Detoxing Corporate America

Christy ParkerNational University

2010

What Toxic Leadership Is

• Leadership by those who are “maladjusted, malcontent…malevolent…[and] malicious.”

• Those who “rise to their situations in life over the carcasses of those who work for them.”

• Leaders who by inflicting “pain…[strip] people of their self esteem.”

Consequences of Toxic Leadership

• Humiliation, belittling & berating behavior destroys creativity, collaboration and job satisfaction.

• Public embarrassment and harassment lead to mental and emotional breakdowns and deviant behavior by subordinates

• Productivity slowed down or halted as subordinates try to emotionally recover or exhibit deviant behavior to stop from being controlled (e.g. – depression, fear, sabotage, absenteeism, and withholding effort)

• Destroys group morale over time with broken trust in the leaders ability to cope with and work well with others

Enron: Organizational Break Down• Bullying, “explosive tantrums”,

relentless criticism, disrespect, ruthlessness, callousness, shunning, manipulation, coercion, control and arrogance.

• Brutal appraisal system called “rank and yank”

• Enron corporation destroyed itself systemically, along with the financial firm Arthur Anderson

• Further research is needed to learn how this can be prevented in the future

The Army: A Change from Top Down

• Lower levels of toxic leadership in last 10 to 20 years due to creation ofFieldbook 22-100

• 360 degree evaluations & climate surveys pros and cons

• Systemic and mandatory handbooks, training and certification for every level of leadership

• An understanding of how toxic leadership destroys units and productivity

• Board of Review with strong punitive ability/consistently applied to prevent inappropriate (toxic) leadership.

Military & Professional World Compared

Military Toxic Level• 1/3 to 1/2 of military

audiences stated they have had a toxic leader (Reed, 2010)

Professional World Toxic Level• 1/3 to 85% range of people

working in the corporate world stated having toxic leaders

• 90% of nurses reported verbal abuse by physicians

• 100% of banking profession stated having had a toxic leader – (Reed, 2009; Reed,2010)

Current Business Ethical Guidelines

• EEOC – prevents discrimination only

• BBB – oversees “consumer-to-business” and “business-to-business” complaints only

• Legal Court System – No capacity to systemically prevent psychologically abusive leaders and managers from retaining leadership positions

Other Professions Compared• Required Licensing (e.g. – psychotherapy,

physician, professor, accountant, engineer, nurse, police officer, pilot, lawyer…)

• Training and Certification (e.g. – (above) including trades as construction, tile setting, brick laying, cabinetry making…)

• codes of ethics strictly enforced by an objective board of ethics to ensure they do “no harm”

What Corporate World Is Missing

• Code of Ethics not systemic throughout corporate America

• Profession of leadership and management has no current law mandating licensing, training or certification

• No objective Board of Ethics

Review Boards & Systemic Objective Enforcement

Army• Army Review Board Agency

provides unified, objective governing body

• Mandatory training for each level of leadership

• Required certification• Unethical and abusive

behavior punished

Medical Field• State medical boards• Medical Agency & Hospital

Boards• Regular mandatory re-

training and certification within specialty

• Unethical and abusive behavior punished by objective system

Call for Research

• Government Leadership & Management Act?

• State Board of Leadership & Management?

• Independent training and certifying agencies

• Mandatory licensing, training and certification with annual or regular renewal

Findings

• Business & corporate world have no adequate system in place to diminish or prevent toxic leadership systemically throughout corporate America.

• Almost every other profession in the US has mandated licensing, training & certification backed by boards who uphold and objectively punish unethical behavior as outlined in their codes of ethics or codes of conduct.

• Unethical behavior including toxic leadership in the work place will not be controlled and diminished in corporate America until some punishable form of standardized licensing, training and certification becomes systemically required, in order to hold certain positions of leadership and management accountable.

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