According to a study by Baylor University researchers, bosses who are obsessed with only making profit could actually be hurting their business, as they apparently lose the respect of their employees when their sole focus is on making money.
The study – ‘The Influence of Supervisor Bottom-Line Mentality and Employee Bottom-Line Mentality on Leader-Member Exchange and Subsequent Employee Performance’ – published in the journal Human Relations, looked at 866 people. Fifty percent of the sample were supervisors, while the rest were their respective employees.
The study was aimed at understanding why employees respond with negative behaviors toward their bosses when they believe they have a bottom-line mentality (BLM). They achieved this by measuring the BLM of supervisors, employees, task performance, and the ratings employees gave their relationships with their supervisors. The measurements were made on how much they agree or disagree with scale statements such as,
My supervisor cares more about profits than his/her employees’ well-being.
At the end of the study, researchers found that that bosses who have a ‘high bottom-line mentality have low-quality relationships with their employees’. The result of these relationships are dissatisfaction and a lack of affection for the supervisor.