Bad Boss Research Articles

Representation of a Scientific Supervisor in Internet-Memes

Introduction. The purpose article is to consider the representation of the image of a scientific supervisor based on Internet memes containing a multimodal metaphor. The relevance of the topic is due to the growing interest of the interdisciplinary scientific community in the study of the Internet meme as a social, linguistic, psychological phenomenon of interpersonal communication. The scientific novelty of the work is determined by the fact that until now there have been no attempts to study the representation of the academic community from the perspective of the theory of conceptual metaphor using the material of Internet memes. Methodology and sources. The methodological basis of the study was the works of linguists and cognitive scientists J. Lakoff, M. Johnson, R. Dawkins, V. Aldrich, Ch. Forsville, B. Dancygier and L. Vandelanotte. The concept of visual metaphor and multimodality is defined, the role of multimodal metaphor in Internet discourse is described, the features of the functioning of multimodal metaphor are revealed. The material for the study was Internet memes representing various aspects of interaction in the academic environment. To systematize the units, a continuous sampling method was used, along with pragmalinguistic, contextual and semantic analysis. Results and discussion. The Internet memes containing a multimodal metaphor that represents the image of a scientific supervisor and illustrates the relationship between graduate students and their mentors were found and analyzed in the paper. To select the material, a search containing the keywords “scientific supervisor”, “Phd student”, “advisor” was performed. The sources of the memes were the podcasts “The Struggling Scientists”, “The Meming Phd”, “High impact PhD memes”. By selecting keywords, 85 Internet memes were identified in which metaphorical transfers of the above images were found. Based on the data obtained, 4 metaphorical models that most clearly illustrate the relationships between the supervisor and the student were proposed. Conclusion. The study showed that multimodal metaphor is an integral part of modern Internet communication and is an effective way of influencing the addressee. Internet memes representing the image of a scientific supervisor were analyzed and systematized; 4 metaphorical mappings (“Scientific supervisor is a loving/caring parent”, “Scientific supervisor is a Jedi”, “Scientific supervisor is a monster/maniac”, “Scientific supervisor is a bad boss”) are highlighted and described. It was revealed that the considered Internet memes are characterized by the replacement of the verbal component with a non-verbal (graphic) one in the target domain or in the source domain. The studied metaphorical models reflect the most pressing problems of the academic community. The expressiveness of the metaphor used is achieved through the use of movie characters in the source domain or target domain. The metaphorical potential of Internet memes as semantic-semiotic units of Internet discourse is undoubtedly a promising area for further study.

Identification of Key Competences in Management: Case Studies from Poland

The paper aims to identify a set of key competencies essential for managerial practice based on the case studies from Poland. We divided the paper into four main parts: introduction and theoretical background, methodology, results and discussion, and conclusion. The first part defines key skills, key competences and key qualifications, and the second part addresses the methodology. The third part identifies good boss features, bad bosses’ negative behaviour, features that the bosses lack, how the bad boss became your boss, reasons why employees do not quit despite a bad boss, and health consequences of having a bad boss. Statista is a leading provider of market and consumer data. It constantly develops successful new products and business models, so it was chosen as the primary source of the paper’s data. For the paper, we use the term boss as a synonym for manager. Manager’sfeatures are considered equivalent to competences. The paper uses analysis, synthesis, generalisation, induction and deduction to compare the research results and conclude.

When Leadership Attacks: Stories of Surviving the Worst Bosses

When Leadership Attacks: Stories of Surviving the Worst Bosses

The Great Resignation in the United States: A Study of Labor Market Segmentation

During 2021 and 2022, many news media outlets have reported that millions of workers in the United States have been quitting their jobs in record numbers. In a global economy rebounding from the economic downturn caused by the Covid-19 outbreak and demanding more workers, a high rate of resignations has exacerbated labor shortages and may be aggravating unemployment and underemployment rates if many workers are not participating at all in the labor force or only working part time. Many reasons have been offered to explain this ‘Great Resignation’ including high day care costs for working parents that may in turn be causing the trend of lower female labor force participation; the supposed ‘liberating’ experience of not working at all or to work from home instead of having to work from one’s usual work place during the Covid-19 quarantine/lockdown periods; stagnant/low wages and greater job tenure uncertainty which make working less attractive and more stressful; and the feeling by many of not wanting to work further for bad bosses or management who create bad work environments so that resignation becomes a means of escape from such conditions. This article analyses data of US labor trends since 2003 and demonstrates that resignations have been trending upward in the US aggregate economy and that quit rates mostly have been trending higher within many US industries. These phenomena can be explained by the concept of labor market segmentation, high unemployment, and underemployment rates that exist even in good economic times in some industries, minority group composition within industries, wage stagnation, and type of managerial supervision. Some of these same factors help to explain labor under-utilization greater than national/aggregate rates within these industries as well.

Presidential Address: The Next Generation Workforce, A Call to Action

Presidential Address: The Next Generation Workforce, A Call to Action

A Survey Experiment on “Bad Bosses”: The Effect of Social Networks on Gender Solidarity

Are women and men in positions of authority judged differently? If a gender evaluation gap exists, is it due to persistent stereotypes or notions of gender solidarity? We explore gender differences in judgement through a survey experiment in Argentina with a national sample of 4,068 employees. Respondents were asked to recommend a salary increase for a “bad boss” whose behavior was characterized as aggressive and at the limit of what is fair and appropriate. The survey experiment measures the extent to which respondents punish and reward female and male managers differently. The main finding is that women are more likely to punish male bad bosses, and men are more likely to punish female bad bosses. We explain variation as a function of respondents’ social and personal networks. Study findings carry significant implications for the study of the gender pay gap.

How Common Are Bad Bosses?

Bosses play a fundamental role in workplaces. Yet, almost nothing is known about an important and basic question in labor economics and industrial relations. Are the right people promoted to be supervisors, team leaders, and managers? The infamous Peter Principle claims that incompetent bosses are likely to be all around us, but is that true? This article provides the first statistically representative international estimates—taking comparable data on thirty‐five nations—of the extent to which employees have “bad bosses.” Using a natural measure, the article calculates that approximately 13 percent of Europe’s workers have a bad boss. Such bosses are most common in large organizations, in organizations without employee‐representation committees, in the transport sector, and where workers themselves have no supervisory responsibility. Last, the article offers a practical finding as a potential aid to human resource training and hiring. Contrary to media portrayals, bad bosses are rated least bad on “respect for workers” and worst on their ability to get the job done. Lack of competence, not lack of consideration, appears to be the key problem.

Good boss, bad boss, workers’ mental health and productivity: Evidence from Japan

It is widely believed that the relationship between a supervisor and his/her employees greatly affects employees’ well-being and/or productivity. However, only a few papers in the economics literature analyze how supervisors influence employees’ well-being and enhance productivity. This paper uses longitudinal data of employees with information about their immediate bosses’ ability, management skills, and characteristics (such as competency, communication skills, and personality traits) to investigate the influence of supervisors on employees. The main findings are as follows. First, even after controlling for individual-specific fixed effects and other job characteristics, such as those proposed in the job strain model, we find that supervisors’ good communication with staff and competency in managerial tasks significantly improve employees’ mental health. Second, we find that good communication between the boss and his/her staff enhances the latter’s productivity and lowers presenteeism. Third, supervisors’ bad communication and low competency increase the probability of quitting. Fourth, good communication partially depends on boss–staff compatibility, which is governed in part by their combined personality traits.

The Influence Of Manager Machiavellianism On Supervisor Boundary Spanning And Employee Creativity

Middle managers, also known as supervisors, have a key integrative function in organizations. They serve as an interface between senior managers and employees and, at the same time, connect their group to other organizational groups through boundary spanning. It is well established that supervisors' boundary spanning, i.e., seeking advice from other organizational groups, is a potent antecedent of employee creativity. In this paper, we examine how supervisors foster employee creativity when these two roles are not aligned, namely when supervisors work for senior managers who are Machiavellian and limit their boundary spanning. Our main argument is that supervisors can align these roles by managing their relationship with their manager. We test our theory using data from two organizations. Using multilevel exponential random graph models, we examine the impact of manager Machiavellianism on supervisors' boundary spanning behavior, depending on the supervisor- manager relationship. Using hierarchical linear modeling, we then examine how manager Machiavellianism and supervisor-manager relationship jointly affect the creative returns for employees of supervisor boundary spanning. Our results provide support to our theory. We discuss the relevance of this study for our understanding of the role of supervisors in fostering employee creativity when their manager is a “bad boss”.

Emotions and the Bad Boss

We examine the mechanisms by which abusive supervision is associated with a subordinate’s turnover intentions. Using affective events theory (AET) as a theoretical framework, we suggest that abusiv...

Leading and Motivating Peer Teams

Managing a project team with critical outcomes and strong personalities is a complex task. It’s also one that librarians end up doing frequently: leading teams of peers on critical, shortor medium-term projects without necessarily having training or support in leading teams. So, with the stakes high and experience low, how do you avoid blundering into error? Ideas listed here are inspired by the Harvard Business Review article “Are you sure you’re not a bad boss?” as well as a Daniel Goleman article in the New York Times on emotional intelligence and library-specific articles such as Steven Bell’s Good Leaders Learn What Not to Do and Jennifer Bartlett’s The Power Deep in Org Chart: Leading from the Middle. This list, though, is a library-focused take on how to lead peers when you are not in a formal managerial role.

The bad boss takes it all: How abusive supervision and leader–member exchange interact to influence employee silence

Abusive supervision is a dysfunctional leadership behavior that adversely affects its targets and the organization as a whole. Drawing on conservation of resources (COR) theory, the present research expands our knowledge on its destructive impact. Specifically, we propose a moderated mediation model wherein abusive supervision predicts subordinate's silence behavior through emotional exhaustion, with leader–member exchange (LMX) acting as the contextual condition. Two-wave data collected from 152 employees in the service industry in Macau supported our hypothesized model. We found that abused subordinates resort to remain silent in the workplace due to their feelings of emotional exhaustion. Further, the presence of high LMX makes the adverse impact of abusive supervision even worse. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed. We also offer several promising directions for future research.

Tilting the Scales of Abuse: How Adiposity Augments the Effects of Abusive Supervision

Both researchers and practitioners have recently been are interested in understanding and preventing the harmful effects of bad bosses. Americans have also recently been interested in solving the “obesity epidemic” in the United States resulting in the recent “Let’s Move” initiative from the White House. A majority of American workers are overweight or obese, it follows then, that research may shed light on the effects of this in the workplace. One area of effect may be in the perceptions and reactions to negative leader behaviors. In this study, we explore the effects supervisor adiposity (an excess of body fat) combined with abusive supervision have on two important employee outcomes—intent to turnover and job performance. Results from 106 supervisor-subordinate dyads show that abusive supervision acts to increase turnover intentions and decrease job performance by lowering organizational commitment. This relationship only holds, though, when the supervisor is adipose. Practical implications and future research directions are discussed.

Rotten apples in the top jobs

PurposeThis paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsBusiness is riddled with bad bosses. Some are greedy, egotistical or corrupt, some merely ineffective or incompetent, while others display inappropriate behavior towards employees. So what can be done about it?Practical implicationsThe paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

VOICES: NOT-SO-SECRET: DEADLY SINS OF MANAGEMENT

What is it about bad bosses that we find so fascinating? Perhaps, like every anti-hero, we find the bad manager a ripe target for criticism or, at least, extensive discussion. Julian Birkinshaw, however, says that bad bosses can change for the better. It all starts with knowing what needs changing.

Leadership styles and gender: An extension

AbstractLeadership remains an elusive concept despite decades of research. In this paper, we attempt to deconstruct the concept by exploring the possibility of developing new measures of leadership, focusing on the attributes of “good” and “bad” leaders. Using a sample of 312 managers, we conducted factor analyses to reduce 13 “good” leadership attributes to two factors, the “visionary” and the “good,” and 13 “bad” attributes to two factors, the “inept” and the “evil.” Second, we assessed how male and female followers perceive the leadership styles of their best and worst bosses. We found that women viewed their best bosses differently from their male counterparts on several dimensions; however, there is little contrast in how bad bosses are perceived by men and women.

BRINGING OUT THE BEST IN EMPLOYEES

Employees who find their work frustrating, boring and worthless have found their hero in Scott Adams' Dilbert, the nine-to-five man who lets us know just how bad managers can be at their jobs. Julian Birkinshaw, Vyla Rollins and Stefano Turconi believe that bad bosses can change to become true leaders.

Logoleadership: breathing life into loyalty and putting meaning back into work

PurposeThis paper aims to review the latest management developments across the globe and pinpoint practical implications from cutting‐edge research and case studies.Design/methodology/approachThis briefing is prepared by an independent writer who adds their own impartial comments and places the articles in context.FindingsThere is an obvious, costly, and disheartening trend towards employee unhappiness at work. Popular culture abounds with symptoms. The Office, Bad Bosses, and Reggie Perrin television series make humor of this organizational malaise, which sadly spills into other life facets such as family, friends, and health. In response, there are plenty of quick fix solutions offered – such as superficial self‐help management books, motivational seminars, and organizational initiatives such as slogans, posters, and tee‐shirts. These efforts are for naught when one considers the 2000 Hudson Institute Study finding that a mere 42 percent of employees perceive their organizations as deserving their loyalty. Corroborating research has revealed continued low commitment and employee trust in recent years, with a 2011 MetLife survey showing that only 44 percent of small business employees felt company loyalty.Practical implicationsThis paper provides strategic insights and practical thinking that have influenced some of the world's leading organizations.Originality/valueThe briefing saves busy executives and researchers hours of reading time by selecting only the very best, most pertinent information and presenting it in a condensed and easy‐to digest format.

Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best and Learn From the Worst by Robert I. Sutton

Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best and Learn From the Worst by Robert I. Sutton

Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best … and Learn from the Worst

Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best … and Learn from the Worst