Many employees assume that being candid with the boss is a lose/lose situation: It may provoke retribution, and the boss probably won’t listen anyway. But experiments by Burak Oc of Bocconi University in Italy and two colleagues show that the second part of that calculation, at least, may be false. For example, power holders who received candid feedback allocated to themselves a share of valuable resources (points that were worth money) that was nearly equal to what subordinates got, whereas leaders who received compliant, positive feedback took more than half of the total resources for themselves, with guilt apparently the reason for the behavioural difference. Providing unquestioning, compliant feedback increases power holders’ self-interested tendencies over time, the researchers say.

(Source: Journal of Applied Psychology)

Published in Dawn, Economic & Business, April 27th, 2015

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