An Exploration of Leadership in Post-Primary Schools: The Emergence of Toxic Leadership

Nicola Snow, Niamh Hickey, Nicolaas Blom, Liam O’Mahony and Patricia Mannix-McNamara
Additional contact information
Nicola Snow: School of Education, University of Limerick, V94 PX58 Limerick, Ireland
Niamh Hickey: School of Education, University of Limerick, V94 PX58 Limerick, Ireland
Nicolaas Blom: School of Education, University of Limerick, V94 PX58 Limerick, Ireland
Liam O’Mahony: School of Education, University of Limerick, V94 PX58 Limerick, Ireland
Patricia Mannix-McNamara: School of Education, University of Limerick, V94 PX58 Limerick, Ireland

Societies, 2021, vol. 11, issue 2, 1-21

Abstract: The focus of this research was to explore school leadership in post-primary schools using an adapted Schmidt Toxic Leadership Scale ©, which the authors recalibrated to examine both constructive and destructive leadership, the impact on individuals professional and personal lives, and on staff morale. Using a mixed methods approach, data were collected from 111 teaching professionals via online survey. Findings indicated a notable emergence of toxic leadership experiences which is reported in this paper. In addition, participants reported various and concerning negative consequences including: decreased job satisfaction, professional agency, and staff morale; reduced performance; increased attrition; increased negative behaviours including incivility; stifled career development; reduced self-confidence; depression; stress and anxiety; fear; tearfulness; humiliation; anger; mistrust; exhaustion; burnout; health issues; migraines; weight gain; substance abuse, suicidal thoughts, as well as, negative consequences on personal/home life. The results indicate that the quality of leadership was perceived to influence the health of respondents and had a bearing on their occupational wellbeing. Further research is needed to understand the nature of toxic leadership in education and its effects on organisational members.

Keywords: toxic leadership; dark side of leadership; post-primary schools; incivility; decreased wellbeing (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A13 A14 P P0 P1 P2 P3 P4 P5 Z1 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/11/2/54/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2075-4698/11/2/54/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsoctx:v:11:y:2021:i:2:p:54-:d:568143

Access Statistics for this article

Societies is currently edited by Ms. Farrah Sun

More articles in Societies from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().