CH 9 Dysfunctional Managers

Concept and Brief Description

A Dysfunctional Managers is a manager who is not fulfilling all of his or her duties. He or she is not sensitive, cannot be a team player, arrogance, poor conflict management skills, inability to meet business objectives, and inability to adapt to change. A study done at Florida State University surveyed 700 people with different kinds of jobs about what complains they had about their managers. The top 4 complains were supervisor failed to keep promises, failed to give credit when due, made negative comments about them to other employees or managers, and blamed others to cover up mistakes or minimize embarrassment.

Emotional Hook

There are programs especially for managers that help improve their behavior. One of the things they do is to videotape the manager as she or he role-played an actual clash she or he had had with another manager. Then the coach views the tape and helps the manager see and understand what is going on.

Key Points to Elicit in Discussion

I wonder how many managers actually need to go through a program to help them with their management skills. There are many good and bad managers everywhere, but regardless of being good or bad, I believe everyone needs to be a good aware how well of a manager he or she is being.

Facilitative Questions

How do you tell your boss he or she needs some management skills?