Why are there so many horrible bosses? (2014)

“What can organizations and individuals do about bad bosses?”

Prof. Ronald E. Riggio, Claremont McKenna College, California
Psychology Today 6 August 2014.

“We all likely have a story of that one (or more) terrible boss, who was either a tyrant, a bully, or just totally incompetent. In fact, it may seem that there are more bad bosses than good ones.

“Psychologist Robert Hogan claims that 60-75 percent of managers are incompetent or poor leaders. …A key reason is that we don’t do a good job of selecting leaders – focusing on how they appear, rather than on their capacity to manage or lead. …

“Leadership scholar, Jean Lipman-Blumen, …asserts, however, that followers allow toxic leaders to be in charge, and that some followers help and support the toxic leader and themselves, in turn, can become horrible bosses and henchmen. The antidote is to be courageous, choose not to follow bad leaders, and to stand up to them before they become toxic.

“What can organizations and individuals do about bad bosses? Clearly, there is no easy solution. Horrible bosses play dirty and are tough to defeat.

“But the bottom line is for organizations to develop evaluation systems to identify and eliminate bad bosses or keep them from rising in the organization. Anti-bullying policies also can help organizations.

“At the individual level, it takes courage to stand up to bad bosses – to report them to Human Resources or higher-level leaders, or to call them out. Organizations need to have policies and procedures to protect whistleblowers who identify horrible bosses, and prevent retaliation against employees who raise the alarm.

“And, as mentioned, organizations need to identify and prevent the wrong types of people from attaining positions of power and leadership.”

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