فاطمه باقری

Despite research on the destructive consequences of toxic leadership, existing studies have predominantly focused on industrial settings and relied on quantitative, outcome-oriented approaches. Consequently, the processes through which toxic leadership emerges and persists within educational organizations, particularly from the perspective of employees’ lived experiences, remain insufficiently theorized. This research was conducted with the aim of addressing this gap. This study adopted a qualitative grounded theory approach following Strauss and Corbin’s (1998) procedures. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with 24 employees and subject-matter experts who had direct experience with toxic leadership. Participants were selected using purposive and theoretical sampling, and data collection continued until theoretical saturation was reached. Data analysis involved open, axial, and selective coding. Trustworthiness was ensured through peer debriefing, member checking, and intra-coder consistency via re-analysis. Findings reveal that toxic leadership is not a static or purely behavioral phenomenon but a dynamic, multi-layered, and context-dependent process. It emerges and is sustained through the interaction of leaders’ motivations and power resources with dysfunctional organizational structures, toxic cultures, and employees’ cognitive–behavioral responses. The analysis generated 359 concepts, 55 components, and 16 core categories, which were integrated into a paradigmatic model encompassing causal, contextual, and intervening conditions, and action/interaction strategies and consequences. This study contributes by conceptualizing toxic leadership as a processual and institutionalized phenomenon embedded in the interplay between leaders, followers, and organizational contexts. The proposed model offers both theoretical advancement and practical insights for preventing, managing, and mitigating toxic leadership.

Background: Official websites of tourism destinations provide an important digital content and are considered as widely-used tools of introducing destinations and presenting tourism products to the potential tourists. Improving the usability of websites helps the tourism destinations in achieving their goals. Websites usability is measured based on different criteria. Purpose: This paper evaluates and compares the usability of Iran and Malaysia official tourism destination websites –which are regarded as quite comparable in their tourism products and market- using seven criteria of content, visual attractiveness, infrastructure, interaction and responsiveness, navigation, customization, and product provision. Method: In order to do this evaluation, pairwise comparison questionnaires of the criteria were developed based on DEMATEL and ANP techniques and were answered online by 10 tourism experts in Iran. Websites’ usability analysis was performed using a combination of two MCDM (Multiple Criteria Decision Making) techniques that are DEMATEL and ANP so that the causal relations of the criteria are identified along with the ranking of their significance. Findings: The findings of the research show “infrastructure” as the dispatcher criterion, “product provision” as the receiver, and “content” as the most important criterion in the usability of tourism destinations’ websites. The findings also revealed the superiority of Malaysia’s official tourism website as compared to that of Iran.