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.
In my last Fortune 500, Corporate could not care less if a subsidiary Napolean was running a Death Camp, as long as the numbers looked good. See No Evil.
Even though I am retired (in disgust) I am left with an eternal hatred of middle managers. It strikes me, after all these years watching it, that more people have not Gone Postal.
It is a tribute to the responsibility and restraint of the American Gun Owner, because many of these sadistic, inept bastards truly deserve it.
I have the best boss on the planet. Yesterday I was paid to watch TV for 2 hours, was forced to take 2 30 min. breaks due to the heat. The day before, i was paid for 10 hours to drive her from Lansing to the Detroit area so she could go shopping and ws treated to dinner at a french resturant....even dinner was on the clock.
Too bad more of my fellow FReepers couldnt have employers like mine.
“worriers”
I quoted article: ‘miserable’...
If a ‘boss’ “makes” someone miserable (how someone as superfluous as a boss can do that is beyond me), run don’t walk to the door...life is too short...
While being domineering and/or manipulative may not yield the best results, it certainly is enough to make the person in charge appear effective at my plant, RBG81.
One of my more perceptive coworkers pointed out, some time back, that most of what passes for “leadership” in our medium-sized factory is simply the willingness to force people to do stupid things, at the whim of the higher-ups.
For instance, we’ll run 24000 cases of product A today, 8000 of product B tonight, and then 3000 more of A again tomorrow, just because the computer schedule says so. When we jump thru such hoops, we’re probably earning a feather for our team leader’s cap, as the schedule hashing is probably covering up a a supply/delivery manager’s mistake.
Problem is, that’s a luxury few people can afford even if they have a year or more salary sitting in the bank to look for a new position.
Take my job, for example. VERY specialized, very in demand, but also very small, and the managers/execs in this field all know each other. IOW, if they want to, one boss can ruin your rep NATIONALLY with just a few phone calls.
Don’t think that weighs heavily on your mind when pondering a job change?
Wow, just like women.
“very in demand”...”one boss can ruin your rep NATIONALLY”
Slight disconnect...not ‘very’ much demand, if a highly qualified applicant can be left on the sidelines....
There is some truth to this. But we must also acknowledge that the boss that cannot discipline subordinates and cannot fire dead weight will not have a high performing unit.
It sounds like you've made that work for you. You been self-employed or something?
What you're suggesting sounds like you either are a very young man without much practical experience, or an older man who has come up with some answers.
Care to clue us in? A lot of folks would agree with what you're saying, but real-life prevents them from acting on it.
You got some valuable insight you can give us, or are ya just 25 years + and unemployed?
"Same thing where I work. Big time!"?
NSS!
They had to do a "study" on this?
Anybody could have told them that for free.
Yup. Better that everyone should think him a fool, rather than merely mistaken.
State of Iowa.
Heard 'em already.
He went on to create an example: A beautician who's not as talented as the others has time on her hands, gets involved with the beauticians' union, and eventually winds up running whole industry.
This is a Ustinov's Corollary to the Peter Principle.
“You been self-employed or something?”
Let’s go with ‘something’
“either are a very young man......, or an older man”
Very? No, just young enough...
“You got some valuable insight you can give us, or are ya just 25 years + and unemployed?”
Haven’t worked since I told a ‘boss’ to go to He!! in Jan. ‘82...
What I was trying to convey in earlier posts is that ‘life is too short’, being made ‘miserable’ by the actions/perceived actions of others just doesn’t make sense to me...
Your wife?
It’s definitely worse. A significant reason these jerks are not fired is palpable fear in the HR department, fear of an EEOC complaint.
“yo rise to the level of your incompetence”
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