IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/iza/izadps/dp11825.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

How Common Are Bad Bosses?

Author

Listed:
  • Artz, Benjamin

    (University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh)

  • Goodall, Amanda H.

    (Cass Business School)

  • Oswald, Andrew J.

    (University of Warwick)

Abstract

Bosses play an important role in workplaces. Yet little is currently known about a foundational question. Are the right people promoted to be managers, team leaders, and supervisors? Gallup data and the famous Peter Principle both suggest that incompetent bosses are likely to be all around us. This paper's results uncover a different, and more nuanced, conclusion. By taking data on 35 nations, the paper provides the first statistically representative international estimates of the extent to which employees have 'bad bosses'. Using a simple, and arguably natural, measure, the paper calculates that approximately 13% of Europe's workers have a bad boss. These bosses are most common in the Transport sector and large organizations. The paper discusses its methodology, performs validation checks, and reviews other data and implications.

Suggested Citation

  • Artz, Benjamin & Goodall, Amanda H. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2018. "How Common Are Bad Bosses?," IZA Discussion Papers 11825, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    • Handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11825
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://docs.iza.org/dp11825.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Other versions of this item:

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Andrew E. Clark, 2005. "Your Money or Your Life: Changing Job Quality in OECD Countries," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(3), pages 377-400, September.
    2. Petri Böckerman & Pekka Ilmakunnas, 2012. "The Job Satisfaction-Productivity Nexus: A Study Using Matched Survey and Register Data," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 65(2), pages 244-262, April.
    3. Blanchflower, David G. & Oswald, Andrew J., 2008. "Is well-being U-shaped over the life cycle?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 66(8), pages 1733-1749, April.
    4. Helge Hoel & David Beale, 2006. "Workplace Bullying, Psychological Perspectives and Industrial Relations: Towards a Contextualized and Interdisciplinary Approach," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 44(2), pages 239-262, June.
    5. Edward P. Lazear & Kathryn L. Shaw & Christopher T. Stanton, 2015. "The Value of Bosses," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(4), pages 823-861.
    6. Böckerman, Petri & Bryson, Alex & Ilmakunnas, Pekka, 2012. "Does high involvement management improve worker wellbeing?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 660-680.
    7. Andrew J. Oswald & Eugenio Proto & Daniel Sgroi, 2015. "Happiness and Productivity," Journal of Labor Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 33(4), pages 789-822.
    8. Edward P. Lazear, 2004. "The Peter Principle: A Theory of Decline," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 112(S1), pages 141-163, February.
    9. Francis Green & Nicholas Tsitsianis, 2005. "An Investigation of National Trends in Job Satisfaction in Britain and Germany," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 43(3), pages 401-429, September.
    10. Benjamin M. Artz & Amanda H. Goodall & Andrew J. Oswald, 2017. "Boss Competence and Worker Well-Being," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(2), pages 419-450, March.
    11. Melanie K. Jones & Paul L. Latreille & Peter J. Sloane, 2016. "Job Anxiety, Work-Related Psychological Illness and Workplace Performance," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 54(4), pages 742-767, December.
    12. Nicholas Bloom & Christos Genakos & Raffaella Sadun & John Van Reenen, 2011. "Management Practices Across Firms and Countries," CEP Discussion Papers dp1109, Centre for Economic Performance, LSE.
    13. Oswald, Andrew J. & Wu, Stephen, 2010. "Objective Confirmation of Subjective Measures of Human Well-being: Evidence from the USA," IZA Discussion Papers 4695, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    14. Keith A. Bender & John S. Heywood & Michael P. Kidd, 2017. "Claims of employment discrimination and worker voice," Industrial Relations Journal, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 48(2), pages 133-153, March.
    15. Alex Bryson & John Forth & Simon Kirby, 2005. "High‐Involvement Management Practices, Trade Union Representation And Workplace Performance In Britain," Scottish Journal of Political Economy, Scottish Economic Society, vol. 52(3), pages 451-491, July.
    16. Barmby, Tim & Eberth, Barbara & Ma, Ada, 2012. "Incentives, learning, task difficulty, and the Peter Principle: Interpreting individual output changes in an Organisational Hierarchy," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 19(1), pages 76-81.
    17. Goodall, Amanda H., 2012. "A Theory of Expert Leadership," IZA Discussion Papers 6566, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Robert Dur & Ola Kvaløy & Anja Schöttner, 2022. "Leadership Styles and Labor Market Conditions," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 68(4), pages 3150-3168, April.
    2. Stefano Dughera & Alain Marciano, 2022. "Supervise me if you can. Relational feelings, incentive pays and supervisory violations," Journal of Economics, Springer, vol. 136(1), pages 47-72, June.
    3. Argyro Avgoustaki & Hans T. W. Frankort, 2023. "All work intensity is not created equal: Effort motives, job satisfaction and quit intentions at a grocery chain," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(4), pages 869-894, December.
    4. Getinet Astatike Haile, 2023. "Organizational leadership: How much does it matter?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 653-673, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Benjamin M. Artz & Amanda H. Goodall & Andrew J. Oswald, 2017. "Boss Competence and Worker Well-Being," ILR Review, Cornell University, ILR School, vol. 70(2), pages 419-450, March.
    2. Böckerman, Petri & Bryson, Alex & Ilmakunnas, Pekka, 2012. "Does high involvement management improve worker wellbeing?," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 84(2), pages 660-680.
    3. Bäker, Agnes & Goodall, Amanda H., 2020. "Feline followers and “umbrella carriers”: Department Chairs’ influence on faculty job satisfaction and quit intentions," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 49(4).
    4. Alex Bryson & Lucy Stokes & David Wilkinson, 2023. "Is pupil attainment higher in well-managed schools?," Education Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 31(1), pages 129-144, January.
    5. O'Donnell, Gus & Oswald, Andrew J., 2015. "National well-being policy and a weighted approach to human feelings," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 120(C), pages 59-70.
    6. Semih Tumen & Tugba Zeydanli, 2014. "Social Interactions in Job Satisfaction," Carlo Alberto Notebooks 378, Collegio Carlo Alberto.
    7. Blanchflower, David G & Oswald, Andrew, 2011. "International Happiness," CAGE Online Working Paper Series 39, Competitive Advantage in the Global Economy (CAGE).
    8. Semih Tumen & Tugba Zeydanli, 2016. "Social interactions in job satisfaction," International Journal of Manpower, Emerald Group Publishing Limited, vol. 37(3), pages 426-455, June.
    9. Artz, Benjamin & Heywood, John S., 2020. "Unions, Worker Participation and Worker Well-Being," GLO Discussion Paper Series 705, Global Labor Organization (GLO).
    10. Michael White & Alex Bryson, 2018. "HPWS in the Public Sector: Are There Mutual Gains?," DoQSS Working Papers 18-10, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    11. Michael Barry & Alex Bryson & Rafael Gomez & Bruce Kaufman & Guenther Lomas & Adrian Wilkinson, 2018. "The ''Good Workplace'': The Role of Joint Consultative Committees, Unions and HR policies in Employee Ratings of Workplaces in Britain," DoQSS Working Papers 18-08, Quantitative Social Science - UCL Social Research Institute, University College London.
    12. Getinet Astatike Haile, 2023. "Organizational leadership: How much does it matter?," British Journal of Industrial Relations, London School of Economics, vol. 61(3), pages 653-673, September.
    13. Alice Falchi & Gilles Grolleau & Naoufel Mzoughi & Sanja Pekovic, 2023. "Eco-innovations and Job Satisfaction: A Moderated Mediation Approach," Journal of Innovation Economics, De Boeck Université, vol. 0(3), pages 185-199.
    14. Frijters, Paul & Krekel, Christian & Ulker, Aydogan, 2023. "Should bads be inflicted all at once, like Machiavelli said? Evidence from life-satisfaction data," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 205(C), pages 1-27.
    15. Kuroda, Sachiko & Yamamoto, Isamu, 2018. "Good boss, bad boss, workers’ mental health and productivity: Evidence from Japan," Japan and the World Economy, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 106-118.
    16. Arie Sherman & Tal Shavit, 2018. "The Thrill of Creative Effort at Work: An Empirical Study on Work, Creative Effort and Well-Being," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 19(7), pages 2049-2069, October.
    17. Barry, Michael & Bryson, Alex & Gomez, Rafael & Kaufman, Bruce E. & Lomas, Guenther & Wilkinson, Adrian, 2018. "The," IZA Discussion Papers 11860, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    18. Bert Van Landeghem, 2012. "Panel Conditioning and Self-Reported Satisfaction: Evidence from International Panel Data and Repeated Cross-Sections," SOEPpapers on Multidisciplinary Panel Data Research 484, DIW Berlin, The German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP).
    19. Isham, Amy & Mair, Simon & Jackson, Tim, 2021. "Worker wellbeing and productivity in advanced economies: Re-examining the link," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 184(C).
    20. C. O. Henriques & L. A. Lopez-Agudo & O. D. Marcenaro-Gutierrez & M. Luque, 2021. "Reaching Compromises in Workers’ Life Satisfaction: A Multiobjective Interval Programming Approach," Journal of Happiness Studies, Springer, vol. 22(1), pages 207-239, January.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    bosses; leadership; job satisfaction; well-being;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • J28 - Labor and Demographic Economics - - Demand and Supply of Labor - - - Safety; Job Satisfaction; Related Public Policy
    • I31 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Welfare, Well-Being, and Poverty - - - General Welfare, Well-Being
    • M54 - Business Administration and Business Economics; Marketing; Accounting; Personnel Economics - - Personnel Economics - - - Labor Management

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:iza:izadps:dp11825. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Holger Hinte (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/izaaade.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.