DESTRUCTIVE LEADERSHIP, JOB STRESS, JOB PERFORMANCE AND

JOB SATISFACTION RELATIONSHIP

Muhammad Aqib Jamil, Awais Malik
University Of Central Punjab, UCP Business School, 1-Khayaban-E-Jinnah Road, Johar Town,
Lahore, Pakistan.
Keywords: destructive leadership, job stress, job satisfaction, job performance

Introduction:
From many years, much of attention has been given to the functional aspects of the leadership
and dark side of the leadership has not yet given the full attention (luthans, peterson, lbrayeva,
1998). Leadership involves intentional influence process which is done by one person to guide,
facilitate activities and the relationships among the people in organization (yukl, 2006). The
study on how and when the department leaders supervision affects the organizational levels by
undermining the creativity of employee (liu, liao, loi, 2012). While increasingly acknowledge of
leadership scholars on the followers influence in the leadership process, very little attention has
been given to destructive leadership (thoroughgood et al,2012).
Destructive leadership is an over and time repeated and systematic behavior of a leader, manager
or a supervisor that lawful interest of an organization by undermining or damage the tasks,
effectiveness, motivation, job satisfaction, resources, goals of organization of

his or her

subordinates (einarsen, aasland & skogstad, 2007).According to thoroughgood and colleagues

(2012). Destructive leadership is a voluntary act committed by a person in leadership, managerial
or supervisory position which would perceive as unfavorable and anomalous towards followers
or organization, which may be active or passive oral or physical, direct or indirect. In addition,
number of leader dispositions such as anger, anxiety and poor self-regulation have been linked to
destructive leadership (kant et al., 2013; krasikova, green, & lebreton, 2013; mawritz et al.,
2014).

Destructive leadership has significant impact on job stress, job stress is considered as first-level
outcome of job, it is a discomfort feeling that is distinct from second-level outcome that may
involve different level of job satisfaction and job performance. (parker, decotiis, 1983) one of the
previous study on job stress and job performance concluded that there is negative linear
relationship between job stress and job performance (jamal, 1984). Job performance is an
individuals actions or behaviors that lead to organizational goals (rotundo & sackett 2002). Job
satisfaction is affective reactions of employees to a job consist of many elements (fields 2002).
Job stress or occupational stress are interrelated with job satisfaction and job performance and
they influence work and personal characteristics (nabirye, brown, pryor, & maples, 2011)
Recently leadership researchers adopted the topic from other work behavior of destructive
leadership such as counterproductive work behavior and bullying (tepper, 2007; thoroughgood et
al. 2012). Increasing research on negative organization behavior, destructive leadership have
become an attention topic among scholar, number of

researches have done on negative

leadership, but researchers not yet reach the major consensus of destructive leadership until now
(lu, ling, wu & liu, 2012).in present study we aim to explore the relationship between destructive
leadership, job performance and job satisfaction with the mediating effect of job stress between
destructive leadership and job performance, job satisfaction. The objective of present study is to
evaluate how the destructive leadership influence the job satisfaction and job performance of an
organization employees, how job stress effect the job outcomes in form of job satisfaction and
job performance and how job stress is associated with destructive leadership?

LITERATURE REVIEW AND HYPOTHESES

The effect of destructive leadership on job stress, job satisfaction and job performance:
Some researchers claim that leadership only can be explain positively (yukl & van fleet, 1992)
they discard the concept of negative leader behavior and its different terms in form of
destructive leadership (e.g, supervision, headship or management).previously researchers
focused on leadership positive behavior due to which additional information has become
accessible on leadership negative aspects, this shift reason is a response of negative leadership
consequences on followers in relation of job stress, job satisfaction and well-being, purpose of

focus on this topic is to understand more about destructive leadership effects (schyns et al.
2013) .the current view holds undesirable circumstantial factors like organizational abuse and
injustice from upper-level managers tends to destructive leadership e.g. Abusive supervision
(hershcovis & rafferty, 2012; tepper, 2007). Many leaders character such as poor self-regulation,
anger and anxiety have been linked toward destructive leadership (kant et al., 2013; krasikova,
green, & lebreton, 2013; mawritz et al., 2014).
Destructive leadership is a deliberate act devoted by a leadership, managerial or supervisory
position which would perceive as unfavorable and anomalous to followers or organization, which
may be active or passive oral or physical, direct or indirect. Destructive leader can be due to
some situational backgrounds, researchers propose that bullying can influence others by not only
rise in reputation, but also can increase the performance at work (ferris, zinko ,brouer, buckley
& harvey, 2007).while other researchers claim that subordinates with extra enriched jobs
influence less by destructive leader (schaubroeck, walumbwa, ganster & kepes, 2007).
Leadership researchers recently assumed other areas topic such as counterproductive behavior
and bullying (tepper, 2007; thoroughgood et al. 2012).An comprehensive assessment of bullying
research proposes that bullying has destructive outcomes in various situations. Bullying form of
destructive leadership is negatively related to job satisfaction (einarsen & raknes, 1997)
absenteeism and turnover (rayner, 1997). Bullying is likely to overcome in stressful working
environments considered by great levels of personal resistance and destructive leadership (hauge
et al. 2012). Krasikova et al. (2013) acknowledged leader poor self-regulation, anxiety and anger
as recognized previous circumstances of destructive leadership. Numerous studies have stated a
link between negative contextual and abusive supervision factors, like psychological contract
destruction, abuse from managers, organizational injustice and aggressive norms (hershcovis &
rafferty, 2012; mawritz et al., 2014; tepper, 2007). Leaders are frequently pressured to react
rapidly and correctly to tasks and make organizational decisions on unreliable information. Such
decisions can be stressful, especially when a leader decisions influence organization and the
followers (e.g; job stress, job performance), (griffin, neal, & parker, 2007).stress is challenging in
several organizations costing organizations like

disability, absenteeism, low productivity,

commitment, performance, satisfaction and turnover (xie & schaubroeck, 2001).the above
experimental support and speculative observations clear that the destructive leadership have

effect on the job stress ,job satisfaction and job performance of employees. Hence we conclude
that,
Hypothesis 1: descriptive leadership will be positively related to job stress and negatively
related to job satisfaction and job performance.
The effect of job stress on job satisfaction and job performance:
Stress is a condition in which a person is confronted with constraint, demand or an opportunity
interrelated to what he/she wishes and for which the result is observed to be both important and
uncertain (stephen p robbins, 1988). Cooper et al (2001) have characterized job stressors as
organizational roles (responsibility and role stressors), job characteristics (control and workload),
interpersonal work relationships (conflicts, leadership style and social support), homework
interface (working hours and leisure time), organizational factors (office politics and
organizational structure) and career development (promotion and job insecurity) where some of
these categories comprise of intrinsic stressors (related with role demands and task content) and
other contain interpersonal relationships (goals achievement and off job responsibilities). The
existence of several work stressors may establish a stressful work place environment, which lead
to stress like psychological discomfort (berkowitz, 1989; fox & spector, 1999).due to stress some
employees may violate workplace norms or perform less competently then others at work
(hauge, skogstad & einarsen 2012). Jamal (1984) define job performance as activates through
which employee accomplish the goal or task effectively by consumption of accessible resources
(jamal, 1984). Other studies on work stress propose that work stress lead to job dissatisfaction,
unfavorable psychological and physical outcomes (chen at al, 2014). Job satisfaction is defined
as how people feel their jobs, it is an attitude that one carries towards his/her job (bajpai, dave &
bajpai, 2015). Low job satisfaction is an important sign of reduction in employee performance
and result as absenteeism (martin & miller, 1986). Modern studies focus on job stress and job
satisfaction together because job stress is associated with turnover, job performance and
commitment to organization (catano et al. 2010; ryan et al. 2012).
Hypothesis 2a: job stress will be negatively related to job satisfaction.
Hypothesis 2b: job stress will be negatively related to job performance

Effect of job stress between destructive leadership, job satisfaction and job performance:
According to mawritz et al. (2014) cognitive theory based study on stress found that supervisor
negative emotions and hindrance stress like anxiety and anger, mediates the relationship between
job goals and abusive supervision (lazarus & folkman, 1984), that is a perception of job goals
actuality more difficult directed to higher stress ,abusive supervision and negative emotions by a
leader. Some research illustrate that leaders engage in destructive behaviors cause higher level of
stress in subordinates (hauge et al. 2010; lutgen-sandvik et al. 2007), lower job satisfaction
(tepper, duffy, hoobler, & ensley, 2004), and higher turnover (yagil, 2006).
If people are frightened to perform some action or not perform due to fear of punishment, this
will effect individuals attitude as well as their job performance (adams & bray, 1992). One of the
basic cause of stress is loss of control karasek's (1979) widely recognized occupational stress
model. Higher level of destructive leadership behavior tends to subordinates experience less job
satisfaction, negative correlations between destructive leadership behavior and turnover intension
(woestman, wasonga, 2015). Recent research report that destructive forms of leadership increase
dissatisfied and stress and subordinates perceive their leaders in negative way (skogstad et al.
2015). Ashforth (1994) claims that destructive leadership form may reduce cohesiveness,
increase job stress between subordinates and creating a stressful work environment which can
flourish bullying (bowling & beehr, 2006) the joint effect of leadership behavior and job
stressors may affect employees more (cooper et al., 2001).as the relationship of destructive
leadership and job stress is very strong according to meta-analysis and higher job stress lead to
job dissatisfaction and reduce job performance of subordinates. So we propose:
Hypothesis 3a: job stress will mediate the relationship between destructive leadership and job
satisfaction.
Hypothesis 3b: job stress will mediate the relationship between destructive leadership and job
performance.

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Research model and hypotheses:

job satisfaction
destructive leadership

job stress
job performance

Hypothesis 1: descriptive leadership will be positively related to job stress and negatively related
to job satisfaction and job performance.
Hypothesis 2a: job stress will be negatively related to job satisfaction.
Hypothesis 2b: job stress will be negatively related to job performance
Hypothesis 3a: job stress will mediate the relationship between destructive leadership and job
satisfaction.
Hypothesis 3b: job stress will mediate the relationship between destructive leadership and job
performance.