A new piece of research shows leadership behaviours play an important role in conflict and bullying situations. Olav Kjellevold Olsen and Kari Wik Ågotnes discuss the findings
Work pressure is an increasing problem in working life as it can negatively impact the individual health and psychological well-being of employees. Therefore, it is the responsibility of leaders and managers in any organisation to ensure the health and wellbeing of their followers and employees, particularly in times of high work pressure. However, a stressful working environment is not only a problem in its own right but can also lead to secondary problems, such as increased social tension in the workplace and subsequent bullying and mistreatment amongst colleagues.
As a consequence, managers and supervisors are in a position where their response can prevent, permit, or even promote the mistreatment of employees, depending on which type of behaviour they display. This is based on the assumption that leaders can shape the development of workplace bullying in various ways. Workplace bullying is an escalating process in which the person confronted ends up in an inferior position and becomes the target of systematic negative social acts, including verbal and physical, as well as direct and indirect, behaviours.
Alongside colleagues from the Royal Norwegian Naval Academy, Erasmus University Rotterdam, The University of Bergen, and the University of Johannesburg, we studied how exactly work pressure is related to daily experiences of bullying-related acts, as well as the interaction with different leadership styles: transformational leadership or laissez-faire leadership. Transformational leadership involves paying more attention to employees’ needs for achievement and providing social support, whereas laissez-faire leadership involves a more passive and destructive approach, leaving followers to their own devices in situations that require leadership the most.
A unique opportunity
Data was collected from a population of Norwegian naval cadets from a Military University College. During the data collection, the cadets were in the process of crossing the Atlantic Ocean in a tall ship as part of their education and training. Using this sample of participants provided a unique opportunity to conduct the study in a shifting yet continuous work environment: the cadets were socially isolated from the outside world for an extended period of time with limited external communications. The cadets are also continuously interacting with each other with limited opportunities to be alone, living in close quarters and sleeping in hammocks side by side. During their voyage, 61 of the cadets completed a daily survey measuring variations in work pressure, leadership behaviour, and exposure to bullying-related acts over 36 consecutive days.
Our findings demonstrated that on days in which individuals reported higher work pressure, they also experienced more bullying behaviours from peers. This indicates that bullying and other negative behaviours are consequences of problems in the work environment. Furthermore, the fact that this relationship is present on a daily basis shows how quickly stressors in the workplace can trigger negative social interactions and therefore induce, facilitate, or escalate bullying.
Also, the relationship between daily pressure at work and exposure to bullying was stronger on days when the participants reported higher levels of laissez-faire leadership. These would include days where the leader avoided intervening or helping employees manage stressful work situations. This suggests workplace bullying and harassment particularly flourish in environments with unfavourable working conditions and inadequate leadership. However, although laisse-faire leadership acted as a facilitator in the relationship between work pressure and bullying, transformational leadership did not prevent or improve it.
The relationship between work pressure and bullying-related acts can be explained by an imbalance between the increase in effort needed at work accompanied by a lack of the necessary resources to cope, resulting in feelings of stress, frustration, and changes in behaviour. These negative emotions leave employees vulnerable to conflict and exposure to bullying-related acts.
These findings indicate some important implications for the way organisations regard leadership and management development. Traditionally the focus of most leadership and managerial training programs has been the acquisition of individual knowledge, skills, and abilities, in an effort to develop effective leadership. However, what appears to be lacking in such programs is creating awareness of – as well as developing strategies for reducing – the occurrence of passive-avoidant destructive leadership behaviours, such as laissez-faire leadership. This point seems striking based on our finding that laissez-faire leadership behaviour facilitated the development of workplace bullying.
Positive outcomes of leadership
In Business Schools, courses tend to emphasise the positive outcomes of leadership; in other words, what it takes to create good results. However, we know from previous research, as well as from our findings, that negative experiences may have stronger impacts on employee cooperation and performance than positive experiences. Which is to say, bad is stronger than good. It is important to keep this in mind when teaching leadership in business education.
Managers should also be aware of risk factors, such as work pressure, in order to intervene early in situations that may escalate into bullying. Our research highlights that, for a leader in situations with high work pressure, it is more important not to be perceived as distant and avoidant compared to being perceived as inspirational and charismatic. Therefore, steps to promote constructive forms of leadership, such as transformational leadership, would probably not be very effective in preventing workplace bullying on a day-to-day basis.
Instead, early interventions in the workplace should include conflict management and also incorporate preventative steps to reduce the overall levels of employee work pressure which may be the root cause of bullying-related negative acts in the first place.
High work pressure is often quite prevalent, and as such it is particularly relevant for leaders to know how to recognise and handle these situations. In other words, for any aspiring leader, an important prerequisite in order to function well in the role will be the ability to overcome situations with high work pressure, as well as the prevailing consequences. As work pressure increases the risk of interpersonal conflict and bullying – which in turn is linked to low motivation, turnover, and decreased performance – the effects of work pressure and how to reduce the negative effects should be of particular interest in the education offered in business school programmes. Especially for business leaders, awareness of these issues will be very important.
Measuring variables
Schools should also strive to measure these variables in their own study environment. This will enable the students to use the results as a basis for a discussion regarding what this means for them, and what they can do to improve their own learning environment. It is also important to provide theory and tools related to the prevention of bullying and harassment, such as the development of a safe and inspiring workplace or the restoration of the work environment in the form of either dialogue-based conflict management or formal legal-based strategies. Case-based learning strategies can also be employed here – linked to dialogue about triggering conditions and strategies for managing conflict situations – based on the leadership role.
Our study shows that leadership behaviours play an important role in conflict and bullying situations. Supplementing previous research that different types of constructive leadership can reduce instances of conflict and bullying in the workplace, our study emphasises the detrimental effects destructive types of leadership, such as laissez-faire leadership, can have in these situations. This should be included as a central part of business education.
Olav Kjellevold Olsen is an Adjunct Associate Professor from BI Norwegian Business School Department of Leadership and Organizational Behaviour and a Professor of Work and Organisational Psychology at The University of Bergen. His main field of research is operational leadership and collaboration.
Kari Wik Ågotnes is a PhD candidate from the Department of Psychosocial Science at the University of Bergen in Norway. Her research interests are destructive leadership and workplace bullying, and she is in the process of finishing her PhD project entitled ‘The moderating effect of laissez-faire leadership on the stressor–bullying relationship’.
