Reasons for the acceptance of a toxic leadership culture within companies

Abstract: A toxic leadership culture in companies is a common reality despite its debilitating effects. The reasons for its acceptance are explored as the purpose of this study to reflect on followers’ experiences given their diminished role in extant leadership theory. A qualitative research design was used for this study and an interpretivist approach was applied to provide a description of the participants’ lived experience. Ten semistructured interviews were conducted of followers at five public and private sector companies. The thematic analysis method was used to analyse the data gathered from the interviews. This study established that acceptance of a toxic leadership culture stems from the prevailing perception of leadership, which casts leaders as heroes and discounts the complementary role of followers in organisations. It revealed that several multi-faceted factors conflate to produce an organisational culture where leaders are abusive, and followers are disempowered, which enables toxic leadership to thrive. From this, it is advocated that, through the Personal and Professional Leadership (PPL) perspective that embraces the eight dimensions of life, leadership that is devoid of the ego, and operates from a super-consciousness level, wholeness and well-being can be achieved. This holds relevance for leaders to incorporate PPL principles as part of their leadership competency for overall effectiveness personally, professionally and for the benefit of the organisations that they serve. The findings from this study demonstrated the importance of expanding the leadership narrative to give credence to the inclusive and interchangeable roles of leaders and followers. A set of recommendations that can be applied in companies is offered from this study to construct a transcendental leadership dynamic that is informed by the PPL framework to counter the debilitating effects of a toxic leadership culture.M.Phil. (Personal and Professional Leadership