The toxic triangle of unethical leadership is the negative consequence that emanates from destructive leadership and susceptible followers. Based on previous research on the illustration of toxic triangle of unethical leadership, it has been established that the subject discusses the negative outcomes for organizations and people who are linked and affected by them. The toxic triangle mainly focuses with the characteristics of leaders, their environmental context, and the followers (Heppell, 2011). The above subject can be best described using the case of Jim Jones and the Jonestown Massacre.
The Jonestown Massacre which occurred in 18th November 1978 is a mass execution where more than 900 members of the American cult referred to as the Peoples Temple died. The people died due to a command provided by their leader Jim Jones. The People’s Temple was founded by Jim Jones in 1950 in the Southern American town of Guyana (Steel, 2002). He then relocated his congregation to California in the late 1960s. In the late 1970s, powerful preachers of the congregation fled with over 1000 followers to the jungle of Guyanese. Their fleeing was caused by the negative media attention that the congregation had. In 1978, the United States Representative who has gone to Jonestown to examine the claims of abuse in the region was killed, along with four members of his team (Levi, 1982). The same day, Jones directed his congregation to ingest poison-laced punch in the presence of armed guards. The case above shows a clear indication of how the toxic triangle caused the death of many people in Jonestown. The poor leadership exhibited by Jim Jones coupled with paranoia made him order the massacre of his followers. He felt that his followers owed him their lives which causes superiority complex (Klineman, 1980). The followers had also subjected all their lives and possessions to the daunting Jim Jones. He therefore took advantage of this and used it as a vice.
References
Steel, F. (2002). Jonestown Massacre: A ‘Reason’to Die. Crime Library.
Levi, K. (1982). Violence and religious commitment: Implications of Jim Jones's People's Temple movement. Penn State University Press.
Heppell, T. (2011). Toxic leadership: Applying the Lipman-Blumen model to political leadership. Representation, 47(3), 241-249.
Klineman, G., Butler, S., & Conn, D. (1980). The Cult That Died: The Tragedy of Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple. Putnam Publishing Group.
