Destructive leader behavior

Abstract

This article provides insights into the important but relatively unexamined issue of destructive leadership in a non-Western country. Although tentative, the article also provides some guidance for expatriate managers in adapting their own behavior to avoid being categorized as "destructive" by non-Western subordinates. In the following pages, we report the findings of a study of destructive leader behaviors among convenience samples of Australian, American, and Iranian leaders. No differences were found between Australian and American leaders in regard to the nature and frequency of destructive behaviors. As a result, the Australian and American data were combined and compared to a sample of Iranian leaders. Destructive leader behavior was measured using the Destructive Leadership Questionnaire developed by Shaw et al. (2011). Although relatively small in magnitude, results consistently indicated that the worst, middle, and best leaders differed significantly from one another in both samples in terms of the level of destructive leader behavior exhibited. In general, the pattern was similar for both the Australian-American and Iranian samples, although small, consistent differences were observed across the two samples.

The criterion problem in cross-cultural performance research

“…Conceptual and operational criteria can be created to evaluate the current effectiveness of employees, provide training content for employee development, spur organizational change, clarify ill-defined organizational or industry goals, and aid in the planning for jobs that do not yet exist (Blum and Naylor, 1968; Cascio and Aguinis, 2004; Oswald et al, 2004). Notable criteria in cross-cultural management research include conflict resolution (Gomez and Taylor, 2018), extra-role performance (Jungst and Janssens, 2020), expatriate adjustment (Bayraktar, 2019), and leader behavior (Shaw et al, 2015).…”

“…adaptation, teamwork) (see Campbell [2012] for a review). Multiple performance dimensions that feature prominently in many of these models also constitute important criteria in the cross-cultural management literature, including communication (Abugre and Debrah, 2019), contextual and task performance (Shay and Baack, 2006), counterproductive work behavior (Jacobson et al, 2014), leadership (Shaw et al, 2015), organizational citizenship behavior (Lofquist and Matthiesen, 2018), and teamwork (Hajro and Pudelko, 2010).…”

A Literature on Cross-culture Leadership in China: Qualities and Ways to Improve

“…They believe that expatriate managers should firstly avoid engaging in behaviors and actions that might be considered destructive in their home countries. This might allow them time to learn more about the nuances of effective leader behavior in the foreign environment and enhance their chance of success in cross-culture leading [14]. Then, for improving intercultural integration ability, leaders need to (1) strive to explore the common ground of different cultures and form a common basis for integration.…”

How Bad Leaders Can Drive Out Good Leaders

“…Furthermore, the cases of destructive corporate CEOs are many (Deutschman, 2005). Thus, “bad leaders,” or “destructive leaders”, is a common phenomenon across nations (Shaw et al, 2015). Unfortunately, the body of knowledge is much richer concerning effective and constructive leadership than about destructive leadership, and more is written about active destructive leadership than passive destructive leadership (Hoel et al, 2010).…”