A toxic triangle of destructive leadership at Bristol Royal Infirmary: A study of organizational Munchausen syndrome by proxy
A toxic triangle of destructive leadership at Bristol Royal Infirmary: A study of organizational Munchausen syndrome by proxy
Although leadership literature increasingly recognizes that leadership is a complex, co-creational process among leaders, followers, and context, destructive leadership scholarship has only recently embraced this paradigm. This article contributes to the toxic triangle debate by linking destructive leadership theory and disaster research in a case study of Bristol Royal Infirmary, a UK hospital that experienced a crisis in its pediatric cardiology unit resulting in the death of dozens of babies undergoing surgery. Thus, the article expands the literature on organizational failure by offering an assessment of how seemingly good, well-intentioned professionals can nonetheless create destructive leadership dynamics and proposes a new, more nuanced theoretical framework called organizational Munchausen syndrome by proxy as a way to analyze what went wrong.
34-52
Fraher, A. L.
5c2ad136-717b-43b1-be85-c7a970f85116
1 February 2016
Fraher, A. L.
5c2ad136-717b-43b1-be85-c7a970f85116
Fraher, A. L.
(2016)
A toxic triangle of destructive leadership at Bristol Royal Infirmary: A study of organizational Munchausen syndrome by proxy.
Leadership, 12 (1), .
(doi:10.1177/1742715014544392).
Abstract
Although leadership literature increasingly recognizes that leadership is a complex, co-creational process among leaders, followers, and context, destructive leadership scholarship has only recently embraced this paradigm. This article contributes to the toxic triangle debate by linking destructive leadership theory and disaster research in a case study of Bristol Royal Infirmary, a UK hospital that experienced a crisis in its pediatric cardiology unit resulting in the death of dozens of babies undergoing surgery. Thus, the article expands the literature on organizational failure by offering an assessment of how seemingly good, well-intentioned professionals can nonetheless create destructive leadership dynamics and proposes a new, more nuanced theoretical framework called organizational Munchausen syndrome by proxy as a way to analyze what went wrong.
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e-pub ahead of print date: 23 July 2014
Published date: 1 February 2016
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Local EPrints ID: 427842
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/427842
ISSN: 1742-7150
PURE UUID: 741d0c7d-ec46-4ce9-994f-7bf60bfa881a
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Date deposited: 30 Jan 2019 17:30
Last modified: 16 Mar 2024 00:00
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A. L. Fraher
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