Study: In the Workplace, It

It is not bosses who manage workers ably and humanely who get ahead, it seems, but tyrants. These are the bosses who make their subordinates miserable.

In an Australian study presented at a management conference in Philadelphia in August, 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 authors of the study, which was reported by the Reuters news agency, see the pattern as a malaise. They wrote that stress can lead to nightmares, insomnia, depression and exhaustion. These problems have been linked to serious medical conditions.

From an ergonomics standpoint, it’s a malaise that can undermine productivity, and the specific problems the authors cited represent safety risk factors. 

Anthony Don Erickson, Ben Shaw and Zha Agabe of Bond University in Australia described the findings as “remarkably disturbing.” As with any sort of cancer, they said, the best alternative to prevention is early detection.

They advocated immediate intervention by industry chiefs to stop fledgling office authoritarians from rising up the ranks, and faulted tyrant’s seniors for not recognizing the signs of workplace strife wrought by tyranny. According to the authors, the leaders above them who did nothing, who rewarded and promoted bad bosses “represent an additional problem."

Source: Reuters