The dark side of leadership: : Abuse of power

JOHN MARK T. MARUQUIN

Ph.D. Major in Development Management

Divine Word College of Laoag, Ilocos Norte Philippines

Abstract

Leadership does not endure without power. Thus, we have to emulate power in order to have a strong foundation for responsible leadership. Leaders need motivation and predispositions and subordinates adjuncts have risen to define the abuse of power as a significant organizational concern. Because of the manifestation and needfulness of power of accountability and transparency mechanisms, including the code of conduct and ethical behavioral standards, should be standardized that serves as against abuse of power. Leaders generally defy accountability mechanisms; they are essential for maintaining employee confidence and credibility. Therefore, the “dark side of leadership” may be restructured or aggravated by the type of personality and task of the leader, or even a disparity of leadership.

Keywords: leadership, abuse, power, dark side

Introduction 

In my eleven years working in a government hospital, I have heard two questions more than any other. How do I work with a bad leader? How I overcome bad leaders/s in my workplace? People struggle working for those who are not as good as any leaders or working with leaders less talented than they are. Everything rises and falls on leadership. If you work for a bad leader, you probably feel like it mostly falls on you!

This article discusses this issue on leadership and abuse of power. Finding a strategy for success when dealing with a leader who is difficult to work with. My statement going in is that you have already tried to be cooperative and work things with him or her. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Though you don’t have any control over that you can control what you do, and how you can respond.

If things don’t go the way you planned, it may be time to move on or decide to stay and try to make the best of the situation. I believe leaders are responsible for who and what they lead. Bad bosses often shirk their responsibilities and try to place them on the follower and you end up carrying the load. Whenever this happens, as far as it’s possible, you should attempt to ask questions of your leader in such a way that the responsibility goes back on his or her shoulders where it belongs.

Defining Leader, Leadership, and Power

A Leader is a person who has an unusual degree of power to create the conditions under which other people must live and move and have their being, conditions that can be either as illuminating as heaven or as shadowy as hell. A leader must take special responsibility for what is going on inside his or her own self, inside his or her consciousness, lest the act of leadership creates more harm than good (http://www.netmba.com/mgt).

Leadership is an area of study that has been subjected to whims, has been subjected to intense scrutiny, and has developed an almost iconic glow of the leader as all things to all people. Globalization’s push has spurred new thinking in numerous directions as it pertains to leadership in general and educational leadership specifically. Among some of the greatest influences are global views that are generally corporatist in nature (Waite & Waite, 2010). This tends to guide leadership towards a much more managerial aspect (White & Cooper, 2017).

Power, the need for power distinguishes itself into two sub-categories: the need for institutional power and the need for personal power. Leaders who have a high need for institutional power focus their energies on organizing the efforts of others for the accomplishment of organizational goals. Leaders who have a high need for institutional power generally make more effective leaders than those with a high need for personal power because of their motivation to pursue a unified effort toward organizational success. Although attracted to positions of power and influence, leaders with a high need for personal power seek primarily to control others’ behaviors. They often lack the required adaptability and emotional intelligence to succeed in such positions (http://www.netmba.com/mgt/ob/motivation.mccleland). 

Power Issues: Relationships, Power, and Abuse

Relationships are involvements, affiliations, or connections between people. The leader/follower relationship is defined by their interaction and mutual connectivity within an organization. Power is defined as the exercise of authority, which results in the governing of others’ behaviors. Power represents the currency in organizations that allow individuals and groups to satisfy needs and achieve objectives, as well as stems from the follower’s belief in the legitimacy of the leader’s right to influence and give orders and the follower’s obligation to comply. Abuse is the inappropriate use of power. Power is abusive to subordinates when its outcomes are injurious to their dignity and dysfunctional for performance or rewards (http://www.netmba.com/mgt/ob/motivation/mccleland). 

Legitimate power is positional power, replete with a title that signifies the parameters of authority to which the individual is entitled. Judicious power refers to the just, equitable and fair use and/or distribution of power by those in authority who laid claim to legitimate power. This is where intent comes in. Only the seeker of power may know the reasons for the acquisition of any particular form of power. Those who tend to seek power for its own sake, or who seek power to gain influence, or to abuse power in the form of bullying behaviors serve only themselves. It is self-serving power that leads to abuse of power, as decisions tend to be made in light of ones own “dark” needs (White, & Young, 2018)

DARK SIDE OF LEADERSHIP 

Harvard professor Barbara Kellerman believes that limiting our understanding of leadership solely to good leadership ignores the reality that a great many leaders engage in destructive behaviors. Kellerman says, undermines our attempts to promote good leadership: “I take it as a given that we promote good leadership not by ignoring bad leadership, nor by presuming that it is immutable, but rather by attacking it as we would a disease that is always pernicious and sometimes deadly”.

According to Barbara Kellerman, bad leaders can be ineffective or unethical. She identifies seven types of bad leaders:

Incompetent. Leaders do not have the motivation or the ability to sustain effective action. They may lack emotional or academic intelligence, for example, or be careless, distracted, or sloppy. Some cannot function under stress and their communication and decisions suffer as a result.

Rigid. Rigid leaders may be competent, but they are unyielding, unable to accept new ideas, new information, or changing conditions.

Intemperate. Intemperate leaders lack self-control and are enabled by followers, who do not want to intervene or cannot.

Callous. The callous leader is uncaring or unkind, ignoring or downplaying the needs, wants and wishes of followers.

Corrupt. These leaders and at least some of their followers lie, cheat, and steal. They put self-interest ahead of the public interest.

Insular. The insular leader draws a clear boundary between the welfare of his or her immediate group or organization and outsiders.

Evil. Evil leaders commit atrocities, using their power to inflict severe physical or psychological harm (http://www.netmba.com/mgt/ob/motivation).

DARK SIDE OF ABUSE OF POWER

Power is the foundation for influence attempts. The more power we have, the more likely others are to comply with our wishes. Power comes from a variety of sources. Soft power is based on attracting others rather than forcing them or inducing them to comply. Leaders use soft power when they set a worthy example, create an inspiring vision, and build positive relationships with subordinates.

Leaders typically draw on more than one power source. The manager who is appointed to lead a task force is granted legitimate power that enables her to reward or punish. Yet in order to be successful, have to demonstrate her knowledge of the topic, skillfully direct the group process and earn the respect of task force members through hard work and commitment to the group.

Unfortunately, abuse of power is an all-too-common fact of life in modern organizations. In one survey, 90% of those responding reported that they had experienced disrespect from a boss at some time during their working careers; 20% said they were currently working for an abusive leader. “Brutal bosses” regularly engage in the following behaviors, some of which are the following:

            Deceit. Lying and giving false or misleading information.

Constraint. Restricting follower’s activities outside work, such as telling them whom they can befriend, where they can live, with whom they can live and civic activities they can participate in.

Coercion. Making inappropriate or excessive threats for not complying with the leader’s directives. 

Selfishness. Blaming subordinates and making them scapegoats.

Inequity. Supplying unequal benefits or punishments based on favoritism or criteria unrelated to the job.

Cruelty. Harming subordinates in such illegitimate ways as name-calling or public humiliation.

Disregard. Ignoring normal standards of politeness, obvious disregard for what is happening in the lives of followers.

Deification. Creating a master-servant relationship in which bosses can do whatever they want because they feel superior (http://www.netmba.com/mgt/).

The greater a leader’s power, the greater the potential for abuse. This prompted Britain’s Lord to observe that “power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely”. The long shadow cast by absolute power, as in the case of North Korea’s Kim Jong-Il and until recently, the military junta in Burma, can be seen in censorship, repression, torture, imprisonment, murder, and starvation. Business and other organizations of power through top-down structures that emphasize status differences, loyalty, dependence, fear, and obedience while celebrating “tough bosses” and business practices like hard bargaining and aggressive marketing tactics.

Conclusions

It is well known that effective leadership behavior depends, in large measure, upon the leader's ability to solve complex social problems that arise in organizations (Mumford, et al., 2000). Also, it has long been known that employees with weak or lower levels of social adaptability report heightened job tension, including emotional exhaustion. This malaise extends, as well, to lessened job satisfaction and to lower work effort when abusive supervision or power increases. The reverse is also true. Employees with greater social adaptability skills were less strongly affected by perceptions of abusive supervision (Mackey, et al., 2013).

Leaders are always in danger of abusing their power. When leaders learn and live good values, they make themselves more valuable and lift the value of other people. Leaders with a high need for influential power possess the self-knowledge, people skills, and general emotional intelligence to cultivate a culture of freedom, creativity, and transformation in organizations. As such, they are generally more successful as leaders than those with a high need for personal power because leaders with a high need for personal power tends to lack flexibility and people skills.

Leaders with a high need for institutional power has been shown to be more effective than leaders with a high need for affiliation because leaders with a high need for affiliation tend to prioritize harmony in their relationships above objective decision-making. Leaders with a high need for influential power may also be more effective than those with a high need for achievement because leaders with a high need for achievement tend to avoid conflict and can be risk-averse.

Nevertheless the possibilities that no dominant trait may yield all the necessary ingredients for exemplary leadership, and that savvy leaders learn to surround themselves with people who possess complementary strengths, leaders in every category have the responsibility to exercise power appropriately and with respect for the dignity of others. It is morally imperative that leaders begin to recognize their unmet needs and make every responsible effort to address them in ways that avoid the abuse of power in relationships with followers. 

 

References

 

Journal of Strategic Leadership, Vol. 1 Issue. 1, 2008, pp. 2-8
© 2008 School of Global Leadership & Entrepreneurship, Regent University ISSN 1941-4668

Retrieved from http://www.netmba.com/mgt.

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Mumford, M. D., Zaccharo, S. J., F. D. Harding, T. O. J. & Fleishman, E. A., 2000. Leadership skills for a changing world: Solving a complex social problems. The Leadership Quarterly, 11(1), pp. 11-35.

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