What Is Disengaging (Need-Frustrating) Leadership?
A leader can not only motivate employees but also actively undermine their engagement and motivation. This typically occurs through excessive control over how tasks are performed, criticism of employees’ competence, devaluation of their contributions, or hindering their professional development. Such behavior is known as disengaging (need-frustrating) leadership.
It is important to distinguish between disengaging leadership and the mere absence of positive leadership, as both can demotivate subordinates, yet for different reasons. The absence of positive leadership is characterized by passivity, avoidance of decision-making, failure to address problems, and a lack of constructive feedback. Disengaging leadership, by contrast, involves active negative behaviors that frustrate employees’ basic psychological needs.
Disengaging Leadership Scale
The Disengaging Leadership Scale (DLS) is a relatively new instrument published in 2021. It assesses the extent to which a disengaging leader undermines employees’ basic psychological needs for autonomy, competence recognition, relatedness, and acknowledgment of their contribution.
Research has consistently confirmed the reliability of the DLS across diverse employee groups: it performs equally well for workers in operational, administrative, and managerial roles.
This questionnaire is designed to be completed by subordinates to evaluate the negative behaviors of their direct supervisor.