Toxic leadership in education: An understanding of the dark side of leadership

Leadership research tends to have a bias towards positive leadership methodologies and associated benefits for organizations and the employee within them. Although there is a growing body of research into the dark side of leadership practices, negative leadership within the context of educational leadership has been largely marginalised. This chapter highlights the elusive nature of leadership and its lack of a fixed, objectified meaning. Irrespective of definitional challenges, however, the chapter also exposes the existence of toxic manifestations of leadership and their personal and social consequences. It further demonstrates the multiple ways in which the phenomenon of toxic leadership is described and explains its origins. In relation to the field of education, the chapter illustrates the dearth of current literature or of empirical research and the fact that the few studies which do exist are consistent with those from other fields, indicating disturbing patterns of behavior and their harmful consequences.