Abusive Style Can Add to Workplace Violence

Jane Applegate’s small-business column of Aug. 22 (“Dealing With Workplace Violence”) contained solid, heads-up advice on dealing with workplace violence. She neglected to mention, however, a contributing factor in a significant number of cases of violent employee outbursts--the autocratic or abusive style in which management routinely deals with employees.

Awareness of this factor can be especially important for small businesses run by entrepreneurs, who, being action-oriented, often tend more than the average manager toward bluntness and minimal patience for the “softer” side of people management such as constructive feedback, active listening, coaching and counseling.

Such autocratic managers tend to see complex issues in terms of simplistic alternatives: “You either do the job my way or you’re out of here!” The result: supervisors who mimic the owner’s style and rule by the same fear by which they are ruled, thus helping to foment a seething employee resentment that, in the cases of the least stable, erupts into physical retaliation.

Workplace violence needs to be seen as an often-desperate attempt to exercise power by those who have come to feel powerless. The manager’s responsibility is to help employees to become empowered, not to feel like worthless ciphers who are lucky to have jobs. Unfortunately, in an economy in which everyone’s job seems less and less secure, many workers are feeling more and more powerless.

My experience is that the employee who has been given appropriate coaching, counseling and warning prior to a discharge for poor performance usually realizes he or she had it coming and leaves quietly. By contrast, those who express outrage at their supervisors usually have a message worth hearing. This is one reason the outspoken employee who is a “pain in the neck” can be an invaluable barometer of employee morale and an indicator of hidden management problems. The truth is, sometimes such an employee is not the only one to see the supervisor as a jerk.

To Applegate’s recommendations, I would add: Take the pulse of employees’ feelings frequently by opinion surveys, exit interviews and walking around, and don’t be surprised if your supervisors manage poorly without proper training. Finally, seek some candid feedback on a regular basis regarding your own management style. Business leaders lead by example, good or bad.

ANTHONY J. MULKERN

Glendale