The Dark Side of Leadership: Unravelling the Effects of Toxic Leadership on Organizational Performance in Pakistan's Public Sector
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.62843/jrsr/2026.v.iii.213Keywords:
Toxic Leadership, Strategic Quality Management, Organizational Performance, Organizational Citizenship Behavior, Upper Echelon Theory, Public Sector, PakistanAbstract
This study examines the detrimental impact of toxic leadership on organizational performance in Pakistan's public sector. Drawing on upper echelon theory as a theoretical foundation this study uses a quantitative approach. This study uses a covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) on data from 392 public sector employees across Punjab province, this research investigates the direct and indirect (via strategic quality management) relationship between toxic leadership and organizational performance. This study has explored the moderating effect of organizational citizenship behavior between the relationship of toxic leadership and strategic quality management. The findings reveal that toxic leadership undermines organizational performance through the degradation of strategic quality management systems. Moreover, OCB buffers the negative effect of toxic leadership on strategic quality management. These results are consistent with the current literature that employee resilience in hostile institutional environments offer critical insights for public sector reform in developing economies.
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