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Running Head: TOXIC LEADERSHIP

Examination of Toxic Leadership and Impact on Police Personnel
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Abstract

The research aims to find out if toxic leadership has any impact on the police personnel

of the United States.

The research follows a quantitative research strategy for collecting data from the

respondents and analyses them for finding the proper research result. The research has been

conducted by preparing a questionnaire and distributed it among the respondents who are the

employees of the police department. The research follows a random sampling method where 50

selected randomly for collecting primary data first hand. The research has used various tables

and graphs for representing the collected data from the primary respondents.

The research concludes leadership style plays a great role in employee motivation

inspiration. The research has indicated that the current environment of the police department is

highly impacted by toxic leadership and a majority of the respondents experienced it and seen

people leaving the job due to this. The research also points out that using a positive leadership

style job stress can be significantly reduced which is likely to increase the level of job

performance.
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Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION:.......................................................................................5

1.1 Background:...............................................................................................................5

1.2 Aspects of toxic leadership:.......................................................................................7

1.3 Construct of toxic behavior:......................................................................................8

1.4 Rational of the research:............................................................................................9

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW:..........................................................................10

2.1 Leadership style:......................................................................................................10

2.2 Toxic leadership and its impact:..............................................................................14

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY..........................................................................19

3.1 Research philosophy:...............................................................................................19

3.2 Research strategy:....................................................................................................19

3.3 Research approach:..................................................................................................20

3.4 Time horizon:...........................................................................................................20

3.5 Data sources:............................................................................................................20

3.6 Data collection tools:...............................................................................................21

3.7 Population and sampling:........................................................................................21

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION.........................................................21

4.1 Data analysis............................................................................................................22

4.2 Discussion................................................................................................................34
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CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION...............................................36

5.1 Conclusion...............................................................................................................36

5.2 Recommendation.....................................................................................................36

5.3 Ethical issues:..........................................................................................................39

5.4 Research limitations:...............................................................................................39

REFERENCE....................................................................................................................39

APPENDIX........................................................................................................................41
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CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION:

1.1 Background:

Toxic leadership reflects the dark side of leadership. Misuses of power practices in

various sectors like politics, religions, and corporate often show destructive behavior. These

kinds of behavior have the ability to inflict harm and cause serious damage to others. This

dysfunctional characteristic of toxic leadership is unethical and malicious. There can be various

types of nature, processes, and reasons for behind toxic leadership. Again there can be some

serious consequences of toxic leadership. For knowing various impacts, the behavioral

symptoms of toxic leadership have to be drawn. Again there are various contemporary myths and

proper awareness of toxic leadership is needed for knowing the impact of it on various

organizational contexts (Bass, 2016).

Toxic leadership is one sort of destructive leadership of a manager, leaders or superior

that violates the interest of an organization or group of people. Gallos (2012) states that toxic

leadership undermines the goals, effectiveness, and resources of the respective organization and

causes various harms to the individuals. The subordinates are mostly affected by this kind of

leadership. This kind of leadership can show a wide range of behavior necessarily not limited to

one. It can show various acts of physical forces, inappropriate physical contact, sexual

harassments, inappropriate behavior or acts against the legal interest of an organization, showing

repetitive destructive behavior, outburst of anger, abusing subordinates, spontaneous

misconducts, etc. a top person within an organization can adopt multiple toxic leadership styles

and show the manifestation of toxic behavior. Here a person can dominate a group of people and

influence them from doing wrong deeds against the interest of a person or mass people. Here
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following various toxic leadership styles a person can manipulate and coerces a group of people

or a person to do the wrongdoings. In modern organization and various other sectors, toxic

leadership cannot be accepted and tolerated as the impacts and consequences of this kind of

behavior can be far-reaching (Riggio, 2016).

The ambitious people of top authorities in the twenty-first century can be traced back

following various dark leadership styles. Bass (2016) says that in various sectors of corporate,

politics, religions and other aspects, various horrendous scams can be noticed which shows the

malicious dark side of leadership and power practice. In various sectors of organization and

societies, the toxicity of dark leadership runs and sometimes the incompetence and failure of the

leaders and malicious intention of the leaders cause the people to suffer a lot. Again the working

environment can be toxic. People work in a stressful situation in lots of worries and anxieties and

most of the time they blame the situation. It can be a product of the personality and styles of the

toxic leaders who make the situation worse to work us in and intentionally contaminate the

environment. The venomous thoughts of the toxic leaders turn the job environment into a worse

off situation and hereby maximum employees have to endure toxic leaders and tolerate the

intentional misdemeanor of the villainous leaders and top authorities. The example of such toxic

leaders and their venomous acts is very prevalent in the corporate world. One recent research

claims that everyone f five leaders in the corporate world are found to be psychopaths. The

deadly situation sometimes becomes worse following the course of time and affects the

subordinates in multiple ways impacting negatively their self-esteem, motivation, moral values,

and behavioral patterns as well. employees and various other people often don’t have any idea

about the leadership styles of the leaders, managers and the top authorities and hereby they out of

any idea gets trapped in some worse situations be engaged in various corporate and political
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scams or worse. Hereby most of the people suffer directly or indirectly. The media of present

days represent various true stories of the corporate world which is full of scams and scandals.

These incidents reflect the horrendous dark leadership of the top personnel of various fields of

politics, religions, and others (Gallos, 2012).

1.2 Aspects of toxic leadership:

There can be various aspects related to toxic leadership. Sometimes the leaders are

genuinely toxic and sometimes the failure of their management style and incompetency or poor

managerial skills can show the characteristics of dark leadership. Sometimes the metal disorders

of leaders, managers, and top authorities reflect the dark styles of leadership. According to

Northouse (2010) following this kind of aversive leadership styles of less powerful becomes the

victims of the most power-holders who humiliates and causes misery of the subordinates.

Through interpersonal exchange with the wicked leaders, the employees or the subordinates feel

de-moralized and de-energized. The deliberate wickedly harmful intention is masked by the

strong personality of the leaders and the top authorities. Hereby the sort term malicious intention

of the leaders can have long term horrible impacts over the subordinate person or a group of

persons. Sometimes full society can be affected by the ill intention of the leaders. Maximum

times there are various transitional effects on the followers where its evaluation is important for

knowing the process. For knowing the leaders influences the proper evaluation of the

consequences of the subordinates or the less powerful people has to be done so that the

characteristics patterns and ill thoughts of the leaders can be identified. Often various

mismanagement and un-well mental health conditions associated with toxic leadership styles.

The USA Police Department is often noticed with the various impaired mental health condition

of various police personnel. Again many claims that there is some casual mismanagement within
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the department which Impact the police persons and their actions. The unhealthy mental

conditions of the police personnel often affect others and cause various problems within the

department. There can be psychopathic intention among the police which can bring about

inevitable negative impacts over the others. Sometimes the USA police face an intolerable

working environment following some unavoidable issues (Northouse, 2010).

1.3 Construct of toxic behavior:

The construct of toxic leadership is a multidimensional one which bears erratic behavior

following abusive methods intentionally harms self-esteem of the subordinates, erodes their

motivation brings about eventual failure of the system in alignment with counterproductive

performance actions. The derisive supervision mixed with authoritative actions bears long term

losses of the respective organization where the self-promoting leaders play the role of a super

villain for bringing unprecedented malfunction of various layers of the society and cause

catastrophe intentionally (Kouzes, 2013).

Overlaps of bad qualities among the persons following toxic leadership can represent

mastermind villainous behavior of a criminal genius. Hereby one may seem extremely helpful

person beautifully disguising all his ill intentions along with monstrous and outrageous agendas

capable of causing vicious atrocities. Posner (2013) says that tracing back of the reasons for the

very stressful working environment can be conducted following the proper comprehension of the

characteristic traits of the toxic leaders and their leadership style along with their performance

actions. Hereby the shocking work environment reflects the aggressive ill intention of the toxic

leaders. Sometimes the policies in the USA police department experience the traumatic working

ambiance and blame various aspects of the department.

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Northouse (2010) states that the toxic leaders tend to be aggressive and hereby they

follow their personal interest above the interest of the organization and henceforth they try to

bring intentional harms to their followers and in the actions of the organization. They show

aggression to their subordinates, blame them and intimidate them in a variety of ways. Long term

harms can be caused by the leaders with toxic elements bringing about the ethical failure of

others associated. The USA police department has to go through an extremely tough situation

and undergo various risk factors. Recently within the USA police department, the policies have

faced some problems. They had faced difficulties in various sectors of actions and performance.

Again some of the police personnel prove to have a poor mental health condition. Some claims

that there are poor leadership styles and some say that there is managerial condition sometimes

fails the department. Again there are claims that there is evidence of toxic leadership within the

department. Some of the claims say that the incompetence of the leaders causes various troubles

within the department.

1.4 Rational of the research:

Here the present research project will try to investigate the issues of toxic leadership in

the context of the USA police department. The current research will try to focus if there is any

negative impact of the leadership of the leaders of the USA police department. There can be

multiple impacts of toxic leadership within the organizational context. Toxic leadership can have

a wide range of negative impact on organizational performance and its employees. The current

research work is important as it will try to investigate various aspects and factors of toxic

leadership and how it bears an impact on various organizational levels. Motivation and moral

values can be affected due to the toxic leadership style. Hereby through proper research

activities, various aspects of toxic leadership style can be identified. Various characteristic
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patterns and behavioral aspects of toxic leadership can be known through effective research

activities. Hereby the researchers go through various research conduction for knowing various

factors and variables related to toxic leadership. Following this type of research activity, the

researcher can effectively know transitions of toxic leadership styles and identify how it

influences the emotional intelligence and various skill developments of the employees. The

various organizations can go through strategic changes after identifying the toxic leadership style

and go for the development process (Ernest, 2015).

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW:

2.1 Leadership style:

Leaders are the persons who lead a group of people or an organization. The most crucial

role of a leader is to formulate various appropriate tactics and strategies for achieving various

organizational goals and objectives. Hereby a leader has to adopt the appropriate leadership style

for dealing with various organizational performance activities. A leader has to adopt the most

appropriate leadership style for running various operational activities of his respective

organization. The success rate and productivity of an organization depend highly on the

leadership style a leader goes through. For conducting various organizational performances a

leadership style is the most important one and hereby these performance activities and

organizational efficiency depends largely on the leadership style of the leaders, managers and

higher authorities.

The modern environment of various organizational performances is greatly shaped by the

influence of globalization and modern information technology. Hereby the present organizations

have to go through some of the rapid changes for being up to date with the new trends and
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perform advanced organizational activities. One of the major tools of various organizations for

sustaining in the present days of intense competition is proper leadership style. An appropriate

leadership style helps an organization to formulate a proper market plan after understanding the

present market and implement than for the best possible outcomes. It is one of the crucial roles of

the marketers to choose the perfect leadership styles for implementing within the organization.

Hereby there can be various types of leadership styles which can be implemented. The every

market place is different and different organization have different values, purpose, and objectives

following the aptitudes of the employees and workforce where different motivation and qualities

are needed for making the industries run in a variety of ways following the basic industry

standards. Hereby the leaders, managers and top authorities are required to choose the perfect

leadership styles for apprehending the employees and the working environment for making

alignment of the performance activities following the employee standards so that coming up with

the modern trends can be possible along with some of the strategic decision that are considered

crucial for the organizational performance (Jean, 2015).

Following the modern trends of globalization and technological advancement, a major

transformation is taking place in every sphere of life where perfect decision-making process is

required for implementing the right strategic approaches following the components of a

theoretical framework for ensuring the proper transition for the very success achievement.

Hereby there can be various types of leadership theories such as transactional theories and

transformational theories. The transformational leadership style is a straight forward one which

focuses on the performance of the employees and hereby the employees can be either rewarded

or punished depending on their performance. This leadership style can be followed where job

environment follows a certain structure and less motivation of the employees are needed and
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hereby the hierarchical strategies of the organization reflect the basic code of the organization.

The theory of transactional leadership helps the organizations follow a dynamic leadership

theory which focuses on motivation, effective team strategy, employee inspiration, and employee

advancement which help the organization to concentrate on the next level of organizational

development and focus for achieving a higher level of development and progress. Even for

achieving the short term goals the leaders focus on motivating the employee properly so that the

skills, abilities of the employees can be increased for increasing the overall organizational

performance efficiency (Hankiss, 2014).

Again there can be various types of leadership styles such as democratic leadership style,

autocratic leadership style, and laissez-faire leadership style. Hereby the democratic leadership

style enables an organization to make everyone take part in the decision-making process so that

sharing of thoughts and ideas can be made possible from every sphere of the organization.

Following this participative leadership style, an organization can effectively increase the

motivation of the employee making them develop a feeling of belongingness which makes them

feel valued as well along with bringing proper job satisfaction. Thus an organization can

effectively increase the loyalty of the employees and boost the productivity of decreasing the

employee turnover rates. Again involving everyone in the decision-making process can make the

organization face unwanted chaos and confusion and hereby the organizations need to ensure the

proper level of communication process so to avoiding misconception (Lipman, 2015).

Again, on the other hand, the autocratic leadership style is the opposite of the democratic

leadership style. Hereby the employees are not welcomed in participating in the decision-making

process. This leadership style may not bring expected job satisfaction of the employees where

they may lack proper motivation and loyalty. Again highly capable leaders with his leading
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capabilities and leadership skills can effectively lead an organization towards certain goals and

organizational objectives. With a profoundly qualified workforce and highly capable leaders, a

business organization can effectively bring about desired success following a properly designed

working procedure. Hereby dissatisfaction may arise among the employee but the achievement

of organizational targets can be achieved effectively following the limited organizational

resources utilizing them properly within a short range of time period. Again in some of the cases,

this leadership seems ineffective for maintaining continuous development process as diverse

operational ideas can hardly be produced from one side of authority where the employees grow

the tendency of disloyalty which eventually decreases the employee retention rate (Elemér,

2014).

Again the laissez-faire leadership style is an advanced one and can be effectively

implemented where the employees are highly motivated and outstandingly skilled. For example

for managing a group of scientists, this leadership can be effective. Some of the researchers say

that this style is not a leadership style but merely a management style which can be applied for

managing some highly skilled, positively motivated and proficiently functional people. In such a

group there can be some highly functional individual who may be willing to do their own tasks

following respective procedure and thus there is a huge chance of chaos and mismanagement.

Various complicated and innovative projects can be managed following this type of leadership

style (Jean, 2016).

An organization following its objectives aims and working procedures follow a certain

leadership style. The perfect leadership style can bring about various positive changes within the

organization. The most important thing in an organization is the motivation of the workforce and

hereby the leaders have to choose the most effective leadership style for ensuring the proper
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motivation of the employee and working persons. With the help of most advanced and

appropriate leadership style, a leader can influence the workforce and make them stay focused in

the organizational context. Following a proper level of leadership style, the management of an

organization can effectively render the most advanced and effective managerial actions and

increase performance activity. The proper level of leadership style can help the managers, leaders

or the top authorities formulate various development plans and implement them in the

organizational context so that the overall performance efficiency of the employees and the whole

organization can be increased. Proper leadership style is helpful for the managers to evaluate the

important function of the management and identify the sectors of development (Blumen, 2015).

2.2 Toxic leadership and its impact:

Toxic leadership demonstrates aggression towards the subordinates and employees and

makes them experience the traumatic work experience to make them suffer intentionally. Toxic

leaders follow a different path for inflicting short term and long term loss and harm to the

employees and other people. Following the ominous characteristics endures serious harms to

organization, society and other peoples including public sectors. Hereby multidimensional

framework is needed for comprehending the complexity and level of toxicity of dark leadership

and its various other sectors. Again in some case, toxic leaders can be vexing to one but a savior

for others. Elemér (2014) states that following the multidimensional framework significance of

severe consequences of decisions and actions of the toxic leaders, their incompetency,

destructive personal traits, toxic behavior, and personal qualities can be measured and take

adequate actions for minimizing the negative effects. The reckless actions and intentional

dysfunctional mechanism can bring about unbearable circumstances on a personal level and

cause huge loss to the collective life of the society. A toxic leader can behave harshly in some
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and on the others very benignly and show biases in interest following his own interest as well.

From place to place the negative consequences of toxic leadership can vary as there is a

difference in the decisions and actions of the toxic leaders which makes their nature hard to

comprehend sometimes (Jean, 2016).

Without realizing a toxic leader can bring down a whole organization and inflict a greater

amount of loss to a huge number of people. Hereby an entire organizational culture can come to

a standstill and create menace for making polluting the overall environment. Sometimes the toxic

leaders play the role of a silent killer and sabotage groups and organizations bring down even a

whole nation. Sometimes various national and political catastrophes can be caused by toxic

leadership styles. Again the toxic leadership can be appealing to the mass people and attract and

misguide the youth. Jean (2015) says that toxic leadership holds a strong emotion of power and

eventually can manage to misguide the fools and uneducated people to follow to darkness and

destruction. A toxic leader can be highly treacherous and directly distress the people all around

him. A well-defined image and construct of toxic leadership are needed for identifying and

controlling such toxic leadership. Thus proper construct of the dark side of toxic leadership and

its menacing and catastrophic influences have to be known for being conscious about such

leadership. Proper knowledge about toxic leadership will help the individual and group of person

design, develop, and implement various strategic ways, methods, and mechanisms for tackling,

controlling and eliminating the toxic leadership (Abraham, 2013).

Initially, a toxic leader may seem very charming with his amazing characteristics traits

but after some period of time, a range of evil behaviors become apparent which intimidate,

demoralize and undermine others and make them suffered intentionally in various sectors. They

sometimes torture and terrorize people without any reasonable cause becomes corrupt and
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criminal being engaged in various disenfranchising activities. They take control of the power and

spread fears among the people and damage the capacity of the followers and intentionally

misdiagnose issues and various problems and increase the intensity of toxicity and mislead the

subordinates to some of the wrong paths. The toxic leaders intentionally infiltrate in various

structures and process and subvert them for generating injustice and follow various criminal acts

build a dynasty of illegal processes for supporting chaos and dysfunctional activities in different

layers of the society (Blumen, 2016).

Lipman (2015) says that the effects of toxic leadership are most detrimental to the

individual level. Lower self-worth feeling makes the employee decrease self-insight following

low self-esteem generates various complex psychological reactions and increases helplessness

and frustration at the very individual and personal level. Both the followers and the non-

followers are affected by the toxic leadership where the toxic leaders follow their

counterproductive performance action and drag down moral values and enthusiasm of others to

inflate various kinds of dark situations. The toxic leaders are psychopaths and sometimes sadists

who take pleasure inflicting pain and sufferings to others. Toxic tendencies within a person do

not grow in a day rather there can be various types of elements which give birth to the dark side

of leaders gradually. The past of toxic leaders does not often seem and hereby there can be

various types of elements which make the toxic leadership style are evolved following the course

of time. There can be various psychological reasons and factors that give birth to toxic behaviors

of the leaders and maximum times the types of leaders have followers who provide compliance

and required assistance. Sometimes the toxic leaders have a high level of influential power which

helps him to make others join with him to follow his malicious acts and unethical deeds which he
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convinces the followers that they are going to of something memorable and historical (Maslow,

2013).

In various organizational levels, the impacts of toxic leadership can be very severe. In the

context of organizational culture, the work efforts of the employees and workforce decrease with

the sharp decline in work quality. Blumen (2015) states that The leadership toxicity increases the

employee turnover at a great extent and sometimes the number reaches a scary percentage. Again

sometimes the very foundation of an organization is affected by inflicting physical and

psychological damage in a subordinate and organizational level. Various public sectors, political,

spiritual and other sectors can be greatly affected by the counterproductive work behavior and

cynical working actions of the toxic leaders. The detrimental acts of toxic leadership affect

various public health services, transportation, monetary service, and many others. Again there

can be various types of myths regarding the toxic leadership styles and some develop various

ideas about them which may not be always true. Some may think that toxic leaders are the profit

makers who are capable of achieving rewarding corporate goals and objectives. Some may think

that these heinous dealers have strong roots which cannot be removed from various layers of

society following some individual efforts. Here for creating a remedy for such toxicity of

leadership one has to think in a different way. Here the organizations are required to make

standing and find the related factors and variables. They have to accept the fact that there can be

some factors and elements within the organization that gives birth or at least support to such

toxic behavior and there is a huge chance that there can be a problem within the organization that

they need to accept and look for a solution (Lipman, 2015).

The police departments are required to accomplish a range of activities. For doing their

performance actions they have to follow and be guided by a wide range of legal and
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organizational procedures and policies. They are required to take control of a situation without

making them exacerbate. The police are required to follow various strategies and go through an

effective strategic decision-making process. Any kinds of strategic incompetence and leadership

failure can cause the failure of the whole department. The USA police departments are having

various issues and problems in the present days. Currently, the USA police department does not

have any central authorities. The lack of central authority makes the department lack in law

enforcement. In many cases, the federal laws are used by the states to go through their own

decision which causes institutionalized discrimination. The police department of the USA

sometimes goes through various homicide activities and there is no tracking back of these

incidents. Many police shooting is not properly reported. Many of the police shooting cases do

not follow any kind of indictment. In the present days, a huge number of military equipment is

provided to the local police departments and a large number of SWAT raids in various regions

sometimes targets the wrong people. Sometimes the police follow the some of the false reports

and trouble the innocent people. Again some claims say that the normal people are often raided

for the cases of drugs and hereby they say that the SWATS raids do not engage in rescuing

people from abusers and other worse cases. The operations of the police department in various

regional areas and urban areas are not always the same. The police follow various internal

policies on their own and hereby flout the system for the lack of central authority. Though the

police departments are supposed to give a fight against drugs they are themselves often high on

drugs. In the USA police department, some of the police personnel themselves admitted that they

intake steroids for the physical rigors they need for taking control of a situation. Some of the

police personnel are trying to get a handle on these issues and follow the internal operating

system on their own. The employee turnover rate in the police department is considerably lower
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compared to education and other sectors. The recruitment and selection process often face

various troubles and issues in the USA police departments. Various law enforcement agencies

face problems in hiring and retaining the qualified and eligible candidates. There can be various

issues and factors behind the low rate of employee retention in the police department of the USA

(Jean, 2015).

CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY

3.1 Research philosophy:

For conducting a research project there are three types of research philosophies for the

researchers. The two philosophies are positivism, realism, and interpretivism research

philosophy. The realism philosophy helps the researchers go through an effective level of

scientific analysis. The researcher has used the positivism research philosophy for conducting the

current research that concentrates on toxic leadership and its impact on the police department.

The researcher had to go through various mathematical data for enabling various mathematical

and statistical analyses for completing the present research work and as per the aim and

objectives of the research, this philosophy was appropriate.

3.2 Research strategy:

The researchers need to follow a certain research strategy for completing research work.

Hereby the researchers can select two options for going through research work and these two

options are quantitative and qualitative research strategy. The quantitative research strategy takes

up various quantitative data which are numeric in nature and goes through various mathematical
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and statistical analyses. On the other hand, the qualitative research strategy goes through

descriptive analysis following non-numeric data (Price, 2013).

The researcher has used quantitative research strategy for collecting numeric data so that

mathematic analysis is possible.

3.3 Research approach:

There are two types of research approaches for the researchers to choose from and these

are the inductive and deductive approach. The inductive approach does not follow a certain path

and the deductive approach allows the researchers to follow a certain way for completing the

research work properly (Price, 2013).

The researcher has used the deductive approach for completing the present research work

as it will properly allow them to go through a definite way for research completion.

3.4 Time horizon:

There are two types of time horizon and these are cross-sectional and longitudinal time

horizon. The cross-sectional time horizon will allow the researcher to collect data from the

respondents only once. The longitudinal can collect data multiple times.

The researcher has collected data only once and here the cross-sectional time horizon is

perfect (Cameron, 2013)

3.5 Data sources:

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There are two types of data sources which are primary and secondary. The researchers

can collect data using the primary sources on the first hand. The researcher has used the primary

sources for collecting data for the current research.

In order to produce a result that is most relevant to the topic, primary sources are most

appropriate.

3.6 Data collection tools:

The researcher has used a questionnaire for collecting data from the respondents of the

police department. Questionnaires which was shared with the employees using Google Drive.

The questionnaire contains two demographic question and 5 specific statements regarding the

topic and related factors, against a 5-point Liker scale in order to collect primary data, eligible

for quantitative analysis and representation.

3.7 Population and sampling:

All the observation present related to a research work is known as a population. A small

section for his population of the research is the sample of the observation. All the employees of

the police department are the population of the research (Price, 2013).

As data collection from all the employees of the whole department is not feasible the

researcher has used the sampling method where 50 police personnel were contacted and using

Google drive a questionnaire was sent to them for their response.

CHAPTER 4: DATA ANALYSIS & DISCUSSION

The research has specified that it has implemented a quantitative strategy with primary

data collected from primary sources. To collect data for quantitative research data needs to be
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collected in a way so that various quantitative analysis is possible. Therefore, a questionnaire

method has been used and provided to 50 police personnel. The questionnaire includes 2

demographic questions and 5 statements put against a 5-point Likert scale so that the respondents

can express their level of agreement regarding the statements.

Once the responses have been accumulated, in the following section response to each of

the statement has been analyzed using appropriate graphical demonstration. Finally, a discussion

has been included to explain the finding altogether.

The research has undertaken the following objectives:

 To find out various factors related to leadership and toxic leadership

 To find out if toxic leadership has an impact on the job performance of the employees

 To find out if toxic leadership has a psychological impact on the employees

4.1 Data analysis

Table 1: Respondents on the basis of Gender

Gender Frequenc Percent Valid Cumulati

y Percent ve Percent

Male 31 62% 62% 62%

Female 19 38% 38% 100%

Total 50 100% 100%

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The table above categorizes the respondents following gender analysis. Hereby total of

50 people attended the survey among which 62 percent are male and 38% are female. A

graphical representation of the respondents following their gender analysis has been given

below:

Figure 1: Gender analysis

Table 2: Respondents on the basis of age

Range Frequenc Percent Valid Cumulati

of age y Percent ve Percent

Below 10 20% 20% 20%

25 Years

26-35 25 50% 50% 70%

Years
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36-45 8 16% 16% 86%

Years

46-55 6 12% 12% 98%

Years

Over 55 1 2% 2% 100%

Years

Total 50 100% 100%

In the above-mentioned table, the respondents have been divided following their ages.

Hereby percentage of respondents below 25 years are 20, between 26 to 35 years is 50%. Again

the number of 36 to 45 years is 16%, 46 to 55 years are 12% and over 55 years is 2%. Hereby

total numbers of respondents are 50.

Figure 2: Respondents on the basis of age

Table 4: I can work with the same level of motivation no matter how my leaders are
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Dimensions Freque Perc Vali Cu

ncy ent d Percent mulative

Percent

Strongly 31 62 62 62

Disagree

Disagree 15 30 30 92

Indifferent 0 0 0 92

Agree 3 6 6 98

Strongly Agree 1 2 2 100

Total 50 100 100

% %

Above mentioned table shows that the majority of respondents strongly disagree that

leadership style bears influence over employee motivation. Hereby 62% of the employees

strongly disagree, 30% of them disagree. Only 6% agree and 2% strongly agree with the fact that

leadership impacts the motivation of the employees.

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Figure 4: I can work with the same level of motivation no matter how my leaders are

Table 5: I have worked under toxic leadership at some point in my career

Dimensions Frequen Perce Vali Cum

cy nt d Percent ulative
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Percent

Strongly 5 10 10 10

Disagree

Disagree 12 24 24 34

Indifferent 1 2 2 36

Agree 25 50 50 86

Strongly Agree 7 14 14 100

Total 50 100% 100

In order to understand how many of the respondents have been subjected toxic leadership

directly this question has been included. This also can provide a sense of how critical is the toxic

leadership condition in the police department.

The responses indicate that most of the police personnel who completed this survey

agreed to the given statement implying that they have worked under toxic leadership at some

point in their careers. The table is showing that 50% of the police personnel have agreed to the
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statement and another 14% have strongly agreed to it. However, 10% have strong disagreed and

24% have disagreed with the given statement.

Figure 5: I have worked under toxic leadership at some point in my career

Table 6: I have never seen firsthand police personnel quitting their job just because of

facing toxic behavior from their superior

Dimensions Freque Perc Vali Cu

ncy ent d Percent mulative

Percent

15 30 30 30
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Strongly

Disagree

Disagree 27 54 54 84

Indifferent 0 0 0 84

Agree 3 6 6 90

Strongly Agree 5 10 10 100

Total 50 100 100

% %

As has been mentioned, employee turnover in the police force is higher than other

occupation. This question tries to find out if toxic leadership any way contributes to the

employee turnover rate of it.

The responses clearly indicate that most of the police personnel who participated in this

survey disagree with the asked question implying that they have seen people leaving their job

because of toxic behavior from their superior officers. Where only 6% agree and 10% strongly
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agree that they haven’t seen anything like that firsthand, 30% strongly disagree and 54% disagree

implying otherwise.

Figure 6: I have never seen firsthand police personnel quitting their job just because of

facing toxic behavior from their superior

Table 7: Just a good leadership style can significantly reduce the stress of the job

Dimensions Freque Perc Vali Cu

ncy ent d Percent mulative

Percent

3 6 6 6
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Strongly

Disagree

Disagree 5 10 10 16

Indifferent 0 0 0 16

Agree 22 44 44 60

Strongly Agree 20 40 40 100

Total 50 100 100

% %

In order to find out if the impact of the leadership of employees’ mental stress the above

statement has been included.

The table is showing that a vast majority of the police personnel who participated in the

survey have agreed to this statement than just a good leadership style can significantly reduce the

stress of the job. Only 10% of them have disagreed and another 6% have strongly disagreed with

this given statement where 44% of the police personnel have agreed and additionally 40% have

strongly agreed with the statement.

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Figure 7: Just a good leadership style can significantly reduce the stress of the job

Table 8: I feel very inspired by the current leadership style

Dimensions Freque Perc Vali Cu

ncy ent d Percent mulative

Percent

Strongly 10 20 20 20

Disagree

Disagree 15 30 30 50
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Indifferent 0 0 0 50

Agree 15 30 30 80

Strongly Agree 10 20 20 100

Total 50 100 100

% %

In order to find out if the current leadership style they are under is inspiring or not, the

statement has been included in the questionnaire.

Among 50 respondents 10% strongly disagree and 12% disagree that they feel inspired

by the current leadership style. No respondents were indifferent and 30% agree and the

percentage of strongly agree is 20%.

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Figure 8: I feel very inspired by the current leadership style

4.2 Discussion

According to the research, it can be asserted that the leadership style has a profound on

the overall performance and the level of motivation of the employees. The research has pointed

out that it is impossible to work with the same level of motivation regardless of what kind of

leadership style is being implemented. As a profession policing itself causes a great deal of stress

due to the nature of the job and the complicated surrounding that constantly impact the

personnel. Therefore, it is very important to have a strong motivating force driving the personnel.

Leadership is supposed to assume that role.

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The research also indicates that in police force toxic leadership is a problem as the

majority of the respondents have at some point in their careers worked under toxic leadership.

This assertion has been further proved when asked if they have seen people quitting just because

of toxic leadership. The response to both of these statements clearly indicates that toxic

leadership is turning out to be a huge issue that is directly contributing to the growing employee

turnover rate in the police force.

It is evident that due to the nature of the job the police department does not use the same

methods that an ordinary organization uses. Where most of the organizations these days are more

inclined towards democratic leadership styles police department cannot use such leadership as a

chain of command is something that is very important here. Although when it comes to employee

motivation and satisfaction democratic leadership style has been consistently showing positive

results. Despite the fact that this leadership style cannot be applied here, some features of the

style can surely help. The research indicates that a good leadership style can reduce their job

stress in a significant manner which can improve the job performances of the personnel. A

democratic leadership style emphasizes on valuing the employees and inspiring them by making

them feel valued; this feature can be implemented under the current context as well.

The research also pointed out that even though a lot the personnel feel inspired under the

current leadership they are operating a lot of them do not feel the same. This means the very

concentration of leadership which is inspiring the subordinates is failing.

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION & RECOMMENDATION

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5.1 Conclusion

The current research work focuses on toxic leadership and the impact it has on police

personnel working under such a leadership style. The researchers hereby try to know the impact

of leadership styles on the motivation of the employees of the Police department as well. The

current research contains the importance of these two variables in the organizational context and

how these two have influence in the organizational context of the overall organization. The

research follows a quantitative research strategy for collecting data from the respondents and

analyses them for finding the proper research result. The research has been conducted by

preparing a questionnaire and distributed it among the respondents who are the employees of the

police department. The research follows a random sampling method where 50 selected randomly

for collecting primary data first hand. The research has used various tables and graphs for

representing the collected data from the primary respondents. The research concludes leadership

style plays a great role in employee motivation inspiration. The research has indicated that the

current environment of the police department is highly impacted by toxic leadership and a

majority of the respondents experienced it and seen people leaving the job due to this. The

research also points out that using a positive leadership style job stress can be significantly

reduced which is likely to increase the level of job performance.

5.2 Recommendation

The nature of the police job is a stressful one and here strong motivation factor is needed

for this is one of the driving forces for sustaining in the highly complicated surrounding of the

policing jobs. The current research work shows that the US police department is facing huge

toxic leadership issues and that majority of the respondents have worked under toxic leadership
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and quitted their job for it. This is one of the major reasons for the high employee turnover rate

in the police force. Following these findings of the recent research work the following

recommendation can be made

 The current research indicates that there is a positive relationship between leadership

style and motivation of the employees. This means that if the proper level of leadership

style can be adopted the motivation level of the employees will be increased. Sometimes

the higher authorities of the police department tend to adopt their preferred leadership

style as there is no central authority there. Hereby the leaders of the police department

can adopt proper leadership style following the demands of the situation which is sure to

increase the motivation of the employees and increase the performance level of the

employees and develop the overall condition along the way.

 Changes in the leadership style can bring about positive changes within the organization

and increase organizational performance activity. For motivating the employees the

democratic style plays an important role and the police department cannot compromise

their organizational performance. Here proper balance has to be maintained. The whole

department has to be careful for retaining the employees and improve their performance

at the same time following the appropriate style of leadership.

 The US police department does not maintain proper policies for maintaining the

performance actions the same in different places. Hereby the department has to identify

some of the specific problems within the department and seek the solution for motivating

the employees for proper actions. The organization can go for the internal audit so that it
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can go through an effective level of motivation process for all the employees and police

personnel.

 Following the transformational leadership style, an organization can achieve various long

term goals and build some of the effective team along with the proper level of team

attitude. For motivating the employees and increasing the retention of the employees

along with providing them some of the employee benefits this theory of leadership can be

of great help for the whole organization. Hereby the police department of USA can focus

on long term goals and objectives and achieve them for sustaining a continuous

development process along the way.

 The USA police department has to go through a proper level of the evaluation process for

knowing various issues that are currently prevalent in various sectors of recruitment,

training, discipline, and supervision of the department. For the overall improvement

process of the department, it has to ensure the proper level of citizen complaint process

which can effectively help it identify various issues and come to a solution.

 For improving the overall policing process the US police department has to improve

public interaction and know how the normal citizens are being affected by them. The

overall accountability of the department has to be ensured. The US police department

does not have any central authority currently. The government can increase control over

the department and increase its accountability along the way. The department has to be

careful so that the increasing number of SWAT teams and their raids do not disturb the

normal people and make them suffer in any way.

5.3 Ethical issues:

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Running Head: TOXIC LEADERSHIP
Following all the required ethical guidelines the present research work has been

accomplished. The research lists and mentioned a number of authors whose finding and works

have been used in this research. The current research does not disclose any primacy issues of the

respondents rather the research respects their privacy issues. After analyzing the collected data

and finding the research result the collected responses have been destroyed and do not reveal any

private information of the respondents.

5.4 Research limitations:

The current research could have been done following a range of variables. The time and

budget of the research was limited and followed only one industry. Using a larger sample the

current research could have been accomplished in the context of more than one industry. The

current research opens the door of many other research ideas which can be done following

enough time period. In this research, a small portion of the research sample was used for

collecting relevant data

REFERENCE

Abraham Maslow. (2013). The Farther Reaches of Human Nature. (New York: Viking

Press). Otto Rank. (1932/1968). Art and Artist: Creative Urge and Personality Development.

(New York: W. W. Norton)

Bass, B.M. & Riggio, R.E. (2016) “Transformational Leadership” 2nd edition

Blackstone, W., & Lewis, W. (2012). Commentaries on the laws of England.

Philadelphia: Rees Welsh and Company.

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Running Head: TOXIC LEADERSHIP
Elemér Hankiss. (2014). Fears and Symbols: An Introduction to the Study of Western

Civilization. (Budapest: Central European University Press).

Ernest Becker. (2015). The Denial of Death. (New York: Basic Books).

Gallos, J.V. (2012) “Business Leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader” 2nd edition, John Wiley

& Sons

Jean Lipman-Blumen. (2015). The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why We Follow Destructive

Bosses and Corrupt Politicians – and How We Can Survive Them. (New York: Oxford

University Press).

Jean Lipman-Blumen. (2016). “The Allure of Toxic Leaders: Why Followers Rarely

Escape Their Clutches or The Paradox of Toxic Leadership.” Ivey Business Journal, January,

2005.

Jean Lipman-Blumen. (2015). “Toxic Leadership: When Grand Illusions Masquerade as

Noble Visions.” Leader to Leader, Spring.

Kouzes, J.M. & Posner, B.Z. (2013) “The Five Practices of Exemplary Leadership”

in Business Leadership: A Jossey-Bass Reader, editor Gallos, J.V.

Northouse, P.G. (2010) “Leadership: Theory and Practice” 5th edition, SAGE
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APPENDIX

1A Questionnaire

Examination of Toxic Leadership and Impact on Police Personnel

1. Gender (Please Tick Mark)

Male

Female

2. Age (Please Tick Mark)

Range of age

Below 25 Years

26-35 Years

36-45 Years

46-55 Years

Over 55 Years

(Please Tick Mark)

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I can work with the same level of motivation no S A I D S

matter how my leaders are A D

I have worked under toxic leadership at some point S A I D S

in my career A D

I have never seen first-hand police personnel S A I D S

quitting their job just because of facing toxic behavior from A D

their superior

Just a good leadership style can significantly reduce S A I D S

the stress of job A D

S A I D S

A D
I feel very inspired under the current leadership style

NOTE: SA = Strongly Agree, A = Agree, I = Indifferent, D = Disagree and SD = Strongly

Disagree

1B List of Tables and figure

Table 1: Respondents on the basis of Gender

Gender Frequenc Percent Valid Cumulati

y Percent ve Percent

Male 31 62% 62% 62%

Female 19 38% 38% 100%

Total 50 100% 100%

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Figure 1: Gender analysis

Table 2: Respondents on the basis of age

Range Frequenc Percent Valid Cumulati

of age y Percent ve Percent

Below 10 20% 20% 20%

25 Years

26-35 25 50% 50% 70%

Years

36-45 8 16% 16% 86%

Years

46-55 6 12% 12% 98%

Years

Over 55 1 2% 2% 100%

Years
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Total 50 100% 100%

Figure 2: Respondents on the basis of age

Table 4: I can work with the same level of motivation no matter how my leaders are

Dimensions Freque Perc Vali Cu

ncy ent d Percent mulative

Percent

Strongly 31 62 62 62

Disagree

Disagree 15 30 30 92
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Indifferent 0 0 0 92

Agree 3 6 6 98

Strongly Agree 1 2 2 100

Total 50 100 100

% %

Figure 4: I can work with the same level of motivation no matter how my leaders are
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Table 5: I have worked under toxic leadership at some point in my career

Dimensions Frequen Perce Vali Cum

cy nt d Percent ulative

Percent

Strongly 5 10 10 10

Disagree

Disagree 12 24 24 34

Indifferent 1 2 2 36

Agree 25 50 50 86

Strongly Agree 7 14 14 100

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Total 50 100% 100

Figure 5: I have worked under toxic leadership at some point in my career

Table 6: I have never seen firsthand police personnel quitting their job just because of

facing toxic behavior from their superior

Dimensions Freque Perc Vali Cu

ncy ent d Percent mulative

Percent
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Strongly 15 30 30 30

Disagree

Disagree 27 54 54 84

Indifferent 0 0 0 84

Agree 3 6 6 90

Strongly Agree 5 10 10 100

Total 50 100 100

% %
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Figure 6: I have never seen firsthand police personnel quitting their job just because of

facing toxic behavior from their superior

Table 7: Just a good leadership style can significantly reduce the stress of the job

Dimensions Freque Perc Vali Cu

ncy ent d Percent mulative

Percent

Strongly 3 6 6 6

Disagree
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Disagree 5 10 10 16

Indifferent 0 0 0 16

Agree 22 44 44 60

Strongly Agree 20 40 40 100

Total 50 100 100

% %
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Figure 7: Just a good leadership style can significantly reduce the stress of the job

Table 8: I feel very inspired by the current leadership style

Dimensions Freque Perc Vali Cu

ncy ent d Percent mulative

Percent

Strongly 10 20 20 20

Disagree

Disagree 15 30 30 50
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Indifferent 0 0 0 50

Agree 15 30 30 80

Strongly Agree 10 20 20 100

Total 50 100 100

% %
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Figure 8: I feel very inspired by the current leadership style