From Destructive Leadership to Good Leadership in Expert Organisations: Identifying the Determinants of Effective Leadership

Abstract

Leadership culture in expert organisations strongly influences organisational well‑being, employee retention and productivity. Destructive leadership, marked by authoritarian control, lack of transparency and neglect of employee welfare, erodes motivation and performance. Conversely, good leadership builds trust, fosters participation and supports professional growth. Drawing on eight semi‑structured interviews with leaders in Finnish expert organisations of varying size, this study identifies the behavioural patterns that differentiate destructive from good leadership and proposes a development framework for practice. Reflexive thematic analysis was used; data saturation was achieved after the sixth interview and confirmed with two additional interviews. Results show that good leadership rests on: 1) values‑based communication, 2) fairness and psychological safety, 3) shared decision‑making, 4) strategic clarity and 5) systematic capability development. The study contributes to leadership theory by integrating destructive and constructive perspectives and advances the debate on sustainable work in knowledge‑intensive contexts. Managerially, the findings point to organisation‑wide interventions, rather than reliance on individual charisma, as the route to improved leadership quality and employee well‑being.