Perception of Destructive Leadership and Well-Being Among Guest Workers in Sweden

Abstract: This paper investigates differences in perception of leadership and well-being between guest workers and native workers in Sweden. Guest workers are individuals who take up temporary employment in a foreign country. While previous research has found cultural differences in well-being, there is limited research investigating the well-being of guest workers in a host country. Similarly, previous research on the perception of destructive leadership has found cultural differences. However, the existing research has not investigated this in the context of guest workers. Two groups of white collar workers were recruited as participants from a Swedish construction company. The first group consisted of 30 native Swedish workers. The second consisted of 29 guest workers, the majority of which came from the UK/Ireland (N = 20). Each participant completed a questionnaire which included the Destrudo-L, Maslachs Burnout Inventory (MBI), and Areas of Worklife Scale (AWS). The results found differences in the perception of destructive leadership between guest workers and native workers. In turn, these differences were found to have a significant influence on well-being in areas such as fairness and community.