When work hits home

Many employees experience various levels of distress in an organization. This can be due to many factors, but the most common source of stress is the relationship between employees and their supervisors.

Abusive supervisors tend to create fearful and anxious employees, resulting in productivity deficiencies and, at worst, even hostility in the workplace. What is disturbing is that the impact of abusive supervision can even reach home.

Abusive supervision and the employee

Simon Lloyd Restubog, Kristin Scott and Thomas Zagenczyk conducted a study utilizing Filipino workers in order to understand the effects of abusive supervision on employees.

The participants’ supervisors were asked to rate the organization’s working environment aggression norm. Then the participants were asked to assess the levels of aggressive norms in their organizations, and their individual psychological distress. Finally, they surveyed the participant spouses on aggressive behaviors exhibited by their spouse.

Work and home

The major results showed the adverse effects of abusive supervision on Filipino workers. A culture of aggression in the office as an accepted norm influences how supervisors interact with their subordinates.

If employees perceive that the organization accepts this level of aggression, and that they experience hostility from their supervisors, employees can take two routes: if the organization permits a culture of confrontation, employees will confront and retaliate against the supervisor; however, if the organization finds it unacceptable to fight against supervisors, employees channel their angst to their spouses.

Gender plays an important role as well to the findings. Men are more likely to engage in spouse undermining as compared with women. This is strongly affected by the Philippine culture expectation where men are identified to be “macho” or strongly masculine. Thus Filipino men are expected to show strength and resiliency to abuse, endure pain and project machismo. So when abusive treatment targets Filipino employees, they would not retaliate against the supervisor because of the culture dimension of respect to the power structure in a working environment: a boss is still a boss no matter what, and Filipino employees accept this. However, beyond work, there is no more need to control themselves, and unfortunately, some direct their aggression toward their spouse.

The results of the study also stipulated that service-oriented occupations such as those working in sales, marketing and customer service show higher level of abusive supervision and distress as compared with other occupations. This is accorded to the higher level of interaction occurring within the service-oriented environment.

Organization intervention

How can organizations prevent the damage supervisory abuse can inflict on employee families?

Organizations must strive to prevent abuse by creating clear guidelines and structures that help promote mutual respect among members of the company. They should foster an atmosphere and culture of support, sensitivity and zero-tolerance for abusive behaviors. Preventive systems must also be put in place to halt abuse already occurring, such as implementing sanctions and disciplinary measures.

Supervisors must also be educated on their impact on the well-being of their employees by making them understand how their treatment affects the individual and their respective families. They should be able to successfully manage their people by knowing that each action has an equivalent reaction in the psyche of the employee.

As for those who are affected already by the abuse, adequate counseling can be provided by the company to cultivate coping skills in confronting the negative effects of the abuse, and to help shield themselves from future hostilities.

By creating this suitable working environment where employee welfare is considered, proficiency and better levels of performance may be instilled in the employee rather than fear and anxiety.

(The article is based on the published article of S. L. Restubog, K. L. Scott and T. J. Zagenczyk in the Journal of Applied Psychology 2011.  Erald graduated with Ph.D. in Leadership Studies from the Ateneo de Manila University. He is also a program officer of Ateneo CORD, which will organize its Trendwatcher Series 20 on Dec. 7, 2011. For more information, visit www.ateneocord.org.ph, send e-mail to [email protected] or call 4266065.)