Toxic Leadership Styles as Predictors of Psychological Distress among Civil Servants in Anambra State.

Abstract

The study explored toxic leadership as predictors of psychological distress among civil servants in Anambra State. The participants in the study involved two hundred and seventeen (217) federal civil servants drawn from Ministry of Finance and Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Awka-South Local Government Area of Anambra State. They comprised of 105 (47.0%) male and 112 (53.0%) female. Their age is between 28 to 55 years with mean age of 41.73 and standard deviation of 7.89. The study utilized simple random sampling and incident sampling techniques to select the organizations and the participants respectively. Two instruments were used: DetectaWeb-Distress Scale, and Toxic Leader Scale. The study adopted correlational design and Multiple Regression statistic served as appropriate statistics for analyses of the data. The study showed that toxic leadership dimensions (self-promotion, unpredictable, narcissism and authoritarian leaders) significantly predicted psychological distress among federal civil servants in Awka, Anambra State. While abusive supervision did not significantly predict psychological distress among federal civil servants in Awka, Anambra State. Based on the findings, the study recommends that there is need for re-evaluation of civil service system; this will help bring change that will reduce dysfunctional work environment that impact psychological distress of civil servants.