Personality Profiles and Sector Context of Toxic Leadership: A Multilevel Analysis in a Bulgarian Sample

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Pages: 208-216
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54664/QFYZ7946

Abstract:

This article examines toxic leadership as a social-psychological phenomenon emerging at the intersection of leader personality and organizational context. The analysis is based on data from 48 leaders and 216 subordinate raters across four sectors: business, politics, NGOs, and education. Leaders completed HEXACO and Dark Tetrad measurements, whereas subordinates evaluated leadership through the Toxic Leadership Scale. Exploratory factor analysis confirmed a five-factor structure and excellent adequacy of the data. Descriptive findings indicate relatively high levels of overall toxicity, with the business sector standing out through higher abusive behavior and higher overall toxicity than politics. Leaders displayed comparatively high conscientiousness, openness, and honesty-humility, but also elevated psychopathy relative to normative values. The mixed linear model showed that, after simultaneously controlling for sector and personality variables, no single predictor retained independent significance, whereas between-leader variance remained substantial. The findings suggest that toxic leadership should not be reduced either to sector or to a single personality trait; rather, it should be understood as a configuration of personality, organizational culture, and follower perceptions.

Keywords:

toxic leadership, social psychology, HEXACO, Dark Tetrad, organizational context, multilevel analysis.

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