Recognised but not Acknowledged: Searching for the Bad Leader in Theory and Text

The aim of this article is to qualitatively explain different elements of bad leadership, especially elements relating to the leader her/himself. The study reported here consists of a literature review and an empirical analysis. The literature review covers the most important trends and theories, presenting scientific articles during the last 15 years. The aim of the literature review is to synthesize the core elements of the bad leader. The empirical analysis consists of three different analysis methods to one volume of Talouselämä (The Economic Life), a leading Finnish business magazine. Methodologically the study proceeds from content analysis via interpretative discourse analysis to critical discourse analysis. The combination and phased application of the three approaches to discourse analysis produces a novel way of exposing the layered structure of the studied phenomenon. The most important result is that bad leadership and bad leaders are recognized but not genuinely acknowledged. Bad leaders are a secondary and silenced phenomenon, used mainly as a point of comparison and for highlighting good leaders. Marginalization and silence are methods of exercising power and building the accepted impression of leaders and leadership in the society.