Toxic Culture and a Wounded Leader: A Foray Into a Dysfunctional Educational Community

Abstract

This case was written for school leaders, specifically for administrators interested in addressing and improving school culture. Often efforts to address toxic culture and organizational change result in resistance, requiring leadership that is capable of influencing and inspiring cultural transformation. However, leaders who embark on these types of organizational improvement efforts can often experience leadership wounds inflicted by experiences and responses of others that are inevitable in education. These wounds can attack the beliefs, values, and psyche of leaders more broadly. Educators can use this case to examine their own wounds, and more specifically how this framework might be applied to leadership decisions, responses, and interpersonal and intrapersonal development as they respond to pressures of improving negative and toxic cultures.

Keywords

school culture leadership interpersonal dynamics group dynamics

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