TROUBLE WITH YOUR BOSS , OWN IT
Don't get along with
your boss? Your job performance may actually improve if the two of you can come
to grips with the poor relationship.
A new study led by
Michigan State University business scholars finds that workers are more
motivated if they and their supervisors see eye-to-eye about a bad relationship
than if they have different views about their relationship. The findings are
published in the Academy of Management Journal.
"Seeing
eye-to-eye about the employee-supervisor relationship is equally, if not more
important than the actual quality of the relationship," said Fadel Matta,
lead investigator on the study and a management researcher in MSU's Broad
College of Business.
Past research
suggests workers and their bosses often have differing views about the quality
of their relationship. Matta and his fellow researchers set out to examine
whether that affects actual work engagement, or motivation.
It does. According
to the MSU-led study of 280 employees and their bosses, motivation suffered
when an employee believed he or she had a good relationship with the boss but
the boss saw it differently. The finding held when the flip side was true and
the boss believed the relationship was good but the subordinate did not. The
two were surveyed separately, meaning the boss did not necessarily know how the
employee felt about him or her, and vice versa.
Interestingly,
employee motivation was higher (and the employee was more apt to go above and
beyond his or her basic job duties) when the worker and supervisor saw
eye-to-eye about the relationship, even when it was poor.
The study examined a
wide range of employees -- from cashiers to senior managers -- in a host of
industries, including automotive, retail and financial services.
It's nearly
impossible for a supervisor to have a good relationship with every employee --
there's only so much time and so many resources a boss can invest toward that
goal -- but at the same time it's human inclination to want everyone to like
you, Matta said.
Ultimately, it's
important that supervisors and workers don't misrepresent how they feel about
their relationship.
"Some people
would say it's better to fake it, but our results indicate that the opposite is
true," said Matta, a doctoral candidate in the Department of Management.
"At the end of the day, it's better for everyone to know where they stand
and how they feel about each other."
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