Technology-Driven Toxicity: Conceptualizing Dark Digital Leadership in Contemporary Organizations

Contemporary global business environments are increasingly defined by rapid digital transformation (Barrett et al., 2021; Cascio and Montealegre, 2016) and complex technological integrations that significantly reshape organizational practices and leadership dynamics. Within this evolving landscape, the emergence of digital leadership offers unprecedented opportunities for innovation, agility, and strategic advantage. However, alongside these promising developments, there exists a critical, yet underexplored, dark dimension—termed here as "Dark Digital Leadership" (DDL)—characterized by toxic leadership behaviors amplified by digital technology (Avolio et al., 2014; Cortellazzo et al., 2019). This paper introduces and explores the concept of DDL, providing a novel and rigorous theoretical framework aimed at understanding its emergence, mechanisms, consequences, and moderating factors within organizational contexts. Drawing on extensive literature from leadership studies, toxic leadership (Einarsen et al., 2007; Padilla et al., 2007), and digital transformation (Barrett et al., 2021; Leonardi, 2011), this research investigates how digital technologies interact with dark personality traits—such as narcissism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy (Paulhus and Williams, 2002; Jonason et al., 2012)—and structural organizational affordances to produce uniquely toxic leadership phenomena