Table 1.

Despotic leadership and related concepts.

Negative Leadership	Description	Similarities and Differences with DL
Despotic Leadership [20]	- is characterized by an autocratic approach, where leaders exercise absolute power and control over others - "focused on personal dominance and authoritarian behavior that benefits the self-interest of the leader" and is "self-aggrandizing and exploitative of others". - Their focus is the focus is to maintain dominance and suppress dissent	–
Destructive Leadership [23]	- “Systematic and repeated behavior by a leader, supervisor, or manager that violates the legitimate interest of the organization by undermining and/or sabotaging the organization's goals, tasks, and effectiveness and/or the motivation, well-being, or job satisfaction of subordinates".	- To pursue their advantages and interests, destructive leaders go against the interests of their organizations. - Destructive leaders don't listen to feedback, prioritize their own ideas and objectives, engage in excessive self-promotion and self-interest to advance themselves, are dishonest and inconsistent, and change their minds about the rules they've established, lack moral principles, as well as lack humanistic values, social justice, and fairness [25].
Petty Tyranny [4]	- the use of power and authority in a repressive, unpredictable, and vengeful manner. - playing top favorites & deprecate perffooormeeers - a lack of consideration, and a forceful style of conflict resolution, discouraging initiative, and no contingent punishment. - One who uses power over others is known as a petty tyrant - They typically do not rely on their staff members to assist them in achieving their goals; instead, they usually do it by themselves.	- DL and petty tyrannical leadership are examples of negative leadership that are based on the power differential between the leader and the followers. - Tyrannical leadership is the exercise of power and authority in a repressive, and vengeful manner, they belittle subordinates and they have a forcing style of conflict resolution like they only force their employees to accept their point of view and don’t want to hear no on his demands. Whereas despotic leaders do have bossy nature but they don’t have a forcing style of conflict resolution.
Abusive Leadership [3]	- the degree to which supervisors exhibit aggressive verbal and nonverbal abuses/behaviors consistently, excluding physical contact. - These damaging behaviors include humiliating others in public, throwing temper tantrums, and acting carelessly.	- Despotic leadership and abusive leadership have some conceptual overlaps as both, despotic and abusive leaders entail unethical behaviors - But abusive leader exhibits aggressive verbal and nonverbal language & behaviors, whereas despotic leaders don’t use abusive language with their employees.
Toxic Leadership [22]	- “a process by which leaders cause substantial and long-lasting harm to their followers, non-followers, and their organizations, through destructive behavior and/or dysfunctional personal qualities”. - Toxic leaders are mostly focused on seizing and holding onto power by using intimidation and fear tactics.	- TL has also received wide coverage in the academic and professional literature. - Both TL and DL styles capture harmful methods to destroy the mental health of employees. - Under toxic leadership employees are under heavy stress for longer periods because they use fearful tactics to be in power whereas despotic leaders don’t use fear tactics.
Unethical Leadership [26]	- a leadership style characterized by behaviors and actions that disregard ethical principles and moral values. - Unethical leaders often prioritize their self-interests over the well-being of their team or organization, by engaging in unethical practices such as dishonesty, manipulation, abuse of power, and lack of transparency.	- DL mainly focuses on the utilization of power to suppress others, while UL may manifest in various forms, such as manipulation, dishonesty, or exploitation without the level of dominance seen in DL. - UL encompasses a broad range of behaviors that violate ethical standards, such as dishonesty, favoritism, abuse of power, and lack of transparency. DL is more specifically associated with autocratic control and the suppression of individual rights and freedoms.
Self-protective Leadership [27]	- a style characterized by leaders' primary focus on safeguarding their own interests and protecting themselves from potential threats or failures. - These leaders prioritize their own security, reputation, and personal success at the expense of others or the organization.	- Self-protective leadership is self-focused in comparison with DL which is others’ focused. Self-protective leaders try to safeguard their own interests, reputation, and security, while despotic leaders exercise absolute power and control to dominate and suppress others.