The paradox of nice leadership: An exploratory mapping of passive toxicity

Abstract

While leadership theories often celebrate empathy and accommodation, this exploratory quantitative study reveals how the excessive manifestation of these behaviours—defined here as niceness rather than genuine kindness—crosses into toxicity, undermining organisational health. Based on a survey of 380 Jordanian employees, I exploratorily map excessively accommodating leadership as a passive-toxic style marked by: (1) chronic conflict avoidance; (2) pathological indecisiveness, delaying decisions; (3) reliance on a narrow inner circle, marginalizing dissent; (4) self-aggrandizing narratives; (5) failure to enforce accountability; and (6) exploitable leniency, undermining productivity. The six factors align with the toxic triangle framework: conflict avoidance, pathological indecisiveness, and accountability failure represent leader-driven behaviours; exploitable leniency and inner-circle reliance reflect enabling environmental conditions, such as weak accountability systems and informal relational favouritism; and self-aggrandizing narratives, alongside subordinates’ perceptions, mediate the transformation of seemingly benign behaviours into toxic outcomes. Findings demonstrate that leaders who are too nice inadvertently foster environments where manipulative subordinates thrive, high performers disengage, and mediocrity becomes entrenched. By integrating toxic leadership theory with critiques of servant leadership, I reframe excessive accommodation as a passive-toxic behaviour distinct from overt aggression, providing the first structural mapping of this novel construct. Practical implications urge organisations to train leaders in courageous kindness—balancing empathy with the resolve to enforce standards.