You Don’t Know the Power of the Dark Side.

Abstract

So said Darth Vader at the end of Return of the Jedi, and we all know what happened to him. In real life, as in fiction, evil characters and flawed heroes make for interesting reading, and history, as well as the business literature, is littered with tales of villains and scoundrels whose early success was followed by their eventual demise. The aim of this presentation is to consider a number of case studies illustrative of toxic boss syndrome and consider its implications for organisational psychology. The paper focuses on those leaders who in past and more recent history can be considered to have risen to the top of their respective domains of expertise but failed, all as a result of what might be described as the dark side of their personality.