Later this month, members of the HR profession will gather for the annual conference of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) in Harrogate. One of the most thought-provoking issues on the agenda is the set-up-to-fail syndrome, a term coined by a Franco-Swiss research team.
The idea behind it is that sometimes relationships between a boss and his or her subordinate break down, not because either of them is necessarily bad at what they do but because something goes wrong early on in their relationship, which leads the boss to conclude he is managing a weak performer.
From that moment on, the theory goes, the pair is typically locked into a vicious circle.
The boss will monitor his subordinate more closely than other members of staff, giving him more detailed guidelines for how to carry out a task. Conversely, he is less likely to knock ideas around with that person than he would with other colleagues.
The employee responds by losing confidence in his boss and in himself. He avoids interacting with his manager, stops putting forward ideas because he expects them to be shot down and, over time, adjusts his performance to meet the boss’s low expectations.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It works the other way round, too. Employees tagged as weak performers will often develop a negative view of their boss’s abilities and look for evidence to support their thesis. Writing in the latest issue of People Management, researchers Jean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux say: “Alienated subordinates can even incite the boss to behave unreasonably through their actions.
“They can do a variety of things that are, consciously or not, going to push the boss’s buttons, and so allow them to turn round afterwards and say ‘you see, I told you that he wouldn’t listen’.”
Without doubt, this kind of relationship breakdown wastes a lot of scarce talent for organisations; either the employee will leave or, possibly worse, will stay, performing poorly and infecting others with his toxic emotions.
There’s no simple solution to this problem, but being able to give a name to this common occurrence is a start - it may help more people managers to identify it early on and to help the protagonists to break out of the cycle.
Set-up-to-fail syndrome is an unconscious process but it bears many of the same characteristics as bullying: those on the receiving end find it unwelcome, it’s persistent and its victims feel undermined.
It’s worth mentioning here the National Ban Bullying at Work Day instigated by charity the Andrea Adams Trust and a number of other campaigning bodies.
The vast majority of large companies now have anti-bullying policies in place but recent research by the British Occupational Health Research Foundation found that as many as one in four of all employees has suffered from bullying - so maybe now would be a good time for employers to take a look at whether their policies are actually working.
The Andrea Adams Trust - which is supported by a number of leading employers including Marks and Spencer - offers a wide range of services including advice on best practice, mediation in the case of disputes and a national bullying helpline. See www.andreaadamstrust.org for more information.
n Steve Crabb is editor of People Management
The idea behind it is that sometimes relationships between a boss and his or her subordinate break down, not because either of them is necessarily bad at what they do but because something goes wrong early on in their relationship, which leads the boss to conclude he is managing a weak performer.
From that moment on, the theory goes, the pair is typically locked into a vicious circle.
The boss will monitor his subordinate more closely than other members of staff, giving him more detailed guidelines for how to carry out a task. Conversely, he is less likely to knock ideas around with that person than he would with other colleagues.
The employee responds by losing confidence in his boss and in himself. He avoids interacting with his manager, stops putting forward ideas because he expects them to be shot down and, over time, adjusts his performance to meet the boss’s low expectations.
It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.
It works the other way round, too. Employees tagged as weak performers will often develop a negative view of their boss’s abilities and look for evidence to support their thesis. Writing in the latest issue of People Management, researchers Jean-Francois Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux say: “Alienated subordinates can even incite the boss to behave unreasonably through their actions.
“They can do a variety of things that are, consciously or not, going to push the boss’s buttons, and so allow them to turn round afterwards and say ‘you see, I told you that he wouldn’t listen’.”
Without doubt, this kind of relationship breakdown wastes a lot of scarce talent for organisations; either the employee will leave or, possibly worse, will stay, performing poorly and infecting others with his toxic emotions.
There’s no simple solution to this problem, but being able to give a name to this common occurrence is a start - it may help more people managers to identify it early on and to help the protagonists to break out of the cycle.
Set-up-to-fail syndrome is an unconscious process but it bears many of the same characteristics as bullying: those on the receiving end find it unwelcome, it’s persistent and its victims feel undermined.
It’s worth mentioning here the National Ban Bullying at Work Day instigated by charity the Andrea Adams Trust and a number of other campaigning bodies.
The vast majority of large companies now have anti-bullying policies in place but recent research by the British Occupational Health Research Foundation found that as many as one in four of all employees has suffered from bullying - so maybe now would be a good time for employers to take a look at whether their policies are actually working.
The Andrea Adams Trust - which is supported by a number of leading employers including Marks and Spencer - offers a wide range of services including advice on best practice, mediation in the case of disputes and a national bullying helpline. See www.andreaadamstrust.org for more information.
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