Toxic organizational cultures and leadership have led to major reputational failures, with the greatest impact felt by the people who dedicate their careers to working for these organizations. And yet organizations do not become toxic overnight. They do not consciously set out to break rules and regulations, nor do they actively seek wrongdoing. This book defines toxic culture, explains how toxic cultures emerge over time, and provides practical approaches supported by in-depth research for overcoming a toxic culture at the individual, team, and organizational level.
Pragmatic and applicable, the book provides a call to action that can be applied in any type of organization. While the role of leadership in toxic cultures is acknowledged, the book sets out four distinct stages to embedding toxic cultures and draws on examples from leading organizations and companies to illustrate each stage. The book then identifies interventions and levers that can be implemented by executives, boards, and HR practitioners to prevent toxicity and to change toxic cultures back to healthy, positive workplaces. Drawing on research and interviews with senior HR leaders and executives, the book provides
An understanding of the four stages of toxic cultures and the impact of performance pressures in driving toxicity
An appreciation of the role of senior leadership and personality traits
Practical tools and guidance on interventions for practitioners to build and sustain a healthy and positive workplace
Senior executives, HR, and organizational development practitioners in local and global organizations spanning a range of industry sectors will find this book invaluable. The book is also highly relevant to consultants working in the field of corporate culture and change.
Author(s): Susan Hetrick
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2023
Language: English
Pages: 278
City: London
Cover
Half Title
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgements
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations
Introduction
Part I: The Four Stages of Toxicity
1 Why Culture Matters
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Culture and Leadership
1.3 Toxic Cultures
1.3.1 Toxic Origins – A Word
1.4 Positive Cultures: The Opposite of Toxic Cultures?
1.4.1 Corporate Culture and Change
1.4.2 Culture Levers
1.5 Culture and Corporateness
1.5.1 Toxic Organizational Norms
2 The First Driver of Toxic Culture – The Normalization of Deviance
2.1 Normalization of Deviance
2.2 What Is Meant by the Normalization of Deviance?
2.3 What Parallels Can We Draw for Business?
2.4 What Was the Normalization of Deviance for RBS?
2.5 The Reinforcement of Success Leads to the Normalization of Deviance
2.6 The Slippery-Slope Effect
3 The Second Driver of Toxic Culture – Cognitive Dissonance
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Defining Cognitive Dissonance
3.3 The Case of the Volkswagen Carbon Emissions Scandal
3.4 Linking Image, Vision, and Culture: Corporate Reputations
3.4.1 Culture, Image, and Identity
3.5 Carillion – A Case Study
3.5.1 Cognitive Dissonance
3.5.2 Normalization of Deviance
3.5.3 Toxicity Spreads
3.5.4 The Lessons of Carillion
4 The Four Stages of a Toxic Culture
4.1 Introduction
4.2 Performance Pressures
4.2.1 Performance Pressures at Boeing
4.3 Triggers of Toxicity
4.4 Stages of Toxicity
4.4.1 Stage 1: Performance Pressure Leading to a Bold New Vision
4.4.1.1 Performance Pressures
4.4.1.2 Toxic Behaviours by Senior Leaders Become Tolerated
4.4.2 Stage 1 and the Normalization of Deviance
4.4.3 Stage 2: Demand for Loyalty and Alignment
4.4.4 Stage 3: Reverence from External Stakeholders
4.4.5 Stage 4: Cult of Singularity
4.5 Summary
Part II: The Toxic Triangle
5 Toxic Leadership
5.1 Introduction and Context
5.2 Approaches to Leadership: The Three Camps
5.2.1 Defining Toxic Leadership
5.2.2 The Impact of Toxic Leadership
5.3 Dysfunctional Behaviour in the Workplace
5.3.1 Measuring the Dark Side of Leadership
5.3.2 Bullying in Leadership
5.3.3 Bullying Tactics
5.4 The Dark Triad
5.4.1 Machiavellian Leadership
5.4.2 Narcissistic Leadership
5.4.3 Psychopathic Leadership or the Corporate Psychopath
5.5 Toxic Leadership in the Workplace
5.5.1 Abuse of Power
5.5.2 Unrealistic Demands
5.5.3 Demand for Perfection
5.5.4 Control, Control, Control
5.5.5 Them versus Us
5.5.6 Enticing You In
5.5.7 Divide and Rule
5.5.8 Threats
5.5.9 Selling a Vision
5.5.10 Requirement of Unquestionable Loyalty and Devotion
5.6 Is the Poison in the Person or in the Bottle?
5.7 Summary
6 Susceptible Followers
6.1 Introduction
6.2 Leadership and Followership
6.3 Expectations of Followership
6.4 Followership and Toxic Leadership
6.5 Followership in Toxic Cultures
6.6 Susceptible Followers
6.7 Positive and Negative Followers
6.7.1 Narcissistic Followers
6.7.2 Machiavellian Followers
6.7.3 Psychopathic Followers
6.8 Toxic Followers Working for Toxic Leaders
6.8.1 Other Types of Followers
6.8.1.1 The Quiet Resistance
6.8.1.2 The Survivor
6.9 Summary
7 Conducive Environments
7.1 Introduction
7.1.1 Instability
7.1.2 Perceived Threats
7.1.3 Favouritism
7.1.4 Absence of Checks and Balances
7.2 Cultural Values
7.3 Measuring a Conducive Environment
7.4 The Pressure of Performance on Individual Behaviour
7.5 Performance Management Systems
7.6 The Negative Consequences of Performance Management Systems
7.7 Bullying
7.8 Rewarding Toxic Behaviours
7.9 The Impact of Harassment and Bullying
7.10 The Impact of Harmful Behaviour on Corporate Reputation
7.11 Summary
Part III: How to Build and Sustain a Healthy Workplace Culture
8 How to Build and Sustain a Healthy Workplace Culture
8.1 Introduction
8.1.1 Defining a Healthy Workplace Culture
8.1.1.1 Extreme Collectivist Cultures
8.1.1.2 Extreme Individualistic Cultures
8.2 Realign Corporate Values and Measure Engagement, Inclusion, and Respect
8.2.1 Values
8.2.2 Consensus on Values
8.2.3 Measure Values
8.2.4 Drivers of Employee Engagement
8.2.5 Measure Engagement . . . and Disengagement
8.2.6 Measuring Disengagement
8.3 Enable Psychological Safety and Support Employees to Speak Up
8.3.1 From Evaluating to Coaching
8.3.2 Multidirectional Feedback
8.3.3 Speaking Up
8.4 Strengthen and Enable Leadership to Act as Role Models
8.4.1 Train, Promote, and Develop Leadership Capability
8.5 Promote and Align HR Policies and Processes
8.5.1 Embedding Values Through HR Policies and Processes
8.6 Elevate Well-being
8.6.1 Flexible Working Arrangements
8.6.2 Create a Sense of Community
8.6.3 The Business of Well-being
8.6.4 Elevate Well-being Questions Using the 5-Point Likert Scale
8.7 Call Out Toxic Behaviours
8.8 Transform Career Development and Learning Through the Growth Mindset
8.8.1 Career Management at the World Bank Group
8.8.2 Talent Marketplace
8.8.3 Questions to Test Career and Talent Engagement Using the 5-Point Likert Scale
9 A Framework for Action
9.1 Introduction
9.2 Framework for Action
Conclusion
Index
