ABSTRACT
Humans are complex social and emotional beings. Relationships forged in the earliest stages of our existence are continually recast and recreated as we bring these interpersonal elements of our humanity into new relationships in all realms of life, including the workplace. This book is based on a primary principle: just as there is no such thing as a perfect parent, managing people in organizations is an inherently human and fallible endeavor, mainly because managing occurs by and through human relationships. The central questions addressed in the following chapters are: how do the “best” managers behave? What sets them apart from their peers? What impact do they have on their subordinates and co-workers? What can we learn from them? Whenever I am introduced to someone and reveal my identity as an organizational psychologist and management professor, the response is often a vari ation of “You need to come to my company,” or “My boss is nuts.” As a culture, we hold ambivalent views about those who supervise and manage our workplaces. While we long for strong leaders who take charge and solve problems, we sometimes resist when a leader actually puts his or her authority into practice. Maybe it is a built-in suspicion and skepticism of authority or our simultaneous admiration, fear, envy, and contempt directed at those whom we elevate to positions of status and power. Often “the boss” is the subject of ridicule and the butt of jokes in the form of characters and caricatures on television and in other media, such as the comic sections of newspapers. This ambivalence is brilliantly depicted in the somewhat lovable yet
dangerously incompetent character of Michael Scott in the popular television comedy The Office. The newspaper comics are less subtle, as managers are shown to be amoral and clueless buffoons like Dilbert’s pointy-haired and nameless boss, or explosive, hostile tyrants such as the aptly-named Mr. Dithers, the tormentor of Blondie’s husband, Dagwood Bumstead. While most corporate leaders quietly manage their companies out of the limelight, a chosen few of today’s CEOs have blended into our celebrity culture. Individuals like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jack Welch, and Richard Branson are innovators and leaders who have become larger-than-life media figures accorded the celebrity status we give to rock stars, athletes, and politicians; and they are our modern-day barons sim ilar to Rockefeller, Morgan, and Carnegie who dominated the business world a century ago. Others such as Donald Trump and Martha Stewart have transcended their corporate roles and are famous (or infamous) media personas with mega-brands, and exist at the center of multiple media shaped in their image. While we may enjoy reading their books, and watching their television, news, tabloid (and court) appearances, the mega-bosses, who may have a profound effect on business innovation, culture, and modern life (think iPad and The Apprentice), are not necessarily the ones who have the most immediate impact on the work life of the typical employee. Most of us interact with day-to-day managers who try to anticipate and respond to a multitude of economic, social, and behavioral challenges in order to accomplish the goals of a company or other organization. Business observers say that bosses get too much credit or blame for the performance of their companies, in keeping with the human tend ency to attribute success or failure to the person and downplay the complex interplay of sys tems, markets, and external forces beyond the leader’s control. Yet, research on managerial behavior reinforces the fact that immediate supervisors can have a profound effect on their employees and co-workers, even to the point of influencing their mental and physical health. One study demonstrated that a bad boss can dramatically increase the incidence of employee heart attacks by as much as 20 to 40 percent.1 The behavior of the manager permeates and shapes the culture of an organization. Employees at lower levels keenly observe and even mimic their managers’ actions, as organizations function in a sim ilar manner as the status hierarchies of primates and other animals. Neurotic bosses create “neurotic organizations” as employees act out the paranoid, compulsive, dramatic, or inhibited behavior of the leaders.2 Given the immediate impact of bosses on the well-being of their employees, it is no wonder that managers are the focus of a multi-billion dollar consulting industry aimed at promoting, training, and coaching them, evidenced by a plethora of motivational and inspirational programs and books providing six sigmas or seven habits in our never-ending search for excellence – and wanting to accomplish it all in one minute.
