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Full range indeed? The forgotten dark side of leadership

Yariv Itzkovich (Department of Human Resource Management, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Zemach, Israel)
Sibylle Heilbrunn (School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Kinneret College on the Sea of Galilee, Zemach, Israel)
Ana Aleksic (Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia)

Journal of Management Development

ISSN: 0262-1711

Article publication date: 2 June 2020

Issue publication date: 26 November 2020

2803

Abstract

Purpose

The full-range leadership theory, and the distinction between transformational, transactional and laissez-faire leadership behaviour has strongly influenced leadership theory and research in the last several decades. However, in spite of its impact on theory and practice, it has a few shortcomings, as, in its essence, it disregards several essential aspects of a leader’s behaviour, such as the dark side of leadership behaviour. Therefore, to capture various leader behaviours, we provide a more comprehensive leadership model named the “complete full range of leadership”.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on reviewing the relevant theoretical and empirical literature, we propose an extended theoretical model, which addresses the existing shortcomings of the full range leadership model.

Findings

First, we added a new active and more destructive facet of leadership style named active, destructive leadership style. Second, based on existing empirical findings, we restructured the transactional facet of full-range leadership by collapsing its components into two new distinct facets representing active constructive leadership style and passive destructive leadership style. Finally, drawing on Hersey and Blanchard’s model, we add a new passive and constructive facet named passive constructive leadership.

Originality/value

Our suggested “complete full range of leadership” contributes to leadership theory by addressing the gap between existing theory and empirical findings, making a clear distinction between lack of leadership and delegation and by comprising the dark side of leadership with its bright side into one comprehensive leadership model.

Keywords

Citation

Itzkovich, Y., Heilbrunn, S. and Aleksic, A. (2020), "Full range indeed? The forgotten dark side of leadership", Journal of Management Development, Vol. 39 No. 7/8, pp. 851-868. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMD-09-2019-0401

Publisher

:

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2020, Emerald Publishing Limited

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