Hughes & Harris Leadership article

The literature on positive effective leadership is abundant, but little exists on the negative styles of leadership. The current research seeks to build upon the literature. The article is an exploratory case study investigating how leadership is perceived in a midsize organization, and the observed organizational changes made by the perceived leadership style. Through a mixed method approach, the research utilized adopted leadership vignettes, structured open-ended questionnaires, and the literature of pseudo-transformational leadership.

Introduced is the term “organizational laundering,” which results from employing a pseudo-transformational leadership style to attempt to be innovative and make organizational change. Examined in this research is the linkage the between pseudo-transformational leadership and organizational change. Lastly, the study identified organizational symptoms that are present within the pseudo-transformational leadership change process. Further research is recommended over various organizations to expand and validate the organizational symptoms.