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Major problems with Boss

A multidimensional perspective from Pharmaceutical and Hospital Industry

Term Report for Human Resource Management

Fall 2010

Submitted to: Dr Khalid Amin

Submitted by: Dr. Naseem Abro (ID # 9696)

Dr. Mahreen Sayani (ID # 10338)

Dr. Ali Hassan (ID# 7856)

Dr. Huma Naz (ID # 9646)

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LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL

December 4th, 2010

Dr. Khalid AminHead of HRM DepartmentInstitute of Business ManagementPlot # 48 Korangi CreekKarachi-Pakistan111-002-004

Dear Sir,

Attached is the report requested on major problems employees have with their bosses. We have tried to meet your requests as stated verbally in the classroom and also via e-mail. We hope the report is informative and useful.

Our primary approach to collect data from health care industry including tertiary care hospitals and multinational pharmaceuticals. We collected the primary data through questionnaire. Moreover, secondary data collection involved documented facts and figures provided by the World Wide Web. Recommendations are detailed in the executive summary.

We are highly thankful to you, for providing us with the relevant guidelines and this topic, which has also increased our awareness and knowledge regarding the issue. We hope that this report is acceptable. As a group we found the investigation interesting, informative and quite challenging. We will highly appreciate your positive feedback in the classroom.

Cordially,

Group Members:

Dr. Naseem Abro (ID # 9696)

Dr. Mahreen Sayani (ID # 10338)

Dr. Ali Hassan (ID# 7856)

Dr. Huma Naz (ID # 9646)

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INTRODUCTION

This report has been compiled as a Term Project Report for the course of Human Resource

Management. The topic assigned to us was ‘Major problems employees have with their bosses’. The

report begins with a general abstract on employee problems with their bosses. It then moves ahead to

discuss the methods used for primary data collection. Questionnaires were the major form of data

collection which showed quite interesting results. The findings from the questionnaire and its

conclusions are discussed in the final part of the report. Working on the report was quite interesting as

it addresses the issues that generally all of us face in our work lives. We could related ourselves to the

situation and the responses that we received from the employees.

Another interesting fact was that employee problems are generally issues that a lot of us not only face

with, but are also quite stressed about. A bad boss may not only disrupt our work life, but also tends to

ruin our sense of mental peace and tranquility. That is why, it is highly important that organization carry

out measures not only to identify the problems that employees face, but rather to justify them and find

solutions for them.

To make things easier, we had selected the industry which basically relates to our group members’

professions. Thus, we had run our surveys and worked upon the ‘Health Care Industry’ in which we

addressed two Private sector Hospitals and three Pharmaceutical companies.

The hospitals from which we gathered our data were:

1. Aga Khan Hospital

2. Indus Hospital

Whereas, the pharmaceutical companies used for data collection were:

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3. Sanofi-Aventis Ltd

4. Roche Pakistan Ltd

5. Searle Pharmaceutical

Belonging to the healthcare industry, there were numerous problems that we had already anticipated to

acknowledge. However, due to the confidentiality of our result, we were surprised to find out some

other concerns that employees raise, which are discussed in the results segment of the report. Hope you

enjoy going through the report and gain benefit from the outcomes perceived.

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ABSTRACT

Bosses are often considered as authoritative, depending on how one has perceived and experienced

their bosses to be. In an organization, it is essential that the HR managers conduct surveys about how

satisfied employees are with their bosses so that they are able to understand the problems employees

face and try to alleviate their stress levels to some extent.

In this report, we have strived to take a survey from the healthcare industries so as to understand what

problems employees face with their bosses. The healthcare industry is huge so the report tends to limit

itself to Pharmaceutical and Hospitals only.

Study Design: This is an observational Descriptive Five organization based study belonging to healthcare

industry. The sample size is 33. Males were 67% and majority of study population were from 20 to40 yrs.

A sample of minimum 05 from every organization was taken and in total, the survey was conducted on 5

organizations which are as follows:

1. The Aga Khan Hospital

2. Indus Hospital

3. Sanofi-Aventis Pakistan Ltd

4. Roche Pakistan Ltd

5. Searle Pharmaceutical

From the survey results, it was found that bosses are not perceived in that evil manner as we often comprehend them to be. However, some major problems that were highlighted via the survey were:

1 - Lack of trust on employees (18%)

2 - Inability to communicate effectively (18%)

3 - Inadequate compensation (15%),

4 - Setting vague priorities (12%),

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5 - Not respecting legal rights (9%) and

6 - Harassment and discrimination (9%).

This study was done to better understand the boss-employee behavior and according to the above mentioned observations, certain recommendations were taken out to better understand and solve these problems to make employee-boss relations even better and to focus on the performance of the organization.

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LITERATURE REVIEW

The employer-employer relationship is the foundation for any business. A healthy employer-

employee relationship can contribute a lot towards success of any company, as happy

employees produce better results. Strenuous relationship however can adversely affect the

company's operations, morale, and even reputation. A company that is interested in growth

and profits must therefore establish relationships with employees based on mutual trust. A

rich employee-employer relationship in any organization forms the basis of a successful

business venture. Today, companies are investing more and more on human capital. Despite

all the effort being made, there are key areas of concern that form the basis of flawed

employer-employee relationship.

While some researchers claim that destructive or abusive behavior of supervisors and boss

constitutes a low base rate phenomenon (e.g. Aryee et al., 2007)1, others believe it to be a

substantial problem in many organizations, in terms of both its prevalence and

consequences (Burke, 2006; Hogan, Raskin and Fazzini, 1990)2. In organizational climate

research from the mid-1950s to 1990, 60%–75% of all employees typically reported that the

worst aspect of their job was their immediate supervisor (Hogan, Raskin and Fazzini, 1990)3.

In the USA, job pressure has been cited in 75% of workers’ compensation claims in which

mental stressors were the main cause of absenteeism, and 94% of those claims were

allegedly caused by abusive treatment by managers (Wilson, 1991)4. Thus, a growing body

of evidence documents that leaders behave in a destructive manner, be it towards their

subordinates (Bies and Tripp, 1998; Tepper, 2000, 2007)5, towards the organization itself or

towards both (Kellerman, 2004; Vredenburgh and Brender, 1998)6. Einarsen, Aasland and

Skogstad (2007)7 postulated a Destructive and Constructive Leadership (DCL) behaviour

model employing a representative sample of the Norwegian workforce.

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Many concepts have been used to describe destructive forms of leadership, such as ‘abusive

supervision’ (Tepper, 2000)8 and ‘petty tyranny’ (Ashforth, 1994)9, referring to leaders who

behave in a destructive manner towards subordinates, by intimidating subordinates,

belittling or humiliating them in public or exposing them to nonverbal aggression (Aryee et

al., 2007). Concepts such as authoritarian (Adorno et al., 1950; Bass, 1990a), Machiavellian

(Christie and Geis, 1970), autocratic (Kipnis et al., 1981), narcissistic leadership (Kets de

Vries and Miller, 1985) and personalized charismatic leadership (House and Howell, 1992)

emphasize similar but not overlapping behaviours. However, these concepts mainly focus on

control and obedience, and less on the abusive aspect of leadership. Leaders may also

behave destructively in a way that primarily affects the organization (Kellerman, 2004;

Lipman-Blumen, 2005), potentially leading to negative consequences for the execution of

tasks, quality of work, efficiency and

relations with customers and clients (Padilla, Hogan and Kaiser, 2007). Concepts frequently

used to describe such behaviour are ‘flawed leadership’ (Hogan, 1994), ‘derailed leadership’

(McCall and Lombardo, 1983; Shackleton, 1995), ‘dark side of leadership’ (Conger, 1990),

‘toxic leadership’ (Lipman-Blumen, 2005) and ‘impaired managers’ (Lubit, 2004). Such

leaders neglect, or even actively prevent, goal attainment in the organization by, for

example, sabotaging subordinates’ task execution, by working towards alternative goals

than those of the organization (Conger, 1990), by stealing resources such as

materials, money or time, or by encouraging employees to engage in such activities

(Altheide et al., 1978).

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DCL model (see Figure 1) describes four main kinds of destructive leadership behaviour

targeting either subordinates and/or the organization (Einarsen, Aasland and Skogstad,

2007). The subordinate dimension describes leadership behaviour ranging from anti-

subordinate behaviour to pro-subordinate behaviour. Anti-subordinate behaviour

illegitimately undermines or sabotages the motivation, well-being or job satisfaction of

subordinates, involving behavior such as harassment and mistreatment of subordinates

(Einarsen, Aasland and Skogstad, 2007). Pro-subordinate behaviour fosters the motivation,

well-being and job satisfaction of subordinates, including taking care of and supporting them

in accordance with organizational policies. Organization-oriented behavior may also range

from anti-organization behaviour to pro-organization behaviour, where the former violates

the legitimate interest of the organization by working in opposition to the organization’s

goals, values and optimal use of resources, by stealing from the organization, by sabotaging

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the organization’s goals, or even by being involved in corruption (Einarsen, Aasland and

Skogstad, 2007). Anti-organizational behaviour can also be described as counterproductive

workplace behaviour directed at the organization (Fox and Spector, 1999; Sackett and

DeVore, 2001). Pro-organizational behaviour is about working towards the fulfilment of the

organization’s goals, setting clear and unambiguous objectives, making or supporting

strategic decisions and implementing legitimate organizational change.

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RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Study Design

Study design for this research project was cross-sectional type of descriptive studies.

Target population

Currently employed staff of different cadre of 2 Tertiary care Hospitals and 3 Multinational

Pharmaceuticals during November 2010

Study Population:

This is an observational Descriptive Five organization based study belonging to healthcare industry.

Study Setting:

Two not for profit tertiary care hospitals and three multinational pharmaceuticals based at Karachi,

Pakistan were part of this research

Duration of study

The study was conducted in a month of November 2010.

Sampling Technique

Random sampling method was adopted to collect data from study population.

Data Collection procedure

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Self administered questionnaire was designed to collect data and was filled at the working place of individuals included in the study.

Analysis

Analysis of study was performed on SPSS version 11 and different variables are explained in terms of proportions and frequencies.

FINDINGS

The demographic characteristics of enrolled subjects were taken into account like age, sex, marital status, employment duration and level of employment.

Out of 33 enrolled individuals, 22 were males and 11 were females. Almost 50% of individuals of this report fall in 20 to 40 yrs age bracket. 19 (58%) of individuals were married. Duration of employment was categorized in to less than 1 year (36%), 1 to 5 yrs (36%) and more than 5 years (36%). One fifth of our sample size was non management employees and rest was categorized in to lower, middle and higher management.

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A list of problems was provided in questionnaire and subjects were asked to mark and rank problems with their bosses in order of importance; 1 being the most important, 2 is second to 1 and then so on and so forth

Major Problems with Bosses

12%

9%

18% 18%

9%

15%

0%

2%

4%

6%

8%

10%

12%

14%

16%

18%

20%

setting vagueprioritize

harassment anddiscrimination

lack of trust onemployees

inability tocommunicate

effectively

not respectinglegal rights

inadequatecompensation

Out of all the possible problems, the individuals identified lack of trust on employees (18%) and inability to communicate effectively (18%) as the most important problem with their bosses. This was followed by inadequate compensation (15%), setting vague priorities (12%), not respecting legal rights (9%) and harassment and discrimination (9%).

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Discussion:

Good boss Behaviour:

1- Ability to Communicate Effectively

A good boss provides and allows feedback. They take their time with meetings and instructions to

ensure the message has been delivered clearly. This boss also allows their employees to offer their

opinions and highly values them.

2- Trust in Employees

No need to micro-manage or leer over an employee's shoulder to make sure they're on task. A good

boss trusts that their employees are fully equipped to handle any job, yet remains available for

assistance.

3- Leadership Skills

Not simply the ability to spout orders. This leader uses teamwork as the basis for their management

style. They guide and encourage participation rather than dictate.

4- Flexibility

A great boss understands that things happen that we don't plan for. They remain flexible to changing

situations both in work and life. They are revered as compassionate and empathetic to their employees

and their real life situations.

5-Do What Needs to be Done

An excellent boss does what needs to be done when no one else can or will do it. This is a multi-faceted

role. Whether it be discipline, recruitment, or simply filling in or adding a helping hand, a good boss will

do it. They have the ability to handle problems diplomatically yet firmly.

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Behaviour of a bad boss

So what are the faults that make a bad boss – and how does this behaviour impact on employees?

A bad boss will:

1- Always be right

Insisting that they are always right, bad bosses will refuse to listen to other people’s ideas – particularly if they’re good ones – and aren’t prepared to be challenged. They’ll use their authority to get their own way and take advantage of their position to override anyone they feel threatened by or anyone with a different point of view. Of course, bad bosses will never apologise or admit they’re wrong, even when faced with the facts.

2- Take all the credit

Bad bosses claim all the good ideas and hard work as their own. After employees have put in the hours and researched all the best options, bad bosses will simply adopt these and refuse to recognise contributions from anyone else. Staff will quickly become demotivated if their efforts are never recognised let alone rewarded.

3- Blame other people for their mistakes

Of course, if these ideas don’t work out, then bad bosses will quickly disassociate themselves from them by finding someone else to blame or will completely distance themselves from the situation. This means they can absolve themselves of any blame and emerge unscathed from a disaster. Staff are left incredibly wary, and are less likely to take a chance on a new idea for fear of reprisals, and knowing their boss won’t back them up.

4- Assume complete control

Bad bosses think that if you want to get something done right, you have to do it yourself and recoil at the very mention of delegation. Instead, they become “hoarders”, keeping hold of work (usually the most interesting jobs) in order to make themselves feel more secure and appear important. This can create resentment among employees who feel they are held back with no opportunity for development.

5- Criticise - constantly

Nothing is ever good enough for a bad boss. No matter how well an employee may think they have performed, the boss will always find something that isn’t quite right and needs to be done again. And, if there’s ever an opportunity to criticise an employee publicly rather than take them aside and speak to them quietly, the former wins hands down every time. Some staff may respond to this style of management, most will be left demotivated, anxious and stressed.

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6- Be secretive

Bad bosses keep information to themselves, conducting closed meetings and emerging from them appearing secretive and self-important so that staff are left guessing as to what has taken place. While this may keep the boss in their desired “all-knowing” position, it leaves staff de-motivated because they feel insecure and devalued.

7- Be vague

Vague bosses will greet a new staff member with a two minute description of their role and then disappear for the next few weeks so that they aren’t around for questions or feedback. This is due to two reasons: firstly, by keeping staff in the dark they’ll make themselves feel really important and secondly, they are actually unsure about what needs to achieved themselves and are desperately trying to keep this secret. If they do deem to share information, it will usually be presented in an extremely vague way as to create as much confusion as possible.

8- Over-supervise

While an absent boss can be unconstructive, a boss who over-supervises can be downright obstructive. By monitoring every move an employee makes – from how they’ve completed a task to how they answer the telephone - staff end up feeling like children. This sort of over-supervision not only creates

barriers to getting the work finished, but is also a sure-fire way of destroying the employee’s self-confidence.

9- Bully

Bullies are abusive and destructive and can make life a misery for staff who live in fear of their erratic behaviour and constant outbursts. Because of their own insecurities and ignorance, a bad boss will choose to vent their frustrations on staff members who are lower down the pecking order and less able to fight back. They are the worse type of bad boss as they only feel good about themselves when they are belittling others.

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CONCLUSION

Total sample size was 33. At least 5 individuals were enrolled from each of 05 organizations. The sample

comprises of pharmaceutical industry as well as from hospitals. In this study, the male to female ration

was 2:1 (22 males and 11 females). This is also in line with the real world setting specially in our part of

world where males are more dominated in numbers in almost all organizations. Most of employees fall

in age group of 20 to 40 yrs as this age group is mostly working as compared to extremes of age where

people either get retired or are waiting to enter into professional life. 58% of individuals were married.

Duration of employment was categorized in to less than 1 year (36%), 1 to 5 yrs (36%) and more than 5

years (36%). We decided to have more management staff to be enrolled as compared to non managerial

staff so the sample size has 20% non management staff and rest were from management which was also

categorized as low, middle and higher management.

Employees equally rated lack of trust (18%) and ineffective communication (18%) as top most problems.

These were followed by inadequate compensation, setting vague priorities, harassment and

discrimination and not respecting legal rights.

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RECOMMENDATIONS:

Setting Vague Priorities:

If your boss demands quality of work and you don’t understand what quality means, for example your boss asks for 500 high-quality units an hour, 8 hours a day, Monday through Friday. High-quality would mean no smears or tears, but he is not clear you could be going for the 500 units in minimum amount of time and totally ignoring the quality, which would not satisfy your boss.

Based on your best understanding, write an email or see him or her directly and repeat what the boss said, followed by your specific interpretation of what you think he/she actually wants done.

Harassment & Discrimination:

It’s always best to approach the person you are having the problem with directly, if you can. If you can’t, you should approach someone who is in a position to do something about it —someone who is in a position of authority over that person. You should also check if the organization has a formal grievance procedure.

Inadequate Compensation:

Inadequate compensation results in decreased motivation, morale and may result in unethical practices, when employees aren't paid enough, or they aren't paid fairly compared with other employees it better to have an open discussion about the compensation. Decreased recruitment and increased turnover rate is also indication of inadequate compensation. Top management and the employees should have an open discussion regarding this issue and try to identify and fix those issues.

Lack of trust on employees:

A growing number of employees and employers want to be part of a family at work, but levels of trust between the two groups continue to erode. Yet despite a desire by both employees and employers to feel connected to one another, neither group perceives the other as particularly loyal. Managers at their companies should make employees feel like an important and valued part of the company. Employees should also emphasize the importance of trust and the effect it can have on their performance, and talk to the top management, if the problem is still not solved and a particular employee is uncomfortable

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with this lack of trust, he or she should try for another organization with better trust policies as trust management is a whole new field with trust managers dealing with this particular issue.

Inability to communicate effectively:

Solid communication makes workers feel like they're valued members of the team. Ineffective communication is a major, yet avoidable, obstacle to business productivity. And yes, it can be avoided. Given the will, the bleakest of situations can be turned around for the better. Communication is as much a matter of human relationships as it is about transmitting facts. 'Do you understand?' is usually an unfair question, masking the enquirer's inability to communicate. Employees should always ask and make clear what the boss said, and what he actually meant to say, that way a lot of confusion can be avoided, and the boss the unable to communicate effectively and causing confusion, then you should tell him that he is not making your job easier and should improve on his communication skills. Upward feedback can be done to deal with this problem.

Not respecting legal rights:

An important part of protecting yourself against such a boss is to first of all know your rights and any potential legal means of addressing your boss’s behavior, talk to the human resource department about such grievances and demand some action to be taken and still if the matter doesn’t get resolved go to your union to address such legal matters and if there is a need consult a lawyer or an employee rights specialist.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Aryee, S., Z. X. Chen, L. Sun and Y. A. Debrah (2007). ‘Antecedents and outcomes of

abusive supervision: test of a

trickle-down model’, Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, pp. 191–201

2. Burke, R. J. (2006). ‘Why leaders fail. Exploring the dark side’. In R. J. Burke and C. L.

Cooper (eds), Inspiring Leaders, pp. 239–248. London: Routledge.

3. Hogan, R., R. Raskin and D. Fazzini (1990). ‘The dark side of charisma’. In K. E. Clark

and M. B. Clark (eds), Measures of Leadership, pp. 343–354. West Orange, NJ:

Leadership Library of America

4. Wilson, B. (1991). ‘U.S. businesses suffer from workplace trauma. Here’s how to

protect the mental health of your work force – and the fiscal health of your company’

Personnel Journal, 70, pp. 47–50.

5. Bies, R. J. and T. M. Tripp (1998). ‘Two faces of the powerless. Coping with tyranny in

organizations’. In R. M. Kramer and M. A. Neale (eds), Power and Influence in

Organizations, pp.203–219. London: Sage

6. Kellerman, B. (2004). Bad Leadership. What it is, How it Happens, Why it Matters.

Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press

7. Vredenburgh, D. and Y. Brender (1998). ‘The hierarchical abuse of power in work

organizations’, Journal of Business Ethics, 17, pp. 1337–1347.

8. Einarsen, S., M. S. Aasland and A. Skogstad (2007). ‘Destructive leadership

behaviour: a definition and a conceptual model’, Leadership Quarterly, 18, pp. 207–

216

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9. Tepper, B. J. (2007). ‘Abusive supervision in work organizations: review, synthesis,

and research agenda’, Journal of Management, 33, pp. 261–289.

Appendix:

Major Problems employees have with their bosses

Survey Questionnaire

Age: (select one range)

<20yrs 20yrs-30 yrs 30 yrs -40 yrs40 yrs -50 yrs 50 or aboveSex:

Male Female

Marital Status:

Married Unmarried

Employment duration in current organization

< 1yr 1-5 yrs >5 yrs

Level of employment: (select one)

Non-management Lower managementMiddle management Upper management

Please categories following problems which an employee can have with his/her supervisor/boss in order of importance; for e.g. give 1 number to problem which you think is more important, 2 to second one and so on so forth until each problem has been given a number from 1-12:

Setting Vague PrioritiesHarassment & DiscriminationPrivacy InvasionLack of trust on employeesInability to communicate effectivelyLack of Flexibility Not Respecting Legal RightsInadequate CompensationTaking all the credit of work doneExplosive TemperAbsurd ExpectationsCriticism

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Comments: The above ratings have been marked according to the different bosses perception towards their secretarial staff.