Bad Leadership

Is leadership good or bad? The answer is both but many companies ignore bad leadership until it affects the company in a negative way. A failed business is the result of poor performance. Poor performance is the result of an ineffective or simply put bad leadership. Recent high-profile business failures such as Enron and Lehman Brothers offer evidence that understanding bad leadership is just as important as good leadership to keep a company flourishing. According to our text book, at the most basic level, bad leadership divides into two categories: bad as in ineffective, fails to produce the desired change. For reasons that include missing traits, weak skills, strategies badly conceived, and tactics badly employed, ineffective leadership falls short of its intention and bad as in unethical, fails to distinguish between right and wrong. These characteristics are not, just in theory. "The ability of leaders to engage in bad behavior is seen to arise from their positional power." (Higgs) Many companies find that all bad leadership falls into one, or sometimes both, of these categories. There will be two articles mentioned in this paper that will explain what leadership falls along a scale that ranges from ineffective to unethical, how it affects the follower and what the remedy is.

Ineffective leadership may be explained of quite simply: It is the leadership that has failed to produce the desired change. For reasons that include missing traits, weak skills, strategies badly conceive d, and tactics badly employed, ineffective leadership falls short of its intended outcome. According to Hayes, many times "these bosses are handpicked for their loyalty at the expense of competence."(Hayes)

Unethical leadership, in contrast, is about right and wrong. Unethical leadership can be effective leadership, just as ineffective leadership can be ethical. But unethical leadership cannot make even the most basic claim to decency and good conduct, and so the leadership process is defiled.

There are many sub categories of bad leaders and Hayes writes about five of them. First, there is the incompetent leader. This leader is not qualified for the job and he knows it. This leader may use his good looks, big words or personality to hide the fact that he has no clue how to do the job. This bad leader never takes responsibility when things go wrong. He always finds a scapegoat to put the blame on. Many times it may take a while to realize he is a bad leader.

The next bad leader is the bully. The bully gets what he wants by threats. "They tend to display emotional swings and insensitivity, and they require enemies in order to function properly." (Hayes) An example of a bully is a boss threatening an employee with termination of the job or even physical harm every time the boss wants to get his way. In some states the employee can sue the bully employer for "unlawful employment practice."Hayes.

Next is the know-it-all. You cannot say anything to someone with this bad leadership style. This leader acts as if he is better that everyone. He gets angry any time someone gives a suggestion or disagrees with him. This leader's cocky "you can't tell me nothing" attitude makes the work environment very uneasy. In this environment it is very difficult to make improvements and for progress to be made.

The crook is that leader that is very good at manipulation and "preys on others for their self-gain."(Hayes) Like the bully, the crook uses his power to make employees do things they may not want to do. The crook steals ideas or even work from the employees and takes credit for it. He also lies, produces false data or even makes others lie for him when he is questioned about his actions.

The last bad leadership characteristic is the dodger. This