An example of destructive leadership: Sultan II. Abdülhamid

Concept of leadership is considered in a positive sense in other words in the context to increase performance of its followers and the organization in the literature. Theories developed in this connection seek to find answers to the questions of "how to be a good leader" and "how to perform an efficient leadership". It can therefore not be expected that an individual would in every way and every circumstance could exhibit a behavior which is in full agreement with interests and benefits of the organization, independently from which leaders can not behave since they are human beings in nature in the last analysis. Accordingly, leaders in most organizations have been observed to occasionally exhibit destructive behaviors deliberately or unintentionally and hence cause the organization and its followers to drag to inextricable situations, which has been studied in different contexts and under different headings in the literature. The present study constitutes a "Destructive Leadership Model" by scanning those studies which shed light on the dark side of leadership in the litterature. The model suggests that destructive leadership not only relies on personality characteristics of the leader but on properties of the enviroment of the organization and followers in it as well, according to which a leader must have charateristics of power as well as those handicaps such as narcissism, charisma and negative points of view on life, which is course not enough for a destructive leadership to appear. It is obvious that the followers and surrounding parameters suitable to and paving way for emergence of destructive leadership must also exist. By means of the model concerned, one has tried to analyze behaviors of destructive leadership by Ottoman Sultan, Abdülhamid Han the 2nd in a typical example for the Ottoman- Turkish culture regarded as an undivided continuation in political and organizational terms. A phenomological analytical method has been applied using primary and secondary historical archives herein presented in detail. In this connection, the quentile of personality traits of Sultan Abdülhamid Han the 2nd and his suitable followers as well as the properties of environment have been presented in graphics to finally discuss the consequences involved.