Toxic: How Organizations Go Bad

Exposes the anatomy of organizational harm and how to save institutions from toxic cultures

While we often read about the scandals organizations cause, we are often left wondering: why do organizations keep causing harm?

Benjamin van Rooij and Nicholas Lord argue that to truly understand and address the impacts of dysfunctional workplaces we must understand the economic, social, and governmental contexts. To do so, Toxic uses dozens of in-depth case studies to connect the dots between various scandals and illustrate the deeper toxic patterns within organizations that lead to them.

Each chapter recounts compelling stories of individuals caught within these toxic systems and addresses urgent societal challenges such as climate change, structural abuse, and the failures of both private and public institutions. Stories include:

• The role the US Federal Aviation Authority played in Boeing’s failure to ensure the safety of its 737 MAX airplanes
• Volkswagen executives installing emission cheating software in 11 million vehicles
• How Monsanto suppressed critical scientific evidence of the harmful nature of some of its most important products.

Accessible, engaging, and full of insight, Toxic, breaks down the core characteristics of toxic organizations and equips readers with tools to unearth and prevent toxicity.