If employees frequently take overly long lunches, do personal errands during working hours, and spend significant amounts of time online at the office visiting non-work related websites, it may be due to how their supervisor is treating them. The degree to which employees neglect their jobs is largely influenced by their supervisor's behaviour, according to the results of a recent study done by CEIBS Associate Professor of Organizational Behaviour and Human Resource Management Tae-Yeol Kim and his co-authors.

The results of the study indicate that besides bullying and abuse, there is a range of supervisor behaviours that can lead to employee counter productivity, including how supervisors plan, delegate and provide support. If the goal of an organization is to reduce job neglect, the study’s results suggest that one of the best actions would be to change the working style of their supervisor. When supervisors treat employees better, they generally are rewarded with better work behaviour. Based on their results, the co-authors suggest that organizations use methods such as goal setting, management training, 360-degree feedback and more careful supervisor selection in order to minimize the occurrence of negative supervisor behaviours.

Prof. Kim and his co-authors Leila Karimi of La Trobe University, Brad Gilbreath of Colorado State University, Pueblo, and Matthew J. Grawitch of Saint Louis University, share the results of their study in a paper entitled "Come Rain or Come Shine: Supervisor Behaviour and Employee Job Neglect" which the Leadership & Organization Development Journal published in March 2014.

View the paper