Bosses who are in over their heads are more likely to bully subordinates, due to feelings of inadequacy that cause them to lash out at those around them, according to research from the University of California, Berkeley, and the University of Southern California.

In what they describe as a new twist on the adage "power corrupts," researchers at UC Berkeley and USC claim they have found a direct link among supervisors and upper management between self-perceived incompetence and aggression. The findings, gleaned from four separate studies, were published in the November 2009 issue of the journal Psychological Science.

Meanwhile, a separate study says some employees report that their bosses are using threats and intimidation during the financial crisis.

"Questions get you written up and/or fired," says one worker who participated in the study. The results of the national study of leadership, funded by the University of Phoenix, also showed that employees increasingly distrust what their bosses say.

The UC Berkeley-USC study, with more than one-third of American workers surveyed reporting that their bosses have sabotaged, yelled at, or belittled them, challenges previous assumptions that abusive bosses are driven solely by ambition and the need to hold onto their power.

"By showing when and why power leads to aggression, these findings are highly relevant as abusive supervision is such a pervasive problem in society," asserts Nathanael Fast, assistant professor of management and organization at USC and lead author of the study.

During role-playing sessions, study participants who felt their egos were under threat would go so far as to sabotage needlessly an underling's chances of winning money.

In another test, participants who felt inadequate would request that a subordinate who gave a wrong answer to a test be notified by a loud obnoxious horn, even though they had the option of choosing silence or a quiet sound.

Researchers didn't rate participants by an objective measure of competency, but by their self-reported level of competency. This allowed them to investigate how feelings of self-worth are tied to workplace behavior.

"Incompetence alone doesn't lead to aggression," says Serena Chen, associate professor of psychology at UC Berkeley and co-author of the study. "It's the combination of having a high-power role and fearing that one is not up to the task that causes power holders to lash out. And our data suggest it's ultimately about self-worth."

Alternately, Chen says, participants who got ego boosts by scoring high in a leadership aptitude test or who recalled an incident or principle that made them feel good about themselves didn't react with aggression.

That said, flattery might not be the best way to soothe a savage boss, the study points out: "It is both interesting and ironic to note that such flattery, although perhaps affirming to the ego, may contribute to the incompetent power holder's ultimate demise—by causing the power holder to lose touch with reality," the study concludes.

University of Phoenix study

Researchers in the University of Phoenix study say that increased belligerent behavior by bosses and eroding employee trust in them are disturbing leadership trends in the midst of the current lingering financial crisis.

They say employees repeatedly described threatening communication, such as comments like, "Be thankful you have a job," "You can be replaced," and, "There are lots of qualified people on the street who would love your job." Such statements remind workers their jobs are on the "chopping block," the researchers say.

One of the researchers, Ruby Rouse, says some supervisors seem to foster a "culture of fear" purposefully to maintain control during the financial crisis. She says some study participants "believe employers are using the crisis as an excuse to 'throw people under the bus.'"

Despite significant economic changes, leaders reportedly haven't changed the way they communicate with employees, the researcher says. About 64 percent of working adults in the study reported supervisors use a "business as usual" mentality during the crisis, and 82 percent expressed frustration with supervisors' lack of adaptation during the crisis.

Senior leaders expressed significantly less concern about employee issues, such as layoffs and downsizing, than front line workers. Instead, senior management focused on market-related issues, such as declining sales, the study found.

"But it's not all doom and gloom," says co-researcher Richard Schuttler, noting that slightly more than 40 percent of participants described their leaders as effective.

Working adults expressed a strong preference for leaders who are transparent, honest, and visible. A majority—55 percent—of study participants who shared open-ended comments recommended greater supervisor openness, and 33 percent wanted more honesty.

The study, which analyzed the perceptions of 1,150 working adults in the U.S., compared the leadership and communication skills of supervisors in various industries.

Rouse is an internationally published author whose research focuses on leadership, communication, marketing, and health care. Schuttler, owner of Organizational Troubleshooter LLC, is an international public speaker, consultant, educator, and author with 20 years of management- and leadership-improvement expertise.

Both researchers are faculty members at the University of Phoenix's School of Advanced Studies. The study was funded by a research grant from the University of Phoenix.