TY - JOUR AB - Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological and motivational processes involved in the relationship between two forms of destructive leadership (tyrannical and laissez-faire) and employee health (burnout, affective commitment and job performance). Drawing on self-determination theory, this paper links tyrannical and laissez-faire leadership to employee health through psychological need frustration and poor-quality (controlled) work motivation.Design/methodology/approach A total of 399 Canadian nurses took part in this cross-sectional study. Structural equational modelling analyses were conducted.Findings Results show that tyrannical leadership frustrates nurses’ needs for autonomy, competence and relatedness, whereas laissez-faire leadership frustrates nurses’ need for autonomy only. The frustration of needs for autonomy and competence predicts low-quality (controlled) work motivation, which is consequently associated with impaired health (burnout and lower affective commitment as well as performance).Originality/value This study contributes to the scarce knowledge regarding the distinct outcomes of destructive forms of leadership and uncovers the specific psychological and motivational pathways through which these types of leadership influence employees’ health. VL - 40 IS - 7 SN - 0143-7739 DO - 10.1108/LODJ-04-2019-0168 UR - https://doi.org/10.1108/LODJ-04-2019-0168 AU - Trépanier Sarah-Geneviève AU - Boudrias Valérie AU - Peterson Clayton PY - 2019 Y1 - 2019/01/01 TI - Linking destructive forms of leadership to employee health T2 - Leadership & Organization Development Journal PB - Emerald Publishing Limited SP - 803 EP - 814 Y2 - 2024/05/05 ER -