Coping Strategies Among White-Collar Employees in Malaysia Affected by Toxic Leadership

Abstract: The competitive nature of organizations has contributed to the increase in toxic leadership experiences by employees in Malaysia, which is slowly leading to the increase of mental health issues among employees. This trend requires employees to use effective coping strategies when dealing with toxic leaders. Previous research has found a high prevalence of toxic experiences among employees in Malaysia and to cope, employees are using ingratiation, support seeking, avoidance of contact and reframing. This research uses a cross-sectional study and survey to understand the prevalence of toxic leadership experiences and the type of coping strategies preferred by white-collar employees in Malaysia. A total of 277 responses were collected. Descriptive and One-way ANOVA statistics were carried out. Contrary to previous findings, this research uncovers that toxic leadership is only moderately experienced in Malaysia. The most preferred coping strategy is reframing while strategies like ingratiation, support-seeking and avoidance of contact are only moderately used by white-collar employees. Since toxic leadership exists in organizations in Malaysia, the management need to explore and implement ways to reduce the impact to its employees, while using training and soft skill enhancement to improve leadership in organizations