Abusive bosses infect entire teams, MSU study claims

Reblogged from Michigan Radio

Many Michiganders are enjoying a long weekend away from their abusive bosses.

A new Michigan State University study finds leaders who are verbally abusive to their employees are actually doing more harm than you may think.

Crystal Fahr is an assistant professor of management in MSU’s Broad College of Business.  She is the lead investigator on the study published online in the Journal of Applied Psychology

She says abuse, even if it is directed primarily at one employee, infects the whole team. And it doesn’t end by just replacing the boss.

“Once a team is in a state of conflict, these things only get worse,” says Fahr, “It’s not very easy for a team to step out of the conflict once it’s begun.”

Fahr says researchers were surprised that employees with an abusive boss didn’t band together, but instead tended to turn on each other. Read more>>