Abstract
Destructive leadership remains a significant challenge across organizations, with both active and passive harmful leadership behaviours negatively impacting employees, teams, and overall workplace culture. As digitalization reshapes workplace dynamics, digital tools—such as AI-driven monitoring systems, remote communication platforms, and algorithmic decision-making—have inadvertently enabled and amplified destructive leadership behaviours. This study applies Trait Activation Theory to examine how digital environments act as situational cues that trigger and sustain destructive leadership tendencies. Through a two-phase qualitative research design, this study explores employees' experiences of destructive leadership in digitalized workplaces across various industries in the UK. The findings from Stage 1 (survey responses) reveal key manifestations of destructive leadership, including micromanagement through digital surveillance, lack of transparency in virtual decision-making, favouritism in remote settings, and algorithm-driven depersonalization of leadership. These insights inform the forthcoming Stage 2 (semi-structured interviews), which will further investigate how employees navigate and cope with digital-era toxic leadership.