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10.13007/488

Ideas for Leaders #488

Bullying Bosses: Don’t Just Take It, FightBack Instead

Key Concept

Employees victimized by a bullying boss should notaccept to be victims. While they may think that fightingback will make matters worse, a new study shows thatemployees who refuse to accept the abuse feel betterabout themselves, their jobs, and their careerprospects than those who accept their ‘victim identity’.

Idea Summary

Abusive behaviour from bosses, what researchers call‘downward hostility’, has a negative psychologicaleffect on employees, undermining job satisfaction andthe commitment to the employee. Such hostility alsocauses psychological distress, such as anxiety anddepression.

Persistent hostility leads employees to adopt a ‘victimidentity’, the negative self-image that one is destinedto be a target of abuse and attacks.

However, new research shows not all victims take onthis negative identity. In other words, there is adifference between victimization — being a target —and the victim identity. Indeed, many employeesrespond to abuse and hostile behaviour from the bosswith hostile behaviour of their own.

New research confirms that by refusing the negativeself-image of victims and instead fighting back, theseemployees actually enhance their own self-image aspeople who refuse to be weak and vulnerable. Insteadof causing the psychological distress of the victimidentity, downward hostility — if met with upwardhostility in return — has little or no impact on theemployee’s psychological state of mind. Fighting back,it seems, helps employees avoid the loss of jobsatisfaction and the reduced commitment that usuallyresults from an abusive employer.

This insight runs counter to the prevailing wisdom thatreturning the hostility of superiors is self-defeating.Proponents of the self-defeating theory argue that,first, instead of quelling any anger, fighting back

ShareAuthors

Tepper, Bennett J.Mitchell, Marie S.Haggard, Dana L.Kwan, Ho KwongPark, Hee-Man

Institutions

Ohio State University Fisher College ofBusinessUniversity of Georgia Terry College ofBusinessMissouri State UniversityShanghai University of Finance andEconomics

Source

Personnel Psychology

Idea conceived

February 2015

Idea posted

February 2015

DOI number

Subject

Conflict ManagementLeadershipCareer DevelopmentHappiness & Well-beingStress Management

2/22/2015 Bullying Bosses: Don’t Just Take It, Fight Back Instead | Ideas for Leaders

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first, instead of quelling any anger, fighting backagainst a hostile boss only keeps employees fixated onthe negative, resulting in a constant and growinganger. The second argument is that fighting back onlyescalates the hostility: the boss becomes even moreabusive, the employee pushes back even morestrongly, and the relationship becomes even moretoxic.

The results of the study reveal, however, that neither‘negative rumination’ nor ‘escalating hostility’ (to usethe psychological terms) occur with upward hostility.Instead, when the employee fights hostility withhostility, instead of acting like a victim, he or she feelsbetter, not worse, about work and the workplace.

But perhaps there are other, more long-termconsequences for employees who push back againstabusive bosses. To explore this question further, theresearch team conducted a second study thatexamined the career satisfaction and careerexpectations of employees who fought back. In otherwords, were employees who refused to be victimssatisfied with their progress in their careers, and didthey foresee satisfying progress in the future? Onceagain, the research revealed the beneficial effects of‘not taking it’. The second study showed that bothcareer satisfaction and career expectations werehigher among employees who refused to adopt avictim identity than those who put their heads downand accepted the abuse.

Business Application

The results of these two studies might seemcounterintuitive. Will not employees who fight backonly “make matters worse”? In truth, it appears thatstanding up and refusing to accept the abuse silently isself-enhancing rather than self-defeating — that is, itreduces the psychological stress of the abuse andkeeps employees more satisfied with their jobs andtheir careers.

That said, organizations would not want to encourageemployees to use hostility as a tool for reducing victimself-perceptions. Although hostility appears to bepersonally self-enhancing, it does undermineorganizational effectiveness. This has been provenconsistently in other studies. The key, therefore, is toget employees to use strategies that are self-enhancing and organization-enhancing.

Organizations can use the results of these studies notto encourage hostility, but to offer employeesalternative ways to avoid victimization. For example:

Explain to employees that accepting hostility and abuse in an effortto avoid trouble is self-defeating: employees will only feelprogressively worse about their jobs and their career prospects.

Give employees an alternative way to ‘fight back’, by offering clearpaths of recourse in the case of downward hostility — for example,an employee advocate structure or process that employees canturn to in the case of problems.

Instil a culture in which employees feel that they canuse such a structure — or, if there is no formal process

2/22/2015 Bullying Bosses: Don’t Just Take It, Fight Back Instead | Ideas for Leaders

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in place, that they can approach the boss’s boss —without fear of retribution.

The core lesson that employees and employers cantake from these studies is that that adopting a victimmindset is not a solution; in the face of hostility fromabove, employees must be proactive. It is in the long-term interest of the organization that such proactivitytakes the form of a formal process that leads tosatisfactory outcomes for the employee. The otheralternatives — victimized employees who hate theirjobs, a workplace that becomes a battle-zone, or,finally, employees who choose to leave — represents aloss for the company.

License Notice

This content is provided free-to-accessfor your own personal research,development and private study.

A license must be acquired for use byorganizations, for employee developmentor as a learning resource. To purchase alicense and learn about other partnerbenefits contact us.

Standard terms and conditions apply.

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References

On the Exchange of Hostility with Supervisors: AnExamination of Self-Enhancing and Self-DefeatingPerspectives. Bennett J. Tepper, Marie S.Mitchell, Dana L. Haggard, Ho Kwong Kwan& Hee-Man Park. Personnel Psychology (January2015).

Further Reading and Relevant Resources

Bennett J. Tepper’s profile at Ohio State University Fisher Collegeof Business

Marie S. Mitchell’s profile at University of Georgia Terry Collegeof Business

Dana L. Haggard’s profile at Missouri State UniversityDepartment of Management

2/22/2015 Bullying Bosses: Don’t Just Take It, Fight Back Instead | Ideas for Leaders

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The Cost of Rudeness and Incivility atWork

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