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Supervisors driven by profits could actually be hurting their coveted bottom lines by losing the respect of their employees, who counter by withholding performance, according to a new study led by Baylor University.
The study, "The Influence of Supervisor Bottom-Line Mentality and Employee Bottom-Line Mentality on Leader-Member Exchange and Subsequent Employee Performance," is published in the journal Human Relations.
"Supervisors who focus only on profits to the exclusion of caring about other important outcomes, such as employee well-being or environmental or ethical concerns, turn out to be detrimental to employees," said lead researcher Matthew Quade, Ph.D., assistant professor of management in Baylor University's Hankamer School of Business. "This results in relationships that are marked by distrust, dissatisfaction and lack of affection for the supervisor. And ultimately, that leads to employees who are less likely to complete tasks at a high level and less likely to go above and beyond the call of duty."
While other studies have examined the impact of bottom-line mentality (BLM) on employee behavior, Quade said this is the first to identify why employees respond with negative behaviors to supervisors they perceive to have BLM.
Matthew J Quade, Benjamin D McLarty, Julena M Bonner. The influence of supervisor bottom-line mentality and employee bottom-line mentality on leader-member exchange and subsequent employee performance. Human Relations, 2019; 001872671985839 DOI: 10.1177/0018726719858394
(Score: 3, Interesting) by bzipitidoo on Monday July 29 2019, @02:46PM (7 children)
Everyone should know this. It's the sort of knowledge that ought to be nearly instinctive in people. Don't treat underlings like dirt, like replaceable cogs, wishing that they didn't have feelings.
But, there are plenty of dimwitted managers who don't quite believe it. Maybe, they've decided that asserting their dominance is more important, and think that listening to employees is weak.
(Score: 3, Touché) by c0lo on Monday July 29 2019, @02:51PM
Ummm... "you're fired". What was the name of that reality-show? No, it wasn't the 5th element [youtube.com].
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday July 29 2019, @03:06PM (3 children)
That is exactly it. It's the school of thought that says that people follow strength, and deferring to subordinates (even when they're right) is weakness, so the boss should assert dominance by demanding that their subordinates do the wrong thing.
Of course, real leadership brings out the best in one's subordinates, and encourages them to accomplish as much as possible in their own right, while being present to support their efforts when needed.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by meustrus on Monday July 29 2019, @05:08PM (2 children)
I wonder where the dominance model actually works. It must work somewhere, or else it would have died out long ago. It would certainly help in bikeshedding scenarios. There are probably lots of bikeshedding scenarios in the business world: times when most people are equally qualified to make a decision, and the only way to lose is to fail to decide. Perhaps entire industries work that way. Engineering sure as hell doesn't.
If there isn't at least one reference or primary source, it's not +1 Informative. Maybe the underused +1 Interesting?
(Score: 5, Interesting) by Thexalon on Monday July 29 2019, @07:08PM (1 child)
Apparently, the dominance model works in military contexts, in part because in most contexts no decision is usually worse than any decision, and because the winning move is often on its surface near-suicidal (if not actually suicidal) to at least some of the grunts and no grunt would stand for it if they weren't drilled into the dominance model by the trauma of "basic training".
This doesn't, however, work as well in any context where independent thinking is more valuable than prompt action.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 29 2019, @08:40PM
Wrong. The military leadership is weak and not respected. Any opportunity to punish a subordinate is also an opportunity for the subordinate to incriminate the leadership. Everyone plays a game but nobody is actually scared of their boss. I've taken to getting several of them fired and then left because the whole place made me wanna puke.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday July 29 2019, @03:38PM (1 child)
I think that is a required course in MBA school.
The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 29 2019, @04:54PM
That's what's truly shocking about the study; it came out of a business school.
Of course, it isn't Harvard Business School, so it won't make a difference, and we'll still be stuck with current type of MBA who refuse to understand basic things like this.