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This article examines negative or destructive leadership behaviors experienced by high-potential senior military officers and civilian employees. The study used a questionnaire based on the Petty Tyranny in Organizations Scale to explore the scope and nature of destructive leadership as reported by U.S. members of the class of 2008 at a military senior service college. It also explored the relationship between leadership experiences and various measures of satisfaction and inclination to remain in service. The authors observe that despite the central role that the concept of leadership holds in the military, even senior personnel reported experiencing toxic leadership. There was a significant negative relationship between destructive leadership and all measures of satisfaction. Surprisingly, there was not a significant negative impact on inclination to remain in service among this career-oriented and dedicated population.

In a constructive replication of prior comprehensive tests of situational leadership theory, members of 86 squads of U.S. Military Academy cadets (total of 860 participants) provided data on leader consideration, leader structuring, follower readiness/maturity, follower satisfaction, follower performance, and leader-member exchange. Results of regression analyses and tests for mean differences within follower readiness/maturity level did not yield clear evidence of a predicted interaction among leader style and follower attributes. These results are in alignment with prior findings and suggest the theory may have little practical utility.