Toxic Organizational Cultures and Leadership

Introduction

DOI: 10.4324/9781003330387-1

While there are reckoned to be more than 100,000 books with ‘corporate culture’ or ‘leadership’ in the title, there are few that discuss the dark side of corporate culture, toxic cultures, and leadership.

Global companies have faced billion-dollar fines for fraudulent behaviours from mis-selling and deceit to criminal negligence: companies such as Wells Fargo, Volkswagen, and BP are continuing to face charges from government agencies.¹ The Federal Reserve barred Wells Fargo from growing as a penalty for opening more than two million accounts without authorization from customers. The root cause of this fraudulent behaviour was deemed by independent investigators to be a ‘culture of the division’. While ...