Toxicity in leadership: exploring its dimensions in the Indian context

For decades, scholarly research on leadership have attempted to ascertain the traits, behaviours, styles and outcomes of great and effective leadership, very few have resolutely attempted to understand the nature and consequences of dark side or dysfunctional leadership. This study attempts to address the taxonomy deficits in toxic leadership as applicable in Indian context. The focus of the paper is on identification of factors of toxic leadership based on Destructive Leadership Questionnaire (DLQ) and toxic leadership scale (TLS). The identified factors of toxicity in leaders are viewed from subordinate's 'cognitive schema' perspective in Indian organisations. Exploratory Factor analysis on 150 samples yielded eight factors of perceived toxicity of a leader. Co-relation and regression analysis was also done in order to identify their determinants. The results contribute to developing research stream that examines toxic leadership and have both theoretical and practical implications.