Dysfunctional Leadership

Catalog description

Students will explore the impact of negative and destructive leader behaviors including toxic leadership, abusive supervision and leader error. PSY 816 Dysfunctional Leadership (3) Leaders face a variety of psychological, cognitive, social, and decision-making challenges in organizational life. Even the noblest leaders may be tempted by the opportunities and trappings afforded by influential leadership positions. It is necessary, then, to teach less experienced leaders about the potentially negative components of supervisory roles. As such, this course approaches the psychological processes surrounding the darker side of leadership, with specific foci on destructive leadership, toxic supervision, leader error and error recovery. The course will provide students with foundational information regarding psychological concepts of dark leadership with the aim of reducing the scope, frequency, and impact of negative leadership. Over the semester, students will be exposed to the causes and antecedents of negative leadership with a particular focus on multilevel influences. Students will also learn means and methods of appropriately and ethically recovering from errors. Learning objectives include providing a basic understanding of what factors cause destructive leadership and how to avoid potentially pit-falling situations. Emphasis will be placed on teaching students how to assess and identify contextual factors that may drive harmful leadership influence. By applying such understanding, students will learn to limit the effect of destructive leadership on themselves and their followers.