Tsunami Leaders and their Style(s) and Ways
Prof. Dr. Low, Kim Cheng Patrick; Dr. Teo, Teck Choon

Abstract
One anonymous quote said of “bad leadership is like a flat tire. It’s very hard to go anywhere until you change it” (Search Quotes, 2015). The theme and emphasis of leadership – and more specifically, bad leadership and/ or the bad deeds of leaders has received much notice in the past few decades. In this adaptation of a peer-reviewed CASA: Chinese American Scholars’ Association Prague 2015 Conference paper: ‘Tsunami Leadership and Organizational Turmoil & Mayhem’, what emerges from the literature review of various kinds of leadership styles is a less desirable or destructive type of leadership (also known as non-leadership); it can destroy or hurt organizational morale and the incumbents’ motivation. The authors prefer to label it as “Tsunami leadership” or the vilest kind of leadership, a term that expresses or indeed simply indicates the outrage, disgrace and indignation of the leader’s ineffectiveness, functioning like a non-leader and the enormity of the effect of such type of leadership that comes from the failure to anticipate changes caused by either personal issues, noncompetences or environmental settings. Besides, there is also no significant trait of special quality which enables the leader to sustain in mobilizing any direction within an organization. The notion of Tsunami leadership is not a popular one; and it is an unethical version of leadership style or personality. It is rather a model that emerges in identifying the nature of non-leader in a position that (s)he fails to lead and/or bring about changes, let alone be effective, but still claims or worse, boasts to be successful in a certain way. The aim and purpose of this paper is to show and examine those traits, characteristics and behaviors that are reflected as Tsunami leadership which can jeopardize, risk and ruin an organization. Like professional hit-man, Tsunami leaders are put in place as if to destroy or mar organizations and organizational morale as well as the spirit of their stakeholders.

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