‘Bad bosses’ are not that common, and it’s lack of competence rather than consideration for others that’s the key problem, suggests research. However, bad bosses have a highly negative impact on employee job satisfaction.
The paper from researchers at Cass Business School, the University of Wisconsin and Warwick University, provides the first statistically representative international estimates of the extent to which employees have bad bosses. The study used data on 27,000 randomly sampled workers across 35 European nations. Only 13% of managers were rated as ‘bad’ and this was usually more about lack in ability to get the job done and whether they paid attention to employee development, rather than a lack of respect for workers.
Consistent with earlier research, the study finds that three of the main influences on employee job satisfaction are pay, length of working hours and whether employees work in a small and more personal environment. Even if all three factors are combined, the single influence of ‘boss quality’ outweighs the sum of the three.
The difference between the average bad boss and a really good boss is approximately one point on a job satisfaction scale that runs from 1 to 4, far larger than any effect that has ever been found in job satisfaction research, according to one of the study’s authors, Amanda Goodall, associate professor in management at Cass Business School, City, University of London.
People with great bosses tended to be more content at work, the researchers found, even after including control factors such as how innately happy workers were and their levels of pay.
Study participants were asked to rate their immediate boss on: the extent to which they provide useful feedback on their report’s work, respects them as a person, gives them praise and recognition when they do a good job, is helpful in getting the job done, encourages and supports their development, is successful in getting people to work together, and helps and supports workers.
The study found that high quality scores for bosses tended to be highest in small workplaces, or those with worker representation, while bad bosses were most common in large organisations