ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on the “dark side” of leadership, as it both negatively affects the organization and harms its employees. Leadership is an important area of management research because leaders are known to be able to change organizations according to their own personalities and preferences. Schyns and Schilling found in their meta-analysis a quite strong relationship between counterproductive work behaviors and destructive leadership, lending support to the notion that it is necessary to examine the relationship between the dark triad personalities and leadership. Sankowsky focuses on one special kind of power and its abuse by narcissist leaders, labeling it “symbolic status.” Self-esteem and self-confidence are also mentioned as important characteristics of narcissistic leaders. Research interest was directed mostly toward the relationship between narcissism and leadership and less toward the relationship between leadership and the two other dark personalities: Machiavellianism and psychopathy. More research is definitely necessary on the relationship between Machiavellians and leadership.
