By Mark C. Bojeun, MBA, PgMP, PMP, PMI-RMP, ITIL, MCSD
Bad managers provide a negative background that we don’t spend much time analyzing. Most often the focus is on positive leaders and how they can contribute to organizational success. Even the standard definitions of leadership are by definition positive. Burns (1978) notes that there are more than 150 definitions of leadership and posits that “leadership is the reciprocal process of mobilizing, by persons with certain motives and values, various economic, political, and other resources, in a context of competition and comfort, in order to realize goals independently or mutually held by both leaders and followers” (p. 425).
Therefore, leadership is the positive achievement of results pursuing goals and objectives that are beneficial. The focus on motivation, comfort, and reciprocal process all imply that the leader is working with the team over directing them. Kotter (1980) draws a further distinction between management and leadership, in offering that management focuses on handling complexity, where leadership is centered on change and innovation in the organizational environment. Kotter points out that though leadership can complement management, it will never replace it. The manager has a short-term vision looking at administrative actions, focusing on the bottom line and doing things right, while the leader looks long-term, innovates, and does the right thing (Bennis, 1984). The leader directs the activities of a group to achieve a common goal (Hemphill, 1949). This common goal must not only be understandable, and agreed upon, but also communicated to the team in such a way as to ensure that the team clearly understands the objective and willingly follows the goal.
So with Burns and Kotter’s definition of leadership the words and outcomes for leadership are focused in the positive. Management, on the other hand, is short-term, focusing on the bottom line and does not work with staff with a focus on motivation or empowerment. On the other hand, Kotter points out that regardless of the leadership that we have in an organization, management is also necessary and will never be replaced. Therefore, the need for implementing and directing administrative actions, focus on the bottom line and short-term visions are necessary for the achievement of long-term objectives.
Just about everyone I meet has a story about a bad manager in their career. One of my personal favorites is the manager who walked into an office of staff members announcing that he no longer even saw people, just resources to be moved around the board. One of the staff members announced that “the work stops now”, and she was serious for at least a week.
Oftentimes humorous, it begs a number of questions about the impact that the bad manager can really have on an organization. Where leaders are driven to achieve results greater than the individuals alone can achieve, management is focused on doing what is necessary according to the directives that they receive. Empirically, individuals in those scenarios can evaluate their own actions and the general results of peers, but without evidence it remains opinion. Therefore, understanding the actual impact of management is vital to understanding what most workers inherently realize, bad managers kill organizations. Thus, evaluating and understanding the actual impact that a bad manager can have on the staff is, and should be, something of great value to all of us.
Recently Ericson, Shaw and Agabe published an article in the Journal of Leadership Studies entitled “An Empirical Investigation of the Antecedents, Behaviors, and Outcomes of Bad Leadership”. Although the article focuses on bad leadership approaches and styles it fits into the general premise of manager versus leader discussion in that it focuses on the outcome of a bad leader regardless of the individual’s title.
In this study 335 participants responded in full or part to the 21 question study and although the results are not surprising, they are evidence for empirical impressions established by most professionals. Respondents were asked to focus on a personal experience that they had with what they deemed to be a bad leader and to answer the questions accordingly.
In the answers provided to this survey bad leaders were identified as those who had difficulty dealing with subordinates (17.6%), poor ethics / integrity (13.3%), poor interpersonal (11.5%) and poor personal skills (14.1%). These issues resulted in employees feeling frustrated (11.6%), angry (15%) and causing lowered self-esteem (13.9%). In addition, the bad leadership was directed attributable to the development of a bad organizational culture (17.3), overall performance loss (16.0%), attrition of employees (21.3%) and motivation loss (12.8%).
What was surprising, and somewhat disheartening was that when asked what happened to the bad leader 44.8 % of the participants stated that the bad leader was either promoted or rewarded and an additional 13.4% stated that nothing happened to the bad leader. Therefore, 58.2% of the respondents reported a situation where the manager would most likely continue to have a negative impact on the organization and its staff.
With the motivation, performance, human resource, and cultural losses that a bad leader is able to cause in an organization how can that same individual end up promoted or rewarded? Does the organization really understand the cost of this leadership and the impact that it has on its organization? It seems not, for even the most ruthless of companies is focused on profits, market share, and growth and recognizes that the loss of performance, motivation and human resources are obstacles that must be overcome.
If a company actually understood what bad leadership was, and the overall impact that it can have on their organization, logic dictates that it would take action and would actively work to eliminate bad management from its corridors.
Therefore, the general assumption is that this study is one of the first to start to honestly identify what the cost of bad leadership/management is to an organization. Hopefully additional studies will be performed that will drive this point home provided the motivation necessary for organizations to start to clean up bad managers and develop honest and valid leadership programs complete with metrics that outline the overall effectiveness of the leader.
Some of the key questions and responses from the survey are highlighted below. Please reference the survey directly for a complete list.
What actions caused you to classify the person as a bad leader?
Unable to deal with subordinates 17.6%
Poor ethics/integrity 13.3%
Poor interpersonal behavior 11.5%
Poor personal behavior 14.1%
How did the bad leader make you feel?
Angry 15.0%
Frustrated 11.6%
Lowered self-view/self-esteem 13.9%
What effect did the bad leader have on your work performance?
Motivation Loss 33.6%
What effect did the bad leader have on you personally?
Negative effect on nonwork life 15.0%
Negative effect 15.9%
Increased my stress 29.3%
What effect did the bad leader have on the organization?
Created a bad organizational culture 17.3%
Human Resource loss 21.3%
Motivation loss 12.8%
Performance loss 16.0%
What happened to the bad leader?
Bad leader was promoted/rewarded 44.8%
Nothing happened to the bad leader 13.4%
REFERENCES
Bennis, W. (1984, August). The four competencies of leadership. Training and Development Journal, 15-19.
Burns, James MacGregor (1978). Leadership. New York: Harper & Row.
Hemphill, John K. (1949). Situational factors in leadership. Columbus, Ohio: State University.
Kotter, J. (1990). What leaders really do. Harvard Business Review, 68(3), 103-111.
Erickson, A., Shaw, J., & Agabe, Z. (2007). An Empirical Investigation of the Antecedents, Behaviors and
Outcomes of Bad Leadership, Journal of Leadership Studies, 1(3), 26-43
