Sometimes it is Okay to Ignore Your Boss

By Rick Nauert PhD

 

While most of us have been trained to never retaliate against a supervisor, a new study suggests a passive-aggressive response may be beneficial for some circumstances.

 

Ohio State researchers found that employees who had hostile bosses were better off on several measures if they returned the hostility.

The study found that giving it back to a boss allowed the employee to feel less like a victim. This, in turn, resulted in less psychological distress, more job satisfaction and more commitment to their employer.

 

“Before we did this study, I thought there would be no upside to employees who retaliated against their bosses, but that’s not what we found,” said Bennett Tepper, lead author of the study and a professor of management and human resources.

 

“The best situation is certainly when there is no hostility. But if your boss is hostile, there appears to be benefits to reciprocating. Employees felt better about themselves because they didn’t just sit back and take the abuse.”

 

Hostile bosses were ones who did things like yell at, ridicule, and intimidate their workers. Employees who returned hostility did it by ignoring their boss, acting like they didn’t know what their bosses were talking about, and giving just half-hearted effort.

 

“These are things that bosses don’t like and that fit the definition of hostility, but in a passive-aggressive form,” Tepper said. “I expect that you don’t have too many employees yelling and screaming at their bosses.”

 

The research involved data from two related studies that the researchers conducted. Study findings have been published online in the journal Personnel Psychology.

The first study included 169 people who completed two surveys by mail, seven months apart.

 

In the first survey, the respondents completed a 15-item measure of supervisor hostility developed by Tepper in 2000. It asked participants to rate how often their supervisors did things like ridiculing them and telling them that their “thoughts and feelings are stupid.”

 

The participants reported how often they retaliated by doing things like ignoring their supervisor.

 

Seven months later, the same respondents completed measures of job satisfaction, commitment to their employer, psychological distress, and negative feelings.

 

Results showed that when bosses were hostile — but employees didn’t retaliate — the workers had higher levels of psychological distress, less satisfaction with their jobs and less commitment to their employer.

 

However, those employees who returned the hostility didn’t see those negative consequences, Tepper said.

 

But that study left unanswered the questions of why employees felt better if they returned their bosses’ hostility and whether retaliation hurt their careers. To answer these questions, researchers conducted a second study, which involved an online survey of 371 people from across the country who were surveyed three times, each three weeks apart.

 

The first survey asked respondents many of the same questions as the first study. The second survey asked questions designed to test if the employees felt like a victim in their relationship with their boss.

 

In addition to other questions, the third survey asked employees about career outcomes, such as whether they had been promoted and whether they were meeting their income goals.

 

Results showed that employees who turned the hostility back on their bosses were less likely to identify themselves as victims — and were then less likely to report psychological distress and more likely to be satisfied with and committed to their jobs.

 

Of course, fighting against your boss may seem like a risky career move. “In this second study, we wanted to see if employees who retaliated against their bosses also reported that their career was damaged by their actions,” Tepper said. “But in our survey anyway, employees didn’t believe their actions hurt their career.”

 

How can returning hostility not only help employees avoid psychological distress, but also allow them to remain committed to their employer and be more satisfied with their jobs?

 

Although this study didn’t examine that issue directly, Tepper said he believes employees who fight back may have the admiration and respect of co-workers.

 

“There is a norm of reciprocity in our society. We have respect for someone who fights back, who doesn’t just sit back and take abuse. Having the respect of co-workers may help employees feel more committed to their organization and happy about their job.”

 

Tepper said the message from these findings shouldn’t be that employees should automatically retaliate against a horrible boss.

 

“The real answer is to get rid of hostile bosses,” he said. “And there may be other responses to hostile bosses that may be more beneficial. We need to test other coping strategies.”

 

 

Source: Ohio State University

 

有时候，忽视你的老板并不是一件坏事

 

虽然，我们中的大多数人都受到这样的训练，那就是永远不要报复你的主管。但是，一项新的研究表明，在某些情况下，防守反击性的反应可能是有益的。

 

俄亥俄州立大学的研究人员发现，从某些方面来看，在有敌意的老板手下工作的员工会从对这种敌意的回击中得到好的结果。

 

研究发现，对老板进行反击可以使员工减少受伤害的感觉。从而使心理压力减轻、获得更多的工作满意度以及对他们的雇主更加投入。

 

“在我们做这项研究之前，我以为员工对他们的老板进行报复是不会有好结果的，但这并不是我们在研究中所发现的。”该研究的第一作者、人力资源管理学教授班纳•特珀说。

 

“最好的情况当然是在没有敌意的时候。但是如果你的老板是敌对的，进行还击似乎有是有好处的。员工的自我感觉良好，是因为他们不只是面对虐待坐以待毙。”

 

敌对的老板往往对他们的员工做出吼叫、讥讽和恐吓等行为。回击敌意的员工则忽视他们的老板，就像他们完全不知道老板在说些什么，并且只是半心半意的对待工作。

 

这项研究涉及到研究人员进行的两个相关研究的数据。研究结果已发表在在线杂志《人事心理学》中。

 

第一项研究包括有169人参加，他们完成了相隔7个月的两项邮件调查。

 

在第一次调查中，受访者完成了特珀在2000年开发的有关有敌意主管15个问题的调查问卷。问卷要求调查对象评估他们的上司做出诸如嘲笑他们，说他们的“思想和情感想法和感觉是愚蠢的”这类事情的频率。

 

参与者报告了他们用忽视他们上司的方法进行回击的频率。

 

七个月后，同一批受访者回答了工作满意度、对他们雇主的承诺、心理压力和负面情绪等相关问题。

 

结果表明，当老板有敌意——但员工没有并没有进行报复——的时候，员工的心理压力较大、工作满意度较低，对工作的投入程度也较差。

 

然而，在那些对敌意进行了回击的员工身上则没有看到这些负面的影响，特珀说。

 

但是，这项研究留下了一些没有回答的问题：为什么员工在报复了他们的老板的敌意后会感觉良好？这种报复是否会伤害到他们的职业生涯？为了回答这些问题，研究人员进行了第二次研究。这次研究涉及对来自全国各地的371人进行的三次在线调查，每次调查间隔3周时间。

 

在第一个调查中，研究人员要求受访者回答与第一个研究中的一些问题相同的问题。在第二个调查中，员工被问到他们是否感觉到在和老板的关系中自己像是一个受害者。

 

除了其他问题之外，第三个调查还询问了员工职业生涯的结果，如他们是否被提升和他们是否实现了他们的收入目标。

 

结果显示，那些对老板的敌意进行了报复的员工不太可能认为自己是受害者——因此也不太可能报告说心理压力大，而且更容易感到满足并致力于他们的工作。

 

当然，对你的老板进行反击看起来像职业生涯中一个高风险的选择。“在本次研究中，我们想看看那些对他们的老板进行报复的员工是不是还报告说，他们的报复行为损害了他们的职业生涯，”特珀说。“但不管怎样，在我们的调查中发现，员工不认为他们的报复行为对他们的职业生涯有伤害。”

 

怎样能使对敌意进行报复不仅帮助员工避免心理压力，而且允许他们保持对工作的投入和对自己的工作更感到满意呢？

 

尽管这项研究没有直接检查这个问题，但特珀相信进行反击的员工可能获得同事的钦佩和尊重。

 

“在我们的社会里有一种互惠原则。我们对那些做出反击的、不愿坐在那里默默忍受虐待的人表示尊重。而得到同事们的尊敬可以帮助员工更加致力于组织，并对他们的工作感到开心快乐。”

 

特珀说，这些发现所带来的信息并不是说员工应该对可恶的老板进行自动的报复。

 

“真正的答案是摆脱有敌意的老板,”他说。“可能还有其他更为有利的应对有敌意老板的策略。我们需要测试其他的应对策略。”

 

 

来源：译言网