Personality and the dark side of leadership

Personality likely plays an important role for destructive leadership, but research is still in its infancy. In this chapter, we review empirical evidence along four lines of research: (1) Leaders’ personality traits predict their destructive leadership behavior (direct relation), also in regard to the situations that individuals seek and enter (situation activation), (2) situational characteristics can attenuate or strengthen the relations of leaders’ personality traits with destructive leadership behavior (trait activation), (3) subordinates’ personality traits shape reactions to experienced destructive leadership (trait activation), and (4) examining subordinates’ personality traits as antecedents of destructive leadership carries the danger of victim blaming. We summarize these four lines of research in a model that captures the role of personality for destructive leadership. These findings can be used by organizations and HR professionals in job design, job advertisements, and job selection to reduce levels of destructive leadership and its consequences.