Bad Bosses Make Themselves Feel Bad Too

Power corrupts, they say. Throughout history there are examples of people in positions of power who have acted in ways that have harmed others.

What’s less understood, perhaps, is that when the powerful abuse their positions, they hurt themselves as well.

Maryland Smith’s Trevor A. Foulk’s research, published in the Academy of Management Journal, confirms it.

He and his co-authors conducted a two-week field experiment with 108 managers and business leaders, employed across a range of industries, including engineering, medicine, finance and education.

On half of the experiment days, the research subjects participated in a manipulation that was designed to make them feel powerful. On the other days, they took part in a control manipulation – one not designed to make them feel powerful. Foulk and his co-authors then compared the way participants interacted with others, examining both how they treated others and how they felt others were treating them

When leaders felt powerful, the researchers found, they were more likely to act abusively and to perceive more incivility from their coworkers. And, they found, it had an effect on the leaders, themselves.

The study found that leaders who were abusive to colleagues had trouble relaxing after work. They worried more about whether they were competent in their positions, they felt less autonomous in their workplace, and perceived others as lacking in respect for them.

Foulk, now an assistant professor of management and organization at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business, began the research as a doctoral student at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business.

Read more: “Heavy Is the Head that Wears the Crown: An Actor-centric Approach to Daily Psychological Power, Abusive Leader Behavior, and Perceived Incivility” is featured in the Academy of Management Journal.