Bullying and the Blame Game is not Management

Bullying and Blaming is not Management - New Scientist

BULLYING and abusive managers take note: every time you put on a disgraceful show of verbally attacking staff in the office, you are demonstrating your inability to manage people.

Simply witnessing your behaviour, i.e. blaming others in a degrading and unconstructive manner, is enough to set up a 'blame culture' that will go through your team like a plague.

Communication and co-operation breaks down because no-one will tell the difficult truths. No-one wants to take responsibility for decision making so, decisions will be left unmade. Procrastination will be the new watchword, which in turn causes delays in projects and stifles achievement, innovation and initiative.

People will become defensive and barriers will be built between members who need to openly collaborate. People will favour avoidance and delay as a self preserving strategy over confrontation and fast resolution.

Nathanael Fast report
"We already know that people are more likely to blame others when they themselves have been blamed - a 'kick-the-dog' knock on effect," says Nathanael Fast of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles.

According to his latest results, a blame attitude spreads to people who have had to witness a public dressing-down. Setting up a defensive avoidance mentality in the team.

True Leaders
Managers who want to be considered true leaders, must strive to prevent such a culture from spreading. Pointing fingers and accusing other people is a primitve and uncivilised behaviour that cannot be tolerated.

Arnold Schwarzenegger
In one experiment, his team asked one group of volunteers to watch footage of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger blaming others for a failed strategy and another to view him accepting personal responsibility for it.

When asked to write about a failure of their own afterwards, those in the first group were 30 per cent more likely to blame this failure on others than those in the second

In a further, similar experiment, blame was less contagious if people wrote down values they held dear before they saw others blamed. Fast says this may have reminded them of why they made certain choices, reducing the need to defend themselves by blaming others.

Good People Management
Bullying and looking for someone to blame for all the negative occurences, is just bad management, plain and simple. You, as a manager, are responsible for the actions of all the people who work for you, their results and their conduct.

If they're making mistakes, provide better training. If the quality of the work is questionable, check th erequirements, the tools and the skills mix in your team. Give them the tools to succeed.

Coach and mentor them into performing better and stop passing the buck. Beat yourself up before you beat anyone else. After all, you are the one in charge, right?

For more information on the report check out the references: (Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, DOI: 10.1016/j.jesp.2009.10.007).