If your boss yells at you, criticizes your work, and takes credit for what you do, even if it only happens once, it can really affect how you feel and how well you do your job. But even after lots of research, we’re still not exactly sure how bad bosses make employees perform worse.
A recent study from Stevens Institute of Technology has a new idea about why abusive bosses make employees do worse at their jobs, and why some people are more affected by bad bosses than others.
Abusive bosses
“Thankfully, abusive supervision isn’t too common, but when it happens it leaves employees far less likely to take the initiative and work to improve business practices,” the researchers explain. “We wanted to understand the cognitive factors behind that effect—and ask how companies can shield their employees from the negative impact of bad bosses.”
The researchers studied employees and their bosses in 42 South Korean companies and also involved hundreds of American students to figure out how being supervised by an abusive boss affects the employees’ initiative to take charge. They looked at whether the employees actively pursued opportunities for growth and promotion or if they focused more on staying safe and secure in their jobs.
“We theorized that both the drive to obtain rewards (promotion, bonuses) and the drive to avoid punishments (maintain job security) would shape the way employees respond to abusive bosses,” they explain.
Advancing our careers
However, the researchers discovered something unexpected. They found that employees who put a high value on advancing their careers were significantly impacted by abusive leadership. In contrast, those who prioritized job security showed no change in their willingness to take initiative after experiencing abusive supervision. In fact, the employees aiming for career growth tended to pull back and were less likely to take initiative when dealing with abusive bosses.
“That’s a very surprising finding,” they continue. “We found clear evidence that the signal from abusive leadership is much more salient to employees who care about advancement than it is to employees who care about security.”
One way to make sense of this is that employees with high ambitions may see an abusive boss as someone who directly influences their chances of getting bonuses or promotions. On the other hand, when it comes to firing decisions, bad bosses might be perceived as having less direct control, often requiring approval from HR teams or higher-level managers.
This finding is significant because it implies that organizations looking to reduce the negative effects of bad leadership should concentrate on empowering their employees and showing them appreciation, rather than just assuring them about job security.
“If a leader slips into abusive behavior, our research suggests that they should not only apologize, but also work to reassure employees of their value to the organization,” the researchers conclude.
