Destructive leader behavior: A comparison of Australian, American, and Iranian leaders using the Destructive Leadership Questionnaire

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.