Toxic leader - to be or not to be? : A phenomenological study on elite male handball players´ experiences within the field of toxic leadership

Abstract: This study aimed to investigate, analyze, and illuminate the perception and experiences of elite male handball players on toxic leadership in sports. The sport handball was chosen as a study object with a phenomenological approach. 9 individual interviews were conducted with 9 different elite male handball players who play in 9 different clubs in Handbollsligan, the top male division in Sweden. The chosen leadership theory was the toxic triangle theory, which entails that there need to be three different dimensions to toxic leadership: the destructive leader, the susceptible followers, and the conducive environment.  The results show that players have experienced toxic leadership. Three different aspects of toxic leadership were found and analyzed in this study. Firstly, destructive leaders exhibit abusive behavior, striving for personal power and manipulating other people within the organization. Secondly, players/followers who obey and conform to the leaders’ actions, experience negative emotions like anxiety, worry, and loss of self-esteem. Thirdly, the conducive environment that enables the leader’s destructive behavior has been discovered to be isolated, had a lack of communication, and was under the total rule of the destructive leader. In summary, this foretells the experiences of elite male handball players with toxic leadership.