Unethical Leadership: Current Theoretical Trends and Conceptualization

Article offers theoretical insights into current trends in delineation of unethical leadership. Eclecticism in the respective scientific discourse is significant. The term “leadership” is being accompanied by various adjectives like “narcissistic”, “destructive”, “toxic”, dark”, “bad”, “dysfunctional”, “Machiavellian”, or “self-protective”. Confusion of terms contributes to the development of concepts that mutually overlap to a large extend, which does not benefit to clarification of the respective concept or to subsequent application of related connotations in managerial praxis. In this context, we explore influential conceptions of unethical leadership and based on their critical analysis we specify several theoretical problems that are not reflected adequately in current scientific discourse. Deriving from this analytical inquiry, we propose a new conceptualization of unethical leadership that aims to bridge relevant concepts and to overcome their drawbacks.