These are some common topics to discuss in the workplace-How is the boss? How does he or she behave? What kind of manners did the person possess? Is this person good or bad? Is this individual ensuring a comfortable work atmosphere?-Everyone is quite curious about these queries. Working in a good and motivating workplace is one of the basic attributes that employees look for in an organisation. Comfortable work environment means ability to speak-up, to learn and to grow professionally and personally so they can serve better. However, in Bangladesh most organisations' culture office is not always positive and engaging.
Several research reports have documented the finest and worst top executives during the past ten years. Leadership derailment studies show that the majority of top bosses fail to take their decisions. 75% of employees say the most pressure from their jobs comes from their bosses. Too many bad bosses reign. A bad boss's negative approaches affect employee performance, which no organisation can afford. Unfortunately, many organisations aren't doing much about it, so workers suffer through their bosses' incompetence. According to Gallup's State of the Global Workplace research, only 13% of employees are actively engaged in their professions.
In today's fast-paced world, Technology is extensively improving but the top executive's ability to lead the organisation isn't; it is getting worse. Due to lack of technological knowledge most of top executives don't trust Technology. The role of top executives in an organisation comes with some important position command, and because many executives don't know how to lead through the use of leadership skills, personal power, or influence, they shift to autocratic behaviours and control to get things done. Some of these executives exercise their power knowingly and sometimes unknowingly. The abuse of power is a direct result of insufficient administrative knowledge, inexperience, subjectivity, and unskillfulness, which can lead to a myriads of dysfunctions in organisations, on teams, with peers, employees, and even the way the business operates. Exploring the dysfunctional autocratic manner of bosses is a compensation for inexperience, and unskillfulness. In other words, a leader's misuse of power can harm stakeholders, mainly employee engagement, performance, confidence and productivity.
Many Executives do not listen, they don't take the time to empathise and really hear what staff-officers are telling them. They lack personal and organisational listening skills. Some executives scream at employees, and punish them if they take any initiative without his or her concern. Many executives or top bosses still manipulate the power and their role because it's the only tool they have in their hand. It is a basic skill to show appreciation but 91% of employees say that most bosses are penny pincher, they do not recognise their good efforts,
Top executives misuse power because they either stay in control, show superiority, become autocratic, emotionally driven, and bullying. His or her personality doesn't add value to the employees or the institutions. They become autocratic, and the next level of management acts out of powerlessness and becomes non-judgmental. A culture of anxiety is at work where creativity and efficiency decline. The institution suffers because everyone is busy trying to placate the autocratic boss. While working with autocratic bosses, employees stop investing themselves in anything more than what they need to survive.
Because of these autocratic misuses of power executives are called toxic leaders. Which type of management is critical to a team and the overall workplace? It's a selfish misuse of power on the part of the leader. Under toxic leadership, it's difficult for coworkers to thrive. A toxic leader will usually have his own self-interest at heart. This affects an organisation's performance, productivity, and morality. Unfortunately, toxic leadership is very common today, due to lack of opportunities for qualified executives.
There are many stories about how top executives abuse power immorally with talent. Generally, it is the personality of executives who are trying to cover up their inability to impact the manner and performance of employees in any other way than becoming autocratic. The other reason is that top executives misuse power to block organizational success and prevent them from accomplishing goals.
There is no confusion that unskillfulness plus power can lead to mistrust, resentment, and the inability to effectively communicate and work together as a team. If this happens, it can cause a toxic work environment marked by fear, chaos, and unhappiness. Ultimately, it causes a decrease in morale and productivity, which affects the entire organization. Therefore, it is essential to promote a culture of skillful leadership so that everyone works together in harmony and musters confidence. To ensure that this culture exists, there must be an emphasis placed on training individuals on effective communication, trust building, and understanding. There should be a direct focus on helping people understand how to use their power responsibly. Additionally, leaders must cultivate an atmosphere of collaboration and appreciation. When this happens, individuals can perform at their highest level, and organisations become more successful as a result.
The Autocratic top boss may also use power to bully employees, giving no credit or taking credit for their work, and gossiping about them, or humiliating them in front of other co-workers. He or she can also micromanage, assign tasks without considering any of the employees' skills and experience, or may fail to provide resources necessary to do a task. In extreme cases the top boss may intentionally sabotage employees or use threats of loss of job to manipulate and pressure employees. Furthermore, the top boss may also use power to maintain control over decision-making or operations of the organisation, or even manipulate communication or information to benefit themselves.
Top executives, who abuse power and don't delegate authority for decision-making, create a bottleneck where everything has to flow through him or them. To uphold power, they quash freedom and creativity by becoming upset when someone makes a decision. This type of executive creates a toxic work environment, with individuals afraid to take risks, speak out, or even do their jobs. They play tricky games with favourites and leave others out. This creates divisions in the organisation and decreases performance. Resentment will not yield a good outcome. Too many bosses are insensitive and lack emotional intelligence. They all focus on the negative. Many exhibit the "dark side" of personality characteristics that lead to treating people poorly. Due to an abusive use of power exercised by top executives, employees stop caring and participating in anything more than what they need to continue. They either engage as they know they are incapable of doing anything about their boss's behaviour or they quit the job.
Creativity, engagement, and enthusiasm are all negatively impacted by a boss's behaviour. Because coworkers fear an autocratic boss, the work environment becomes highly stressful and tense. Employees become demotivated and on guard, fearing they will do something wrong, and they act suspiciously. An autocratic boss does not see that they are the cause of the lack of motivation. They assume that employee motivation comes from creating a structured set of rewards and punishments and handing them out freely. Acting in this fashion leads to further employee stress, making the workplace stiff and unreasonably difficult, which creates high absenteeism, anger and lowered productivity.
When an administrative unskilled person is put in a leadership position, their lack of knowledge and administrative experience can lead them to make decisions that are biased, and unfair, and ultimately lead to the misuse of power. They may make decisions without considering the interests of others or without taking into account the consequences of their decisions. They become an arrogant autocratic executive. Furthermore, unskilled executives may have difficulty recognising and addressing issues of power abuse, as they may not be aware of the potential consequences of their actions. This can lead to a culture of fear and mistrust, which ultimately leads to a breakdown in the effectiveness of the organisation's team speed. Co-workers have a flattering attitude, dominating the conversation in meetings to get the attention of arrogant, autocratic, and unskillful executives.
Some people like to attribute toxic leadership to childhood disturbance, psychological issues, aged person or the toxic boss/executives is simply the way he/she is because that's how their character is. These are often used to justify toxic behaviour in the workplace by employees because they are afraid to lose their job or may get disciplined. Regardless of private struggles, no one has the right to degrade others due to their own personal issues. Unskillfulness in management is one of the primary reasons why misuse of power and autocratic behaviour is seen, but none of them can be used to justify unethical and immoral leadership.
In conclusion, with the projected increase in development in Bangladesh, the industry is expected to thrive over the coming years. As such, skilled resources across many different roles in many sectors will be in high demand. Having the right skills and knowledge could make it easier to develop our institutions for years to come. To make organisations more efficient, we need to be aware that unskillful top executives can create misuse of power easily and management must take the time to ensure their executives and leaders are aware of their roles and how to lead appropriately. Careful evaluation and management can help to determine if an individual's level of skill and influence are effective and appropriate. This in turn can help organisations to develop effective strategies for dealing with autocratic leaders who misuse power in order to ensure a healthy and productive work environment.
SarwarJahan is Initiator & Founder of Southern University
sarwarjahan@mail.com
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