Part One:
Based on what you have read about job satisfaction (YouTube link), and the contents of the first two lectures, what difference does working for a “good” boss versus a “bad” boss make in terms of “productive effort supply?” Begin by distinguishing a “good” boss from a “bad” one.
Then explain whether, and to what extent, the difference shows up in worker productivity. If you can, estimate the difference in terms of a percentage. That is, how much more (if any) productivity might a good boss get out of his or her people than would a “bad” boss?
YouTube link: https://youtu.be/HFMqtE7e0y0
Deliverables
- Respond to the question thoroughly. This is a formal assignment with a minimum of 200-250 words.
- It should include at least one reference from relevant peer-reviewed journal articles and/or books found in the library or other reputable sources (peer-reviewed journal articles and/or published books).
- These must be properly cited in APA 6th Edition format.
Part Two:
Read and Reply these two posts.
Post One:
Job satisfaction relates to an employee's relationship with their job and how positive they feel that role is for them. Robbins and Judge discuss the underlying elements to job satisfaction that include:
1) Relationship to job
2) Talents and preferences in relation to the employee
3) Job design
An easy way to measure job satisfaction would be a simple direct question from a scale of 1-5, ‘how do you like your job’. The reality, however, is more complex than a simple yes or no.
The Gallup study of 2013 indicated that a whopping 63% of worldwide employees are ’not engaged’ and dissatisfied with their job.
Stanford University psychology professor Robert Sutton supports the infamous phrase that 'people leave bad bosses and not jobs' . Certain employees may stay to a certain extent with a bad boss because they are committed to their profession yet their performance still remains above the limit threshold.
What would constitute a bad boss versus a good boss and how does that correlate to an employee’s productive effort supply? Let’s delve deeply here into this discussion.
Everyone has had their share of bad bosses, however, certain traits to mention are: micromanaging instead of delegating, having a one size fits all management approach, doesn’t lead by example, has no empathy, takes credit for employees work, has no focus or direction let alone respect for fellow employees and is entitled. (Young Entrepreneur Council, 2018)
A good boss, on the other hand, is more patient, honest, inspires, motivates, their vision aligns with that of the company’s, has a clear communication stream and rewards good work, encourages and supports junior team members and is inclusive.
An employee's production effort supply is how much their effort translates into production output and how much value that brings to the company.
A good boss, naturally, would result in employees performing at a high threshold given that they are committed to their roles and enjoy the job they are performing. In this way, there is the organizational citizenship behavior is prominent throughout the team. There is a 140% upper limit of management standard that shouldn’t be surpassed as then bosses will take their juniors for granted. (Robbins & Judge, 2018).
A bad boss could result in an employee quitting and leaving which would result in the bad boss having to make up this loss by the cost of the turnover. The other alternative is quitting and staying which could lead to poorer performance if they aren’t motivated, overworked, the boss doesn’t value their efforts and that naturally results to a decline in productive effort support but just up till the ‘safety zone’.
In terms of worker productivity, the boss's impact is measurable. Studies by Stanford University students suggest that an average boss adds about 1.75x as much output as a relative employee. (Lazear & al, 2014). A simple calculation would result in time = human capital x effort. Whilst, the standard deviation of the boss effect equals 4.74 units of output, the worker is only 1.33.
Replacing a boss in the lowest 10th percentile with a boss that is in the 90th percentile increases output by one team member. (Shaw, n.d.)
The 90th percentile of boss quality increases productivity by 6.07 whilst a boss in the lower percentile would probably decrease productivity by half of that amount. Google tested out this theory and realized retaining good employees is higher with a good boss.
Under the norm of reciprocity, one would hope a relatively decent boss would ensure company profitability. However, it is important to note that the effect of good bosses on high-quality workers is greater than the effect of good bosses on lower-quality workers. By having a higher quality boss, productivity could surge by 50%. (Shaw, n.d)
References
Robbins, S. & Judge, T. (2018), Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Pearson, 14th Edition
Lazear, E., Shaw, K.& Stanton C. (2014), The Value of Bosses, Stanford University
Retrieved from:
http://www.hbs.edu/faculty/Publication%20Files/Bosses%20Lazear%20Shaw%20Stanton%204%208%2014_b7b0b4a1-a52c-428f-867a-70f986ce886a.pdf
Shaw, K. (n.d), Bosses matter: The effects of managers on workers’ performance, World of Labor
Retrieved from:
https://wol.iza.org/articles/bosses-matter-the-effects-of-managers-on-workers-performance/long
Young Entrepreneur Council, (2018), 12 Traits Bad Bosses Have in Common' Forbes
Retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/theyec/2018/09/25/12-traits-bad-bosses-have-in-common/#59c88c556266
Post Two
From the lectures that I had so far, I understood that there are no good people and bad people. It’s just the attitude and situations that call out a person to be good or bad. If one gets to correct themselves when they are called bad, there is nothing best than that as a person he can do. In our textbook ‘Essentials of Organizational Behavior’ (by Stephen Robbins and Timothy A. Judge), the author has explained that attitudes are the evaluating statements. In the same context when an employee says that he/she likes their job, it means they are showing a positive attitude towards the job and thus make him/her a good employee. Similarly, way, when an employee says that he/she likes their boss it means that the employee is feeling the boss is good and it could be vice versa.
Generally, any boss will be called good when is a good listener, unlike the bad boss who never listens to the employee concerns. The good boss always encourages his team thus achieves more production, also he doesn’t stop with success. He will communicate the success to the entire organization that is possible to him and at the same time, he even admits the areas of the improvements for him a boss. When such bosses do communication, their teams will take it as inspiration and approaches him with the idea to resolve and for suggestions/advice to learn from the failures in case any. But some bosses fail to do so, and they will be doubting the team’s capability and keeps any key communications as secret. Reasons could be many like they are willing to separate from the organization, there could be chances that a boss sees his team as potential competition to him on the performance.
There could be many more such qualities that let a good boss differentiated from a bad boss. If you have encountered any more, this is the right platform for us to list down and see that we are correcting them possibly. Also, it is very important to keep in mind that Job Satisfaction is either directly or indirectly relies on the boss. Along with that Job Satisfaction is influenced by certain key characteristics like Job Conditions, Personality, Pay, CSR, etc,.
The behavior of the boss is significant in worker productivity. In an article published by Kathryn L. Shaw under of WOL (World of Labor) website, she has mentioned that worker productivity could rise by 50% when moved to a good quality boss. ‘The move from an average quality boss to one in the 90th percentile raises worker productivity by six units per hour, on mean productivity of ten units per hour. ‘ (Kathy L. Shaw)
Reference:
Robbins, S. & Judge, T. (2018), Essentials of Organizational Behavior, Pearson, 14th Edition
Retrieved from: Shaw, K. Bosses matter: The effects of managers on workers’ performance. IZA World of Labor 2019: 456 doi: 10.15185/izawol.456
Sample Solution