Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

Publication Title

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Abstract

First paragraph in lieu of abstract:

The focal article by Ducheyne and De Fruyt (2026) calls for a clear conceptual distinction between toxic and incompetent leadership, proposing that these categories can guide research and practice by reducing ambiguity. Although we agree that this differentiation offers useful conceptual clarity, we contend that it becomes unstable in its application. Dysfunctional leadership unfolds through both temporal fluctuation in leader behavior and relational variation in follower appraisal. These intertwined processes suggest that the same leader may appear toxic in one moment and merely incompetent in another, depending on shifting behavioral cues and the relational context in which followers interpret them. From this perspective, dysfunctional leadership is not a fixed category but an emergent pattern shaped by ongoing leader–follower dynamics.

Funding Source

This article was published open access thanks to a transformative agreement between Milner Library and Cambridge University Press.

Comments

First published in Industrial and Organizational Psychology (2026): https://doi.org/10.1017/iop.2026.10096

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

DOI

10.1017/iop.2026.10096

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