Destructive leadership in education: a transdisciplinary critical analysis of contemporary literature

Although an emerging field in the leadership literature, destructive leadership is an under-researched area in the context of education. Destructive leadership in schools is the focus of the article. To understand the phenomenon we first undertake a transdisciplinary review of the literature from across philosophy, psychology and sociology. We then apply the novel lens of autopoietic theory to identify the morphology of the phenomenon, that is, its underlying structure and the process that gives rise to destructive leadership. Through a synthesis of these discourses we propose an emergent theory antithetical to synergy, which we call ‘dysergy’. We offer this theoretical frame to help understand destructive leadership and to guide future research and action.