From the Cottage to the Cage – Exploring the Efficacy of Complexity Leadership Theory in Addressing 21st Century Workplace Toxicity.

Abstract

The issue of workplace toxicity constitutes a major problem for employers, employees and society at large. Toxicity in a workplace context relates to damaging behaviours perpetrated by individuals and organisations that netatively impact on the health and wellbeing of others. Workplace toxicty is habitually associated with activities such as bullying, harrassment, unethical and even illegal acts. In this article, today’s workplace is likenened to a cage where ambition and greed drive people to engage in toxic behaviour to fight for whatever scarce rewards are on offer. Set against a backdrop of continuous demands on employees in a era of constant change and challenge, leadership practice in the 21st century is understandably seeped in complexity. Whilst conditions of scarcity are in fact constructed by employers in today’s lean environments, workplace toxicity has significant implications for organisational leaders in terms of work place disputes, absenteeism and litigation etc. Twentieth century hierarchial and autocratic leadership models are now deemed to be both obsolete and wholly inadedgate to inform leadership practice in the knowledge era. This conceptual article looks at the efficacy of complexity leadership theory (CLT) in empowering today’s leader to better understand and address 21st century workplace toxicity.

How Does Organizational Toxicity Affect Depression? A Moderated Mediation Model

“…In other words, while BS is one of the reasons employees experience depression [35], circumstances caused by OT are viewed as important factors by themselves for the development of depression. In this context, Danaher [47], Mohamed et al [48], Rasool et al [49] and Wang et al [13] shared noteworthy findings, indicating that OT has a positive impact on depression. Moreover, Appelbaum and Roy-Girard [50] underline that employees in toxic organizations may find themselves in hopelessness, anger, low morale, poor communication and depression due to such circumstances, causing them to reveal poorer job performances and higher levels of absenteeism.…”

Toxic Workplace Environment and Employee Engagement

“…Now, when these findings are analyzed in light of literature that covers toxic work environment consequences, it becomes obvious that toxic environment affects the employees' psychological well-being across all of the identified constructs . Employees who are exposed to violence, harassment, consistent stress and ostracism (all are dimensions of workplace toxicity) lack self motivation and emotional stability (Danaher, 2021), are passive, and less productive , have low self-efficacy (Danaher, 2021), and do not adopt creative work behaviour to make valuable contribution in organizational development (Kulkarni et al, 2018). These findings reflect how workplace toxicity affects different engagement dimensions, causing significant losses to the individuals and organizations.…”

Emergent Opportunities in Complexity, Leadership, and Sustainability

“…Each body of work contributes a unique perspective on leadership interactions; however, each shares a similar shift from perceptions of conventional leadership. Complex leadership scholarship exemplifies the shift from conventional leadership perspectives in the Industrial Era to perceptions of complex leadership in the Knowledge Era (Danaher, 2021). Transitioning from conventional to complex leadership illuminated four myths about conventional leadership under the new perspective (Brown, 2012;Plowman & Duchon, 2008).…”

“…82 JOURNAL OF LEADERSHIP STUDIES • Volume 15 • Number 3 • DOI:10.1002/jls.21778 (Danaher, 2021). No longer are leaders assumed to have an "enlightened view about what is required for success of the enterprise" (Ferdig, 2007, p. 30); instead, leaders are positioned to support emergent agent interactions to increase the "capacity of the organization to be productive in mostly unknown, future states" (Brown, 2012, p. 4).…”