Fake leadership and fake news undermining the “want” dimension of organizational recovery

Abstract

Purpose Organizational dark sides disrupt organizational functioning and may escalate into organizational destruction, creating a need for organizational recovery. They disturb the organizational status quo, constituting organizational change in themselves by introducing new conditions for an organizational functioning and triggering the internal crisis arising from these conditions. These disruptions create a need for an organizational response in the form of organizational recovery, which represents organizational change in its classical sense. In light of this, the study has two purposes: to examine the mechanisms through which both (1) fake leadership (FL) and (2) fake news (FN) influence organizational recovery. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on the readiness theory of organization and integrating insights from dynamic capabilities theory, organizational change theory (including theory of organizational readiness for change), social exchange theory and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) research, a model was proposed showing that FL and FN impair recovery by eroding intra-organizational trust, weakening OCB and disrupting the enabler of resources use. The models were verified using survey data collected in 2025 from 312 managers in Poland and analyzed with regression and path analysis (SPSS AMOS). Findings Both FL and FN were confirmed to exert significant negative effects on organizational recovery through assumed mechanism. Originality/value The study contributes by empirically validating the “want” dimension as a critical recovery mechanism, demonstrating how organizational dark sides can paralyze recovery even when capability capacity remains available. This research shows that FN and FL significantly weaken an organization’s willingness to activate resources and recovery capabilities. Furthermore, by damaging intraorganizational trust and OCB, dark sides block the possibility of organizational change, which is organizational recovery.