{"id":176979,"date":"2025-03-20T13:47:13","date_gmt":"2025-03-20T12:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=176979"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:27:44","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:27:44","slug":"why-kimberley-breevaart-reads-and-writes-about-difficult-subjects","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2025\/03\/20\/why-kimberley-breevaart-reads-and-writes-about-difficult-subjects\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Kimberley Breevaart reads and writes about difficult subjects"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kimberley Breevaart does not shy away from the subjects others would rather avoid. As a researcher, she has been studying tyrannical leadership for a decade. As an avid reader, she also opts for uncomfortable books, like Sociopath, a Memoir<\/em> by Patric Gagne. \u201cIf you really want to change something, you have to understand where it comes from.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLeroy Verbeet<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

While the sun is shining outside, Kimberley Breevaart is in the Pavilion talking about the darker sides of people, about the book Sociopath, a Memoir<\/em><\/a> by Patric Gagne \u2013 more on that later \u2013 and about tyrannical leadership, the subject she has been studying for a decade. For her research, she listens to the stories of people who have routinely had to deal with verbally or non-verbally aggressive managers in a variety of sectors, and people who have been bullied, ridiculed or humiliated in front of others in the workplace.<\/p>\n

Breevaart talks, reads and writes about this subject at EUR. \u201cEven at universities, employees have to deal with psychological abuse from managers\u201d, she says, based on knowledge gleaned from the many stories she has heard.<\/p>\n

Since writing an article in 2020 about how difficult it is to raise the issue of a manager\u2019s destructive behaviour, she has been receiving emails from people sharing their experiences. Some of these emails have come from colleagues in the academic community. \u201cI regularly check in with myself to make sure I\u2019m still okay with being so intensely involved in this subject. If nothing has changed in twenty years\u2019 time, I can imagine myself doing something else \u2013 but right now I feel fighting fit. If nobody does anything, nothing is ever going to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

No examples in the Netherlands<\/h2>

Breevaart started researching this subject a decade ago. She chose it precisely because few scholars were looking into \u2018the dark sides of leadership\u2019. \u201cWe mostly knew the effects of positive leadership, but the effects of poor leadership were less well known\u201d, she reflects.<\/p>\n

Social safety was not yet a social issue. Matthijs van Nieuwkerk was still thriving as host of the television programme De Wereld Draait Door<\/em> (The world keeps on turning). \u201cThese days, I can cite Van Nieuwkerk as an example when I talk about tyrannical leadership, but at the time we had no known examples in the Netherlands.\u201d<\/p>\n

In her early years studying this subject, there was a court case in France against France T\u00e9l\u00e9com, the predecessor of telecoms provider Orange. During a reorganisation, 35 employees of the company committed or attempted suicide. A French court ruled that disproportionate moral pressure had been exerted over employees. The company\u2019s management was held responsible, and the former CEO and several managers received prison sentences. \u201cWhen it comes to tyrannical leadership, I\u2019d like to be able to say that this telecom company is an extreme example, but now I know it\u2019s merely run-of-the-mill\u201d, says Breevaart.<\/p>\n\t

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Reading habits<\/strong><\/p>\n

Number of books per year:<\/strong> \u201cI\u2019ve just finished reading my tenth book this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last book read:<\/strong> Into Thin Air<\/em> \u2013 \u00d8rjan Karlsson<\/a><\/p>\n

Primary motivation:<\/strong> Relaxation and new perspectives<\/p>\n

Favourite genre:<\/strong> \u201cI alternate psychological thrillers with books on complex themes.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n

Speech is silver<\/h2>

\u201cIt happens a lot more than we think. In the ten years I\u2019ve been conducting research, I\u2019ve come across two people who never had an unpleasant experience with a manager. One was self-employed, the other was at the beginning of their career.\u201d Even with the strong focus on social safety in the workplace in recent years, it is still hard to question the position of managers. \u201cSaying anything about the most powerful people in an organisation is complicated\u201d, Breevaart observes. There are many reasons why: people are afraid for their job and for their future, people have come to consider their destructive manager\u2019s behaviour as normal, or they prefer to watch and wait, letting the situation continue. Speaking out is not always the best option either: \u201cIf, while talking with a confidential adviser, the employee concludes that there\u2019s no point in raising the issue of the tyrannical behaviour, it can sometimes be better to look for another job. Ultimately, the health of the employee comes first.\u201d<\/p>\n

Context determines behaviour<\/h2>

Breevaart claims her hobby of reading keeps her sane, but even the books on her bedside table deal with difficult subjects, such as discrimination, racism and sociopathy. \u201cIf you really want to change something, you have to understand where it comes from\u201d, she explains, although sociopathy is a difficult subject to get a handle on. \u201cYou can\u2019t change a personality disorder, but you can change the way you deal with it.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the book Sociopath, a Memoir<\/em>, Patric Gagne writes about her own experience of being a sociopath. The writer barely feels emotions and is capable of the most terrible things \u2013 \u2018prison is full of people with sociopathy\u2019 \u2013 but self-reflection and self-examination enable her to deal with her personality.<\/p>\n

Attending funerals is a way for Gagne to channel her tendencies. \u201cThat may be a bit strange, but it\u2019s socially acceptable and better than, say, theft or stalking\u201d, says Breevaart. \u201cIf you know which situations trigger bad tendencies, you can design your environment in such a way that you\u2019re facilitated in desirable behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

The same goes for destructive leadership. For example, there is a link between narcissism and poor leadership. \u201cYou can\u2019t change narcissism either, but you can question whether a leadership position is suitable for someone who scores high on narcissism.\u201d Breevaart\u2019s point is that things are not straightforward. She herself embraces complex questions, both in her work and in her spare time.<\/p>\n\t

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Kimberley Breevaart is associate professor of Work and Organisational Psychology at EUR. After studying Psychology in Rotterdam, she obtained her doctorate on the subject of leadership. Early next year, Boom will publish her first book, which contains tools to address tyrannical leadership in the workplace.<\/p>\n\n\t<\/div>\n\n\t

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