Discursive Practices of Dark Side Leaders: Reflections from Pakistan and Colombia

Scholars and practitioners, particularly those who study leadership, have focused on dark side leaders and identified the different characteristics and how they influence the organisational vision and employees' performance. Therefore, and in response to the call for a practice-oriented analysis, this chapter focuses on what dark-side leaders do in practice, particularly those who hold leadership positions in organisations. We have focused on one aspect of their discursive practices: The terms they use. To do so, we initially elaborated on previous research from a Pakistani perspective; then, to emphasise the cross-cultural dimension of dark-side leadership, we present a case from Colombia taken from an ethnographic work of one of the authors, who lived inside military life for 30 years. Our findings suggest a series of self-reflections for leaders and a framework through which leaders may analyse whether their words are on the dark or bright side.