Could a horrible boss make you a better leader?
A new 海角直播 study suggests abuse and mistreatment by those at the top of an organization do not necessarily lead to abusive behavior by lower-level leaders. When offered leadership opportunities, prior victims of workplace abuse are more likely to treat their own subordinates better by learning from the bad behavior of their bosses.
UCF College of Business professors Shannon Taylor and Robert Folger, in collaboration with researchers at the 海角直播 of Texas at El Paso, Suffolk 海角直播 and Singapore Management 海角直播, recently published their findings in the .
鈥淪ome employees who are abused by their bosses resolve not to repeat that pattern with their own subordinates and become exceptional leaders of their teams,鈥� Taylor says. 鈥淥ur study sheds light on a silver lining of sorts for people who are subjected to abuse at work. Some managers who experience this abuse can reframe their experience so it doesn鈥檛 reflect their behavior and actually makes them better leaders.鈥�
鈥淪ome employees who are abused by their bosses resolve not to repeat that pattern with their own subordinates and become exceptional leaders of their teams.鈥� 鈥� UCF professor Shannon Taylor
The study found those who relied on their morals and integrity to defy their manager鈥檚 abusive approach felt encouraged to prevent it from moving beyond their bosses.
Through multiple experiments over several years, the researchers examined the differences in attitude and behavior of supervisors who had been abused by superiors and those who had not and, in turn, how each group treated their employees. They found that abused supervisors who purposefully distanced themselves from their manager expressed respect and kindness toward their own employees, despite the poor treatment they received from their own boss.
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鈥淭he lesson here isn鈥檛 to hire more abusive managers, of course, but to try to encourage people who have been abused, among other things, to say, 鈥楲ook, I鈥檓 not like my boss,鈥欌�� Taylor says. 鈥淵ou can take a stand鈥攏ot just by reporting the bad behavior, but by actively rejecting this abusive leadership style.鈥�
Taylor says he doesn鈥檛 expect workplace abuse to disappear, but he notes that companies are learning and trying to solve the problem through training and maintaining positive workplace climates.
Taylor joined UCF in 2012. He has a doctorate in organizational behavior from Louisiana State 海角直播 and a bachelor鈥檚 degree in finance from Bradley 海角直播. His areas of research include ethical and unethical/abusive leadership, uncivil and counterproductive work behaviors, and time and temporal dynamics
Folger joined UCF in 2003. An author of 125 publications, Folger received his master鈥檚 degree and doctorate in social psychology from the 海角直播 of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His research interests include organizational justice, workplace violence and the evolutionary roots of human behavior.
