Posted by denised in 
We probably already knew it, but didn’t have an official study to back it up. Now we do. November’s issue of the journal Psychological Science includes the results of a study conducted by researchers Nathanael Fast of the University of Southern California and Serena Chen of the University of California, Berkeley.
The study’s lead author, Nathanael Fast says, “It’s not just power that corrupts people and it’s not just incompetence either.” He continues, “It’s the pairing of the two that leads to aggression.” Belittling, humiliation, sabotage – if you’ve had a really bad boss, none of these things are foreign to you. Our guest blogger, Buck Hamilton, refers to it frequently in his Managing the Meanies series. When you take people ill qualified and ill prepared to take on leadership roles and promote them into positions of power, it quickly goes to their heads and the rest of us suffer for it. And unfortunately, I’m afraid this dynamic duo is here to stay.
You can read more about the study here. Share your really bad boss stories of power and incompetence in the comment section. We’ll feature the best story in a future post!
