Abusive Leadership: A Systematic Review of the Literature

Leadership has a responsibility to subordinates and organisations, and abusive leadership needs further study to determine its effects on leaders, subordinates, and organisations. Abusive leadership is associated with different terms and generated by different situations, so the aim of this study is to establish a unified framework of the antecedents of abusive leadership, including its types, factors, and effects. This study conducted protocol research as a systematic review of the literature, and its objective was developed through an analysis of articles (n= 70) organised into four clusters. The analysis identified many types of leadership, leadership styles, and management styles, which developed according to the orientation of the leader (task and/or subordinate), and according to it, inefficient leadership could lead to an abusive leadership. Also, leadership in general is a product of contextual factors, personal (leader/supervisor) behaviour, and subordinate characteristics, and abusive leadership situations have effects on the subordinate and team levels. This study has multilevel theoretical and practical implications, including personal and organisational ones, and some limits, which are why further research on this topic is recommended.