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Abusive Bosses Tolerated if High Producers
by Mary Lynn Fayoumi, CAE, SPHR, GPHR, President & CEO
Published March 4, 2010
Most of my regular readers know that I am an Iowa girl and a big Hawkeye fan. However, in addition to following Iowa’s football team, I read other UI publications and participate in an advisory board for the business school. Recently, a press release announced results of a research study conducted by doctoral students at the UI Tippie College of Business. In short, the results showed what many HR and management professionals already know. High performing bosses often get away with abusive behavior in the workplace.
This study took a different angle than some of the other studies on this subject. Instead of only looking at the targets of the supervisor’s abuse, the researchers wanted to see how others who might witness this type of inappropriate behavior reacted. What the research found was that those who are not directly targeted by the abuser are fairly forgiving and tend to overlook the abuse if the supervisor displays strong overall job performance.
Almost everyone can point to examples of this phenomenon in their current organization or at prior jobs. Although I think the overall incidence rate has improved in the past twenty years and that less blatantly bad behavior is acceptable in today’s environment, it has not been eradicated from the workplace by any stretch of the imagination.
The researchers pointed to one potential way to improve upon this concerning workplace issue. They suggest that organizations implement performance management systems that evaluate supervisors on not just the outcomes they achieve (i.e, traditional performance indicators), but also appraise managers on how they treat employees in the process of achieving those outcomes. In my experience, there are some employers already assessing both of these important factors not only through their evaluation system, but also using assessment tools like employee opinion surveys – which often measure both job performance and people skills. There is no question, however, that as long as abusive behavior by strong performers is tolerated, it will continue.
