A Silent Threat in Organizations!

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Introduction

Now it is, actually, quite an important role in shaping the actual culture of any organization, employee engagement, and the overall performance. While some leaders could actually make things easier for such an improvement, a toxic leader, on the contrary, creates opposition, impairs morale, and hinders production. So toxic leadership, as a whole, decries abusive supervision, micromanagement, favoritism, and narcissism-all of which lead to an environment that is quite hostile for work (Schmidt, 2008). Thus, such managers usually do not receive any punishment or rebuke, specifically for a country like Sri Lanka, which has this kind of hierarchical structure management in organizations, again due to culture and fear of authority. Hence, it could be said that a very important aspect of Human Resource Management (HRM) is to identify this toxic leadership and deal with it so that risk can be managed.

Understanding the Organizational Impact

The effects of toxic leadership ripple deep within the organization and extend into the lives of employees. Researchers argue that employees with poor relationships with their supervisors suffer increased levels of stress, burnout, and emotional exhaustion (Tepper, 2000). Moreover, it creates an atmosphere of higher absenteeism, lower job satisfaction, and increased turnover. In the local context of Sri Lanka, where collectivist values and power distance are relatively higher, toxic leadership may go unnoticed, since most employees tend to refrain from reporting to their superiors. It breeds mistrust in the organization and, therefore, can impair employees' engagement and innovation. Departments of HR, therefore, need to be quite proactive in protecting the employees from such situations and also ensuring a safe and supportive environment at the workplace.

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Theoretical Frameworks Supporting HR Intervention

There are various theories of HRM by which HR can better understand its role in toxic leadership. For example, according to the HR model by Ulrich (Ulrich, 1997), HR professionals should perform the various roles of being strategic partners, administrative experts, employee champions, and change agents. Managing toxic leadership affects all the roles. As a strategic partner, HR must align leadership behavior with the organization's values. As an employee champion, HR also must ensure that employees feel heard and protected.

This aspect makes them see things within the context of the Psychological Contract Theory (Rousseau, 1989), which holds that employees have unspoken motives of fair treatment and respect. This means that when unwritten expectations are violated by toxic leaders, they make employees very disengaged and demotivated. HR can rebuild the psychological contract by developing a trustworthy environment to put in place open channels of communication. The Transformational Leadership theory (Bass, 1985) also gives a positive alternative. Transformational leadership is about inspiration and ethics, together with development for the team. HR can take that dimension of Transformational Leadership that stresses empathy, collaboration, and emotional intelligence to develop leadership and succession training programs.

Examples from Sri Lankan Organizations

In the Sri Lankan context, certain organizations have taken cognizance of the impact of toxic leadership and are taking steps to deal with it. For example, the MAS Group of companies, one of the largest apparel manufacturers in Sri Lanka, has formulated leadership frameworks such as "MAS DNA," which encourage ethical behavior, emotional intelligence, and people-centric leadership (MAS Holdings, 2023). The HR team strongly promotes leadership development and utilizes structured feedback mechanisms to gain early recognition of destructive behaviors.

Under the same vein, Hayleys Fabric PLC has embraced leadership development in its sustainability agenda. The HR department embeds emotional intelligence, respect, and workplace well-being into the leadership culture. The company reports mechanisms for mental health support, open-door policies, and feedback systems that identify and help curb negative behaviors taking place at leadership levels in its annual report (Hayleys Fabric PLC, 2023).

In yet another anonymous case, a leading Sri Lankan apparel company faced internal complaints of bullying by regional middle managers. HI took this seriously and opened the function of anonymous employee surveys; there were changes to the performance appraisal system; and 360-degree feedback was introduced. This allowed the employees to raise their concerns without fear, and the HR function was able to act on the information to make the leadership changes needed.

HR Strategies to Manage Toxic Leadership

To combat toxic leadership, HR departments must strategize and take an organized approach toward dealing with it. One of the best tools among various effective avenues is 360-degree feedback, where employees, peers, and supervisors assess the behavior of a leader, a comprehensive view. Also, emotional intelligence training for leadership can possibly help strengthen the capacity for empathy as well as interpersonal skills.

HR management must also see to it that performance evaluations are not primarily tied to what leaders achieve but also to how they center their achievements: Why should the results of leaders who achieve things with fear or coercion be rewarded? And also be equipped with a clear feedback channel few meeting connectors while shouting at other colleagues regarding various instances. 

A leadership culture based on ethics and inclusiveness will help to prevent toxicity in the first place. It will be ethical recruitment, leadership coaching, and proper behavioral monitoring of leaders at all levels spearheaded by HR.

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Conclusion

Innumerable organizations have poisonous leadership, which is a serious and very much overlooked issue arising in the context. Long-term implications on morale, productivity, and organizational culture are very big, even if these may not be visible in the short term. In Sri Lanka, this angle is particularly problematic for an HR professional due to cultural beliefs that encourage respect for authority and deter confrontation with authority figures. By taking a multi-theoretical paradigm and applying interventions such as 360-degree feedback, emotional intelligence training, and ethical leadership development, HR could well become an agent for change. After all, dealing with toxic leadership is really about creating organizations where leadership and integrity walk hand in hand, and one does not subsume the other.

References

• Bass, B. M. (1985). Leadership and performance beyond expectations. Free Press.

• Hayleys Fabric PLC. (2023). Annual Report 2022/2023. Retrieved from https://www.hayleysfabric.com

• MAS Holdings. (2023). Sustainability Report 2023. Retrieved from https://www.masholdings.com

• Rousseau, D. M. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 2(2), 121–139.

• Schmidt, A. A. (2008). Development and validation of the toxic leadership scale (Doctoral dissertation, University of Maryland).

• Tepper, B. J. (2000). Consequences of abusive supervision. Academy of Management Journal, 43(2), 178–190.

• Ulrich, D. (1997). Human resource champions: The next agenda for adding value and delivering results. Harvard Business Press.