Having to work with people on a daily basis may already be stressful for some, but for others dealing with tyrant bosses at the workplace might be even more frustrating. If you think that you are working for a tyrant, then this article might help you understand your situation and deal with it better.

Elaine Attard discussed tyrannical leadership at the workplace with Damian Xuereb who was inspired to study the world of tyrants after working with important leaders, that helped him shape his perception and understanding of leadership.

Joe, once a sure-footed professional, felt the tension growing as his manager stormed through the office without the basic decency of a saying good morning. His once flourishing career had halted dead in its tracks once this man came into power just six months ago. He had lost his initiative to take on a challenge. What was the point any way? The manager always knew best and always told him what to do and what not to do. The moment of self-reflection and self-pity did not last long.

“You! What’s this piece of rubbish? Why am I surrounded with incompetents? Get this rewritten within the day. I seriously can’t understand what you’re doing here if I need to tell you everything over and over again,” shouted his boss, a typical reaction to any work Joe did.

He sat staring, silenced, shamed in front of his colleagues. His mind swelled with different retaliatory answers, yet none came out. The job he had done was great. Everyone acknowledged that. “Rewrite what? Within a day! That’s impossible - it had taken a week. Why is he doing this to me?” Joe thought. There’s a hidden threat in his boss’s words. How could he afford to lose his job with a family to support and the all those financial commitments?

“What are you staring at? Did you understand my request or have you turned imbecile overnight?” his boss went on.

Some colleagues forced a laughed at the derogatory comment, in an attempt to seek collusion with the manager. What treacherous brown-nosers, Joe thought, while helplessly nodding “OK” to the manager who glared down at him while repeatedly ticking his expensive pen on Joe’s desk. 

A vile smirk barely appeared at the side of the manager’s mouth. There was no way Joe could redo the work without direction and in such a short time. Time to conclude the office politics, thought the tyrant.

“Idiots. I should chuck you all out and do the work all by myself,” were the last words uttered by the tyrant manager, before storming back to his office banging the door loudly. These words were not addressed to anyone in particular, but unmistakably targeted to all the others ensuring them that their turn would come too.

Humbled, demoralised and dry-mouthed Joe looked round for moral support from his workmates. They were speechless, their eyes evasive, mostly staring at the floor, while some had already pretended to get back to work. The ones that laughed at the barb were the only ones staring at him, noting his every move, filling in the manager with ammo. Till a year ago he called these guys his friends. Things had changed now. There was no motivation, no team spirit left, no company loyalty and above all nobody capable of standing up to the office tyrant.

And neither could Joe. He felt a surge of growing anger, but could not express it. His wife was also tired of hearing it and the office situation had started to affect their marriage. Maria had had enough and could not appreciate the precarious situation and emotional turmoil he was going through.

Joe slowly turned back to stare at his computer. There was only one way out - quitting the job on the first opportunity while doing as little as possible for this ‘rotten’ company, and its tyrant manager.

Joe’s story illustrates what may be referred to as ‘Tyrannical Leadership’, and is considered as a manifestation of dysfunctional workplace behaviour. Anecdotal evidence indicates that it often takes place in organisations and history indicates that it has existed in political spheres for centuries. And yet this behaviour has only recently captured the attention of a number of academic researchers.

Tyrants in the academic world

When Damian Xuereb started studying leadership from an academic perspective, he was fascinated by the leadership scale which categorises leaders into autocratic, democratic and laissez faire leaders or transformational and transactional leaders. He noticed that this scale is too boxed up and ignores factors such as culture and work politics.

“Politics with the small ‘p’ exist within every organisation and every organisation has its own sub-cultures. Even family businesses, have their own internal politics. As the famous writer on leadership John C. Maxwell once said, leadership is situational and leaders cannot be strictly autocratic, democratic or laissez faire all the time. This line of thinking led me into thinking that the leadership scale is flawed because it doesn’t take internal bickering or grudges, in consideration. Organisations are not like that, organisations are alive and change everyday but academics do not mention this anywhere,” Mr Xuereb explained.

Mr Xuereb found that tyrannical leadership is in a way accepted in the American culture where financial sacrifices are accepted for capital gain in a highly capitalist society. Research on the topic is picking up in the US, unlike in the EU where only one university focuses on organisational ethics. This contrasts with the fact that many toxic leaders such as Adolf Hitler or Slobodan Milošević rose to power in Europe. In Asia, tyrannical leadership is highly undocumented.

Something else Mr Xuereb couldn’t understand was why political leaders attracted the researchers’ attention while field practitioners often go unnoticed. “Who is more economically significant Obama or the Lehman Brothers? Who contributed most to the economic collapse?” he questioned while highlighting that the world is still suffering from the repercussions of the financial crisis and yet no systematic studies have been carried about it on the leadership behind it.

He commented that leadership in management is rarely part of research and innovation (R&D) and how this area focuses more on “test tubes and lab coats” in the EU and rarely on management.

“With Malta having one of the highest MBA per capita, one would expect a lot of R&D in the area, but it is not like that,” he pointed out.

“I thought I would find a lot of research about tyrant leaders in the EU and maybe some in Malta, especially after having heard many cases of people complaining about their cruel bosses, but instead I came across a lot of dissimilar terminology about tyrants and nothing concrete,” he said.

A tyrant’s personality

It transpired that tyrants are inclined to narcissism, to a point of becoming evil. Mr Xuereb’s initial research revealed that potential trauma at a personal level may be the cause of such behaviour, but he chose not to study that aspect to eliminate biases in his research.

An oppressor tends to believe in his infinite potential. Literature shows they tend to be obsessive and compulsive, everything has to happen immediately and everything has a sense of urgency. Malignant narcissists believe that employees require constant directions.

“In my research I go beyond the autocratic point on the leadership scale, as this is what happens in reality and I think that research needs to reflect this reality. Tyrants are autocratic to the point of obsession. Everything needs to pass through them and they block everything if it doesn’t, by using bureaucracy to limit their subordinates’ empowerment,” he believes.

And for those who are thinking that tyrants are strictly men, then you are wrong because Mr Xuereb’s research shows that tyrants balance out between men and women. Miranda’s character in The Devil wears Prada is a typical example. They show very low tolerance to ambiguity and stressful situations, enjoy belittling their employees and create situations to highlight power distance were they can feel superior over others.

Effects on tyrants’ subordinates

Tyrants’ subordinates suffer from great stress caused by the power struggle between themselves and their boss. The stress creates conflict and imbalances in their work and family life, induces psychological distress and low self-esteem. High frustration is caused by not being allowed to do things and concentrate on tasks thus making a victim feel hopeless due to a high level of alienation. High job stress can also lead to a number of psychosomatic effects.

Tyranny also affects the work unit cohesiveness. Team breakdown is caused by the wish to divide and rule. Victims feel powerless to take corrective action and the team feels it cannot do anything about a problem.

All this is obviously not conducive to a properly functional team and organisation. It negatively influences organisational commitment. People start getting things done for the sake of it and not because they believe in what they do. It negatively influences job satisfaction, an essential part of modern management and innovation. The keys for organisation to move forward go hand in hand with job satisfaction.

To act or not to act

It is natural to ask what should one do to improve the situation at work. Mr Xuereb suggests tyrant’s victims to assess the situation as objectively as possible. Ask questions like ‘Is the hostility persistent or occasional?’. A tyrant is narcissistic, the only person he loves is himself.

Secondly one has to assess one’s personal logistical considerations. Does the victim have a family to support, loans or other financial obligations to respect are important factors that need to considered.

Before one takes a decision, he or she should weigh the logistical considerations with the ethical ones. If ethics overdo the healthy balance and one does not enjoy the materialistic gain of the job then one might need to think about changing jobs. “Chances are tyrants do not change but it is worth to fight for personal pride. So stand up for your rights, and don’t leave a job without first making your point,” suggests Mr Xuereb.

Unfortunately, many do not leave because of the fear of the unknown, and prefer the ‘devil they know’.

Some choose to believe that the behaviour is normal and happens in every work environment, creating false hopes that the abuse will one day end.

Profile

•Damian Xuereb has widespread experience in middle and senior management roles. In the past 15 years he has worked for with various organisations in the ICT and telecommunication sectors.

• He has served in various key roles in both the public and private sector as well as in diplomatic postings. Throughout his career he was responsible for a number of major programmes, reforms and national strategies.

• Amongst others, he led the IT and Telecommunications policy in the Infrastructure, Transport and Communication Ministry. In this role he has served as the Chairman of the Community Empowerment Organisation Chairman, European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) board member and as the High Level Representative of Malta to the EU on ICT (i2010 & i2020) and eCommunications.

• Last November, Mr Xuereb took up the position of Chief Strategy Officer in the Lotteries and Gaming Authority. He holds degrees in Business Management (Maastricht), Management Consulting (Grenoble) and is reading for PhD in Management (Malta).