Posted on 08/03/2007 3:45:53 AM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Bad bosses get promoted, not punished
Fri 03 Aug, 2007 04:32
By Rachel Breitman
NEW YORK (Reuters) - How do people get ahead in the workplace? One way seems to be by making their subordinates miserable, according to a study released on Friday.
In the study to be presented at a conference on management this weekend, almost two-thirds of the 240 participants in an online survey said the local workplace tyrant was either never censured or was promoted for domineering ways.
"The fact that 64.2 percent of the respondents indicated that either nothing at all or something positive happened to the bad leader is rather remarkable -- remarkably disturbing," wrote the study's authors, Anthony Don Erickson, Ben Shaw and Zha Agabe of Bond University in Australia.
Despite their success in the office, spiteful supervisors can cause serious malaise for their subordinates, the study suggested, citing nightmares, insomnia, depression and exhaustion as symptoms of serving a brutal boss.
The authors advocated immediate intervention by industry chiefs to stop fledgling office authoritarians from rising up the ranks.
"As with any sort of cancer, the best alternative to prevention is early detection," they wrote.
They faulted senior managers for not recognizing the signs of workplace strife wrought by bad bosses. "The leaders above them who did nothing, who rewarded and promoted bad leaders ... represent an additional problem."
The study will be presented at the annual meeting of the Academy of Management, a research and teaching organization with nearly 17,000 members, from Sunday to Wednesday in Philadelphia.
“subordinates miserable”
hahaha...Letting their ‘bosses’ make them miserable? No wonder they are ‘subordinates’....
The people doing the promoting are those people who have already been promoted for being ‘bad bosses’.....
Duh....
Sounds quite a bit like “The Peter Principle” may be at work here. Perhaps something worse. Either way it is not good for American business, as are so many other things these days.
couldn’t be more true in US govt offices
I see evidence of the truth of this regularly at my work.
My experience has been that people who get results (or are perceived to get results) get promoted. Being domineering and/or manipulative plays helps to some degree. While that approach may not yield the best results, it may be enough to make the person in charge appear effective.
What I am sure of is that bosses who try to be everyone’s friend are a recipe for disaster. Bosses have to make hard decisions at times—not everyone will be happy with the outcome.
Me too. The problem is that senior management confuse aggression and rudeness with assertiveness and competence. Superficially they can after all appear to be the same.
The simple fact is that bosses who merely bully people into “performing” are incompetent by definition. You can force people to work, you can never force them to work “well”.
Theres nothing dishonorable in wanting to do a job as opposed to telling people how to do the job. The world needs indians as well as chiefs. In fact, I’d go so far as to suggest that a major problem with industry today is a surfeit of managers, consultants, team leaders, and project coordinators while there are too few actual techies, engineers and tradesmen who actually do the work.
???
Dishonorable?
Funny thing, I was commenting on ‘subordinates’ complaining about how their boss ‘makes’ them miserable...that is too funny...someone who lets their boss affect their mood would find something else to bother them if that boss is removed from the equation...
“I see evidence of the truth of this regularly at my work.”
Same thing where I work. Big time!
A boss who affects misery expects to see it. In 31 years of business, I've seen all kinds. The taskmasters are the worst and they seldom reach the lofty places because of it.
Just my two cents but this the way I see it, good or bad. Unfortunately, if those companies who choose to ignore the greatest asset and actually crap all over them, that asset moves to another company and the walls come tumbling down.
Unfortunately for me, I am at acompany now where I am well liked but there is a major department where I see the “just get results” attitude taking place at the expense of the subordinates who are being threatened and crap’d all over...just a matter of time before those walls break...Results look great now but I would say 50% of those crap’d on assets have their resumes out the door.
No data on the success rate of these companies...
My manager dared to correct her boss in a meeting. He had mentioned the date of an event and she merely corrected the date for him. During a break in the meeting he took her aside and sternly warned her never to correct him in public again.
You couldn't be more correct. I see it everyday. Incompetence is rewarded and competency is is snuffed out. No wonder we are where we are....
I beg to differ. Sure there are some who are perpetual worriers, but there are many more who aren’t.
“couldn’t be more true in US govt offices”
State of Illinois govt offices too. Man, I have stories...
No wonder you call yourself “Old Grumpy”.
It is also true that managers reflect the culture of upper management. My son, a software programmer, has been wanting a promotion. I explained to him that would make him part of the team of upper management that he criticizes. He will have to convince them that he is one of them to get it.
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