Leader’s anger and employee upward voice

Abstract

“So why the f*** doesn’t it do that?!” On a summer day in 2008, Steve Jobs questioned his team angrily when he found out that MobileMe (an online service provided by Apple) did not meet his expectations (Viticci, 2011). Actually, this IT genius and incredible leader often unleashed his incisive temper on those who failed to meet his incredibly high standards and, surprisingly, his teams could often come up with and share great ideas that shook the world eventually. Similarly, in the Oscar-winning movie Whiplash, the famed conductor (Mr Fletcher) told his student that, “There are no two words in the English language more harmful than ‘good job.’” He felt that it was his responsibility to push people beyond what is expected from them, and he always displayed anger to his students for demanding better performance. In short, anger displayed by the authority seems to motivate members to proactively change the status quo on the way to achieve extraordinary performance. However, we also know that oftentimes, when facing an angry boss, people tend to sweep things under the carpet rather than speaking up (see a recent Wall Street Journal article by Shellenbarger, 2012). In this context, anger expressed by the authority figures seems to demotivate members from initiating possible changes and achieving superior performance.