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hubie [soylentnews.org] writes:

Research suggests behaviour of co-workers can mirror hostility of their leaders [aru.ac.uk]:

A new study has found that hostile behaviours from "abusive" bosses can lead to co-workers adopting similar behaviour, leading to a toxic atmosphere of insecurity and exhaustion in the workplace.

[...] Examples of hostile behaviour in the workplace considered by the researchers included use of inappropriate language, sexual harassment, outbursts, humiliation and misuse of power.

[...] The study also reported an association between experiencing hostile behaviour from leaders and emotional exhaustion and job insecurity, suggesting that mistreatment from peers can damage employees' confidence in their job and their role within an organisation.

[...] Co-author Dr Nadeem Khalid, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship and Strategy at ARU, said:

It's clear from our study that hostile behaviour at the top of a workplace is not only likely to be damaging to individuals in terms of their emotional exhaustion and job security, it is also likely to encourage other employees to act in unethical ways, creating a toxic environment across the entire organisation.

That effluent flows downhill perhaps isn't too surprising, but do you think the converse is true, or is it really the case that nice guys finish last [wiktionary.org]?

Journal Reference:
Miao Li, Ammar Ahmed, Obed Rashdi Syed, et al., Impact of abusive leader behavior on employee job insecurity: A mediating roles of emotional exhaustion and abusive peer behavior, Front Psychol, 2022. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.947258 [doi.org]

Original Submission