2004)
The future of leadership: combining vertical and shared leadership to transform knowledge workIEEE Engineering Management Review, 34
E. Franken, G. Plimmer, S. Malinen (2020)
Paradoxical leadership in public sector organisations: Its role in fostering employee resilienceAustralian Journal of Public Administration
Ruth Aguilera, A. Vadera (2008)
The Dark Side of Authority: Antecedents, Mechanisms, and Outcomes of Organizational CorruptionJournal of Business Ethics, 77
K. Govender (2017)
Empowering Leadership and Municipal Service Delivery: A Case Study of a Metropolitan Municipality in South AfricaInternational Journal of Public Administration, 40
B. Kuipers, M. Higgs, W. Kickert, L. Tummers, Jolien Grandia, Joris Voet (2014)
The Management of Change in Public Organisations: A Literature ReviewChange Management & Organizational Behavior eJournal
A. Kirchner (2007)
A Leadership Model for ExportThe International Journal of Leadership in Public Services, 3
Fred Walumbwa, J. Lawler, B. Avolio, Peng Wang, Kan Shi (2005)
Transformational Leadership and Work-Related Attitudes: The Moderating Effects of Collective and Self-Efficacy Across CulturesJournal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 11
(2019)
Getting Skills Right: Future-Ready Adult Learning SystemsGetting Skills Right
I. Marsh (2002)
Governance in Australia: Emerging Issues and ChoicesAustralian Journal of Public Administration, 61
B. Crosby, J. Bryson (2018)
Why leadership of public leadership research matters: and what to do about itPublic Management Review, 20
L. Tummers, E. Knies (2016)
Measuring Public Leadership: Developing Scales for Four Key Public Leadership RolesPolitical Economy - Development: Public Service Delivery eJournal
M. Itzhaki, Anat Peles-Bortz, Hava Kostistky, Dor Barnoy, Vivian Filshtinsky, I. Bluvstein (2015)
Exposure of mental health nurses to violence associated with job stress, life satisfaction, staff resilience, and post-traumatic growth.International journal of mental health nursing, 24 5
(2019)
Toward a theory of metaparadoxical leadership
N. King (2012)
Doing Template Analysis
J. Barbuto, D. Wheeler (2006)
Scale Development and Construct Clarification of Servant LeadershipGroup & Organization Management, 31
Y. Zhang, Chao-chuan Chen (2013)
Developmental leadership and organizational citizenship behavior: Mediating effects of self-determination, supervisor identification, and organizational identificationLeadership Quarterly, 24
André Waal (2010)
Achieving High Performance in the Public SectorPublic Performance & Management Review, 34
L. Fulop (2012)
Leadership, clinician managers and a thing called "hybridity".Journal of health organization and management, 26 4-5
G. Plimmer, J. Bryson, S. Teo (2017)
Opening the black box: The mediating roles of organisational systems and ambidexterity in the HRM-performance link in public sector organisationsPersonnel Review, 46
D. Dunoon (2002)
Rethinking Leadership for the Public SectorAustralian Journal of Public Administration, 61
K. Zeier, G. Plimmer, E. Franken (2018)
Developing shared leadership in a public organisation: Processes, paradoxes and consequencesJournal of Management & Organization, 27
Imran Hameed, A. Khan, Meghna Sabharwal, G. Arain, I. Hameed (2017)
Managing Successful Change Efforts in the Public Sector: An Employee’s Readiness for Change PerspectiveReview of Public Personnel Administration, 39
V. Webster, P. Brough, Kathleen Daly (2016)
Fight, Flight or Freeze: Common Responses for Follower Coping with Toxic Leadership.Stress and health : journal of the International Society for the Investigation of Stress, 32 4
J. Hsieh, K. Liou (2016)
Collaborative Leadership and Organizational Performance: Assessing the Structural Relation in a Public Service AgencyReview of Public Personnel Administration, 38
J. Flanagan (1954)
The critical incident technique.Psychological bulletin, 51 4
J. Shaw, A. Erickson, Michael Harvey, Michael Harvey (2011)
A method for measuring destructive leadership and identifying types of destructive leaders in organizationsLeadership Quarterly, 22
F. Aravena (2019)
Destructive Leadership Behavior: An Exploratory Study in ChileLeadership and Policy in Schools, 18
Jane Howell, B. Avolio (1993)
Transformational leadership, transactional leadership, locus of control, and support for innovation: key predictors of consolidated-business-unit performanceJournal of Applied Psychology, 78
J. Gilley, Paul Shelton, A. Gilley (2011)
Developmental LeadershipAdvances in Developing Human Resources, 13
Janet Vinzant, Lane Crothers (1996)
Street-Level Leadership: Rethinking the Role of Public Servants in Contemporary GovernanceThe American Review of Public Administration, 26
J. Hartley (2018)
Ten propositions about public leadershipInternational Journal of Public Leadership
Dina Krasikova, S. Green, James LeBreton (2013)
Destructive LeadershipJournal of Management, 39
G. Plimmer, J. Bryson, Noelle Donnelly, J. Wilson, Bill Ryan, Stephen Blumenfeld (2017)
The Legacy of New Public Management (NPM) on Workers, Management Capabilities, and OrganisationsNew Zealand Journal of Employment Relations, 42
G. Reed, R. Bullis (2009)
The Impact of Destructive Leadership on Senior Military Officers and Civilian EmployeesArmed Forces & Society, 36
David Collinson, M. Collinson (2009)
`Blended Leadership': Employee Perspectives on Effective Leadership in the UK Further Education SectorLeadership, 5
K. Williams (2018)
Toxic leadership in defense and federal workplaces: sabotaging the mission and innovationInternational Journal of Public Leadership
G. Ryzin (2004)
THE MEASUREMENT OF OVERALL CITIZEN SATISFACTIONPublic Performance & Management Review, 27
M. Yui, Robert Gregory (2018)
Quakes and aftershocksPolicy Quarterly
M. Hargis, J. Watt, C. Piotrowski (2011)
Developing Leaders: Examining the Role of Transactional and Transformational Leadership across Business ContextsOrganization Development Journal, 29
J. Cyr (2016)
The Pitfalls and Promise of Focus Groups as a Data Collection MethodSociological Methods & Research, 45
Bradley Owens, A. Wallace, D. Waldman (2015)
Leader narcissism and follower outcomes: The counterbalancing effect of leader humility.The Journal of applied psychology, 100 4
Leadership matters in public contexts. It influences employee development and, in turn, the effective delivery of public services. Harmful leadership limits the fulfilment of both these requirements. Although there are many studies of public leadership, few explore aspects of poor leadership focusing on leading people, in the unique public sector context. The purpose of this paper is to explore the public sector environment as one that can enable harmful leadership, and identifies what those aspects of harmful behaviours are. In particular, it focuses on common, day-to-day forms of harmful mediocre leadership rather than more dramatic, but rarer, forms of destructive or toxic leadership.Design/methodology/approachThe study was conducted over three phases. In study one (N=10) interviews using the critical incident technique identified harmful behaviours. Study two (N=10) identified perceived causal processes and outcomes of these processes. Study three was a validation check using two focus groups (n=7) and two further interviews (n=6).FindingsFour dimensions of harmful behaviour were found: micromanagement, managing up but not down, low social and career support and reactive leadership. Several pathways to harm were found, including lessened employee confidence, motivation, collaboration, learning and development.Research limitations/implicationsThis research is limited by a small sample and data collected in one public sector system. But its implications are still meaningful. The research identified some ways that harmful leadership can occur, that is missed in existing studies of harmful leadership, which tend to focus on more toxic forms of harm. The role of NPM and other reforms as important shapers of current leadership behaviours are also discussed.Practical implicationsTo address these behaviours further investment in leadership development, selection and performance management is recommended.Social implicationsSocial implications include the hindering of effective service delivery and limited ability to deal with increasingly dynamic and complicated problem.Originality/valuePublic sector leadership studies are often rose tinted, or describe what should be. Instead, this paper describes what sometimes is, in terms of day-to-day mediocre but harmful leadership.
International Journal of Public Leadership – Emerald Publishing
Published: Oct 22, 2019
Keywords: New public management; Leadership; Competence; Public administration; Dysfunctional leadership; Toxic leadership
Read and print from thousands of top scholarly journals.
Already have an account? Log in
Bookmark this article. You can see your Bookmarks on your DeepDyve Library.
To save an article, log in first, or sign up for a DeepDyve account if you don’t already have one.
Copy and paste the desired citation format or use the link below to download a file formatted for EndNote
Access the full text.
Sign up today, get DeepDyve free for 14 days.
All DeepDyve websites use cookies to improve your online experience. They were placed on your computer when you launched this website. You can change your cookie settings through your browser.