ABSTRACT
Few concepts in the social sciences are evoked with the same ease or employed so readily to explain so many social and institutional outcomes as power. The phenomenon of self-defeating influence behavior by leaders – influence behavior that proves counterproductive or self-destructive – represents a rather provocative and puzzling phenomenon. This chapter examines some of the possible determinants and dynamics of self-defeating influence behaviors by leaders. It identifies some of the different forms that self-defeating influence behaviors take. The chapter presents a social cognitive model of self-defeating influence behavior. Historically, the scholarly study of self-defeating behavior has stood at the intersection of social psychology and clinical psychology. Much of the initial research focused on motivated forms of self-defeating behavior. In their review of the literature, R. Baumeister and S. J. Scher identified several forms of self-defeating behaviors that might adversely affect leaders’ social influence behaviors.
