In politics or business, unethical leadership may prosper for a time, but in the end it destroys the values that sustain the community. The chapter talks about misleadership to make us better understand and develop leadership. Barbara Kellerman, in her book Bad Leadership, makes a strong case for depicting and studying both sides of the leadership equation. For Kellerman, bad leadership falls into two basic categories: bad as in ineffective and bad as in unethical. In Kellerman's accounting, these two basic categories can, in turn, be subdivided into seven groups: incompetent leadership, rigid leadership, intemperate leadership, callous leadership, corrupt leadership, insular leadership, and evil leadership. Sometimes bad leaders are both ineffective and unethical. Misleaders, just like leaders, are dependent upon followers for exercising any power and authority. Both leaders and misleaders achieve power either through the active cooperation or through the benign neglect of their followers.

Controlled Vocabulary Terms

ethics; leadership; power