Bully boss? Maybe he just feels incompetent at power

Research published this month “examine[s] the effects of self-perceptions of incompetence on power holders’ tendency to aggress.” Or, why bully bosses are likely to be incompetent at their role.

From the Workplace Bullying Institute’s summary:

In a 4-study research paper to be published in the November issue of the journal Psychological Science, by Nathaniel Fast (University of Southern California) and Serena Chen (University of California, Berkeley) linked aggression at work to perceived inadequacy of people in power (bosses). [Fast, N.J. & Chen, S. (2009) When the boss feels inadequate: Power, incompetence and aggression. Psychological Science, Nov. 2009]

In this study, incompetence means that the boss feels that he or she has a “low ability to influence other people” within that role. This is more salient for power roles (such as executives) and less so for someone without subordinates.

Nathanael Fast & Serena Chen conducted four experiments, some with adult workers, to determine whether one’s feeling of competence to power affects one’s willingness to do harm to another. They also tested to see if ego-stroking would help mitigate one’s desire to harm.

It turns out that bosses who feel that they are less competent at influencing people are more likely to “bully”. What was interesting was that in study 4, when they allowed participants to write about a value that they hold, a task which has been shown (apparently) to boost self-worth. Whatever that is. The important thing may be affirming one’s values, because it mitigated the tendency to aggress.

[Read more →]