ABSTRACT
While the study of charismatic leadership has furthered the people understanding of the dark side of leadership, it is nevertheless surprising that the focus of leadership scholars has, thus far, neglected to fully consider the idea of destructive leadership limiting itself to the study of what might make a leader great. This chapter begins with an invitation to the reader to engage with a brief illustrative example of destructive leadership, before considering competing definitions of toxic and destructive leadership. The authors contend that destructive leadership can be both active and manifest, and also passive and indirect, and that intent to harm does not need to be a qualifying element within this definition; thoughtlessness might be as manifest an element of destructive leadership as ignorance or incompetence. Although it is not completely clear exactly which behaviours and concepts should be subsumed under the mantle of destructive leadership, it is a contention of this chapter that bullying is without doubt considered destructive.
