“Who takes advantage and who bears the brunt: 

Antecedents, mechanisms , and outcomes of exploitative leadership”

 

Abstract 

Recent polls suggest that nearly 80 % of employees feel exploited at work at some point. That feeling, especially when coming from exploitative leaders, takes a toll as global studies consistently reveal that the number one reason why employees are dissatisfied with their leaders and quit is lack of recognition. In my talk, I will present a series of studies tapping into the nature and dynamics of exploitative leadership. First, I investigate whether one source of motivation for leaders to exhibit exploitative behavior emerges from their dark triad personality traits, i.e., narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Building on an interactionist view of destructive leadership, I argue that the dispositional inclination of dark triad leaders to exploit followers is influenced by specific characteristics of the victim (i.e., the subordinate). I will present preliminary data indicating that dark triad leaders are more likely to exploit those followers, whom they see as particularly good performers. The second study focuses on the distinct mechanisms of exploitative leadership relative to abusive supervision, as the most prominently studied high-intensity form of destructive leadership. Borrowing from the aggression literature, I  describe both types of destructive leadership as different forms of aggression that undermine subordinates’ satisfaction with the leader through differentially affecting their social exchange relationship with the leader. The overall pattern that emerges from empirical data supports these predictions and shows that the differentiation between exploitative leadership and abusive supervision is not a symptom of construct proliferation but adds cumulative knowledge to the field of destructive leadership. 

 

Short bio

Armin Pircher Verdorfer is an Associate Professor in the Leadership & Management Section at Amsterdam Business School. He obtained his doctoral degree in Industrial Psychology from University of Innsbruck and his Habilitation in Business Administration at TUM School of Management. His research in the field of behavioral ethics has been published in the Journal of Management, Journal of Business Ethics, and Journal of Moral Education, among others. Currently, his research interests are primarily in the areas of ethical and destructive leadership and moral and prosocial socialization in organizations.