The Darker Side of Leadership

While most of us can’t complain about our bosses, one Commerce student has done a study focusing on those unfortunate employees with a “bad boss.” Alison Starratt of Halifax, NS did her honours research on abusive leadership.

Alison received a 2007 summer undergraduate research award from Mount Allison and worked with Commerce professor Dr. Gina Grandy. Alison explains, “My study is focusing on ‘abusive management.’ While there is a lot of academic research on positive and passive leadership, there is a growing interest in understanding the dark side of leadership. There isn’t a lot of published research though. My goal for the study is to help develop a theory of abusive leadership — to develop a better understanding of what abusive supervision actually is, what might lead to it, the outcomes at the individual, group, and organization levels, as well as how the individual experiencing ‘it’ makes sense of it.” To read more please click here.

For more student research in business, please click on the titles below.

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