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A glance at the days headlines reveals a universal truth: Leadership matters. Whether uplifting and ethical or toxic and abusive, leaders profoundly shape our lives. And this is especially true on the job. Research consistently shows that leadership influences employees attitudes, behaviors and emotions, driving key organizational outcomes such as creativity, employee engagement, well-being and financial performance. Unfortunately, research also shows that supervisors abuse their employees far too often and then try to manage impressions to compensate for their bad behavior. But what happens when a leader tries to make up for past abuse by suddenly acting ethically? And do employees have to experience the abuse firsthand for it to hurt them? As professors who study management and whove heard horror stories of employees working under mercurial bosses we wanted to find answers. So we conducted a study, which was recently published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. Our research includes multiple samples of full-time employees in the U.S. and the United Kingdom. To begin, we surveyed 222 employees and 66 supervisors to gather insights into workplace leadership and work experiences. We focused on two contrasting leadership behaviors: ethical leadership and abusive supervision. We also conducted experiments with 400 people, presenting them with stories about managers who alternately display both ethical leadership and abusive supervision and asking them how they would respond. Across these studies, we found that employees who experience such oscillating leadership often end up worse off in terms of their emotional well-being and job performance than if they were consistently being abused. By going back and forth between abusive and ethical behaviors, leaders create greater confusion, leaving their employees emotionally exhausted. Instead of providing relief, acts of ethical leadership ironically serve to amplify the damage done by prior abusive behavior. Jekyll and Hyde leadership in practice As an example, consider Steve Jobs, the co-founder and chief executive officer of Apple for more than a decade until his death in 2011. While Jobs was an icon to many people, he reportedly swung between toxic and positive leadership behavior while dealing with subordinates. For example, when Jobs exacting standards werent met, he would reportedly storm into meetings and profanely berate the team responsible for not living up to his lofty expectations. Yet, despite these outbursts, he was also described as a leader who believed in his employees potential, expressing unwavering confidence in their abilities and empowering them to exceed their own expectations. This kind of unpredictable leadership can leave workers emotionally exhausted, wondering: Which version of my boss will show up today? Will this kindness last, or is it just a setup for another blow? Unsurprisingly, this isnt good for productivity. Employees value stability and predictability in their leaders. A supervisor who bounces between harsh criticism and warm praise creates an emotional roller coaster for the team. When employees see a supervisor as unpredictable, they experience more stress and emotional exhaustion, which hurts their job performance and willingness to share ideas. Interestingly, we found that workers dont even need to be directly targeted by an abusive supervisor to be affected; employees whose immediate supervisors get the Jekyll-and-Hyde treatment from their higher-ups suffer similar consequences. These negative reactions occur, in part, because employees begin to doubt that their immediate supervisors are able to effectively influence higher-level leaders. In other words, the psychological toll of Jekyll-and-Hyde leaders isnt limited to direct encounters but can also be experienced vicariously. How companies can banish Mr. Hyde The good news is that organizations can break this cycle and workers are likely to be less stressed and more productive when they do. Here are three steps every organization can take: Train leaders to manage stress without lashing out. High-pressure environments are prevalent these days, but abusive leader behavior doesnt have to be. Providing leaders with tools like emotional intelligence training and conflict resolution skills can help leaders navigate both personal and professional challenges more constructively. Address the abusive behavior directly. When abusive actions occur, ignoring them or asking the leader to be nicer next time isnt enough. Structured interventions like one-on-one coaching, counseling or formal sanctions are essential for generating real change. Employees need to see that the organization is living up to its stated values and ideals. Foster a culture of trust and accountability. Tools like 360-degree feedback reports which involve feedback from supervisors, peers and subordinates can help leaders gain deeper insight into their behaviors. These can be used not just for development, but also for heightened accountability. Creating a climate of psychological safety in which employees can report concerns without fear of retaliation is key to rebuilding trust. So is ensuring clear, consistent responses to reports of abusive supervision. Great leaders understand the power of trust and setting an example. Employees want leaders they can rely on, not ones who keep them guessing. So leaders should be wary about employing ethical leadership as a quick fix for past mistakes. Rather, its about showing up consistently, authentically, and with integrity every single day. For leaders at all levels, the takeaway is simple: Consistency fosters success. Organizations that prioritize stable, ethical leadership create workplaces where employees feel valued, supported and empowered to do their best work. John Sumanth is a James Farr Fellow & associate professor of management at Wake Forest University. Haoying Xu is an assistan professor of business at Stevens Institute of Technology. Sean Hannah is chair of business ethics and a professor of management at Wake Forest University School of Business at Wake Forest University. Sherry Moss is associate dean of MBA Programs at Wake Forest University School of Business at Wake Forest University. This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
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E-Commerce
An iconic eyewear brand has a new creative icon at its helm. Ray-Ban announced today that rapper and fashion trendsetter A$AP Rocky will be its first-ever creative director. In his new role, Rocky will lead Ray-Ban Studios, a sub label of Ray-Ban that it calls a creative hub celebrating self-expression. More broadly, hes tasked with reinventing and contemporizing the brand by overseeing creative projects including a new Blacked Out Collection, which will release in April. The collection redesigns iconic frames (think the Wayfarer and Clubmaster) with a brand-new black-out lens and gold-plated details. Today, we are welcoming A$AP Rocky into our family; hes a visionary artist and creator, Ray-Ban president Leonardo Maria Del Vecchio says in a statement. His ability to push the boundaries of the diverse worlds he explores aligns with the Ray-Ban DNA. We are reinforcing the brands values of innovation, pioneering spirit, and courage. Rocky has a history of wearing Ray-Bans. Most recently, in what is now seemingly a tell of the collaboration to come, Rocky wore Ray-Bans to his trial for two felony counts of assault with a semiautomatic firearm, which ended last week with a not guilty verdict. He also wore Ray-Bans to his first-ever fashion show American Sabotage last summer. The announcement follows the release of Rockys fourth album Dont be Dumb earlier this year. This isnt his first foray into fashion collaborations, either. The rapper, 36, has previously collaborated with JW Anderson, Guess, Puma, and Moncler. Rockys onboarding comes at a moment of growth for the eyewear brands parent company, EssilorLuxottica. The holding company acquired Supreme last July, and announced a long-term partnership with Meta last September. Time will tell if A$AP Rocky’s affiliation with Ray-Ban will have a positive knock-on effect for the Meta partnership. That depends on whether he can counter public perception of Mark Zuckerberg, who has a Midas touch of uncool and makes everything in his arm’s reach turn cringe, including the Ray-Ban wayfarers that are the center of the EssilorLuxottica-Meta smartglasses partnership. EssilorLuxottica saw group revenue up 9.4% in Q4, and has sold two million smartglasses since launch, according to its most recent quarterly report. Rockys creative leadership at Ray-Ban will extend beyond glasses design. Hell also have a hand in the brands creative campaigns and redesign its retail stores, signaling a pivot point and an overhaul of the brand and its public perception at large. The company wrote that Rocky joins in a critical time in the evolution of Ray-Ban, in its announcement. EssilorLuxottica did not respond to a request for additional comment by time of publication. Ive always admired Ray-Bans ability to stay true to its roots while constantly evolving, Rocky said in a statement. Im excited to be part of the strong heritage and develop the next chapter for an iconic brand like Ray-Ban.
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E-Commerce
You’ve probably heard AI is coming for many of our jobs. But how would you feel about getting a medical diagnosis from an AI doctor? Would you trust a verdict delivered by an AI judge? A new study of 10,000 people in 20 countries, including the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, Japan, and China, found when it comes to artificial intelligence replacing human jobs, people are most concerned about AI replacing doctors and judges, and least concerned about AI replacing journalists. The findings, published in American Psychologist by the Max Planck Institute for Human Development, focused on the study participants’ attitudes to AI taking over six occupations: doctors, judges, managers, caregivers, religious leaders, and journalists. Researchers looked at eight psychological traitswarmth, sincerity, tolerance, fairness, competence, determination, intelligence, and imaginationand assessed AIs potential to replicate these traits. The study’s findings suggest that when AI is introduced into a new job, people instinctively compare the human traits necessary for that job with AI’s ability to imitate them. The level of fear that study participants felt about AI taking certain jobs appeared to be directly linked to a “perceived mismatch between these human traits and AI’s capabilities.” For example, the prospect of AI-driven doctors and care workers elicited strong fears in some countries due to concerns about AIs lack of empathy and emotional understanding. But when researchers looked at widespread concerns about AI replacing human workers, they found people’s attitudes also varied widely among nations. For example, people in the U.S., India, and Saudi Arabia reported being most afraid of AI’s role in jobs, particularly of judges and doctors, reflecting concerns about fairness, transparency, and moral judgment. (AI-driven journalists were the least feared, likely because people feel that they retain autonomy over how they engage with the information provided by journalists.) However, people in China, Japan, and Turkey were least afraid of artificial intelligence overall. And other studies have found that people in China place less importance on controlling AI and more on connecting with AI compared to European Americans. They’ve also found that 47% of North Americans are worried about harmful AI, while only 25% of Southeast Asians and 11% of East Asians have similar feelings. That is due, at least in part, to different countries having different traditions of depicting AI as benevolent or malicious, as well as different historical interactions with intelligent machines. It’s also affected by people in countries having been exposed to different governmental policies about AI.
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E-Commerce
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