Writing a literature review on toxic leadership and the treatment of employees has been both a challenging yet invigorating experience. On one hand, it requires hours of dedicated research to find the most relevant articles and books, as well as synthesizing their findings into an easily readable overview. On the other, it has allowed me to gain insight into some of the worst forms of management practices that can exist in any workplace.
A reflective statement about the challenges reviewing literature on toxic leadership and the treatment of employees
One particular challenge I faced was finding all the sources necessary for my review. While there are many academic papers and books that discuss toxic leadership and its implications for employee wellbeing, there is also an abundance of personal accounts from former employees who have experienced such behavior first-hand. Balancing these two perspectives was important in order to ensure that my review remained unbiased while still giving due attention to those affected by this phenomenon.
The second major challenge I faced was understanding how different authors define “toxic” when referring to a leader’s behavior or attitude towards their people. This posed a problem because when researching this topic, it quickly became evident that not all scholars agree on what constitutes toxic behaviors in regards to leading people at work. In order to overcome this obstacle I had to read various papers by different authors who provide different definitions or descriptions of what they mean by ‘toxic’ before I could draw any meaningful conclusions from their research or arguments.
Finally, another issue was making sure that my own biases did not filter through into the literature review itself – something which is difficult but essential when writing up an empirical piece like this one; especially considering how emotive certain topics within organizational psychology can be for both writers and readers alike! To combat this problem I tried very hard throughout each chapter/section of my literature review to stay objective with regard to each author’s opinions (even if we didn’t necessarily agree on them) so as not attract any unwanted criticism during peer/editorial reviews down the line!
Ultimately though, despite these challenges reviewing literature on toxic leadership has been incredibly rewarding experience; allowing me gain valuable knowledge about how detrimental bad management practices can be for employee morale and productivity levels within any organization – no matter size or industry sector!