Toxic leadership has emerged as a pressing concern in contemporary organizational discourse, gaining significant traction across diverse sectors and academic disciplines. Despite its severe implications, the scholarly landscape of toxic leadership remains fragmented, with overlapping terminologies and disciplinary silos obscuring conceptual clarity and cumulative knowledge development. This study addresses a critical gap in the literature by conducting a comprehensive bibliometric analysis of toxic leadership research spanning 2010–2025. Drawing on 230 documents retrieved from the Scopus database and employing VOSviewer for data visualization, the analysis maps the intellectual structure, author networks, and thematic evolution of the field. Key findings reveal a multidisciplinary character, with dominant contributions from business, psychology, nursing, and social sciences. The Journal of Nursing Management emerges as the most prolific outlet, reflecting heightened concerns regarding toxic leadership in healthcare settings. Prominent scholars such as Boddy, Labrague, and Padilla shape the field, contributing foundational theories and empirical insights. Thematic mapping indicates a shift in scholarly focus, from early depictions of toxic leadership as an individual pathology to later recognition of its relational and strategic organizational consequences. Co-authorship networks reveal strong collaboration clusters, particularly in the United States, fostering sustained intellectual exchange and cross-institutional synergy. Moreover, co-occurrence and temporal analyses underscore the deepening integration of toxic leadership with constructs such as corporate psychopathy, emotional exhaustion, organizational cynicism, and workplace bullying. These insights provide actionable guidance for organizations to develop early detection mechanisms, strengthen ethical climates, and design leadership development programs that prioritize empathy, accountability, and psychological safety. Such measures can mitigate the systemic risks posed by toxic leaders.

In today’s rapidly changing world, characterized by technological disruption and socio-political complexity, traditional leadership models often prove insufficient. Adaptive leadership provides a flexible approach that enables people to address adaptive challenges through learning, resilience, and systemic change. Despite growing scholarly interest, research on adaptive leadership remains fragmented and lacks strong empirical support. Systematic Literature Review (SLR) and bibliometric analysis of 126 peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and May 2025 from the Scopus database were employed to address these gaps. Findings reveal a significant rise in publications after 2020, largely influenced by the Covid-19 pandemic and accelerated organizational transformation. Using VOSviewer, the bibliometric analysis identifies influential authors such as R.A. Anderson and D.E. Bailey, leading institutions including Duke University and the University of North Carolina, and prominent publication outlets like California Management Review. Thematic mapping shows a shift from crisis leadership and healthcare to digital agility, emotional intelligence, and psychosocial resilience. This study strengthens the theoretical foundation of adaptive leadership by synthesizing its core competencies, including system diagnosis, distress regulation, and inclusive problem-solving, and demonstrates its practical relevance across sectors. In doing so, it supports global development goals, including SDGs 3 (Good Health and Well-being), SDGs 4 (Quality Education), SDGs 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), SDGs 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure), and SDGs 16 (Peace, Justice, and Strong Institutions), positioning adaptive leadership as a key driver of sustainable organizational and societal transformation.

Although digital transformation has expanded classroom technology access, the integration of ethical development within digital learning environments remains limited. This study investigates the relationship between executive functions and ethical digital citizenship among primary school students aged 6–12 years. Key contributing factors examined include smart education, digital literacy, ethical competency, teacher agency, institutional support, and executive function. Empirical data were collected from 387 primary school teachers and administrators within the Office of the Basic Education Commission network via online and printed questionnaires, capturing educators’ professional observations and proxy-reports of their students’ behavior. Using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), the study tested seven hypotheses. Results indicate that smart education directly influences digital literacy, a relationship significantly moderated by teacher agency. Furthermore, digital literacy directly impacts ethical competency, with institutional support serving as a critical moderator. Finally, executive functions demonstrated a significant, direct impact on students’ ethical competency. By highlighting the interconnected roles of these six factors, this study provides a novel, evidence-based framework that policymakers can utilize to effectively foster ethical digital citizenship among young Thai learners.