Relational Price of Dominance: February 2024
Background
The purpose of this study is to collect descriptions of events in
which managers were behaving dominantly. These descriptions will
ultimately be funneled to another set of participants, for them to
assess the influence and relational impact of that behavior. So, for
now, we asked full- or part-time employees to describe a time in which
their current of former manager was behaving dominantly.
They saw one of the three definitions of dominance:
1. Dominant behavior is when a manager uses power, fear, intimidation,
and/or coercion in how they act toward a subordinate.
2. Dominant behavior is when a manager acts in a way that is forceful,
assertive, and/or aggressive toward a subordinate.
3. Dominant behavior is when a manager uses fear, threat, and/or
compulsion in how they act toward a subordinate.
Then, they were asked if they can think of a time in which it happened
to them with their current manager. If they couldn’t, we asked about a
time in which it happened with a former manager. If they couldn’t do
that either, we asked to describe a time in which this happened to
someone they know. If even that didn’t work, we asked them to come up
with a hypothetical scenario.
This is the distribution:
| type | n |
|---|---|
| else | 1 |
| hypothetical | 2 |
| self_current | 26 |
| self_past | 21 |
Not bad.
Then, we asked them some questions about the impact of that dominant
behavior.
Alright, let’s see what we got.
Attention checks
There was attention check. Just asking participants to select a certain point on the scale.
| att_1 | n |
|---|---|
| 0 | 2 |
| 1 | 48 |
Great. 48 eligible.
Demographics
Race
| race | N | Perc |
|---|---|---|
| asian | 1 | 2.08 |
| black | 4 | 8.33 |
| hispanic | 1 | 2.08 |
| white | 41 | 85.42 |
| NA | 1 | 2.08 |
Gender
| gender | N | Perc |
|---|---|---|
| man | 26 | 54.17 |
| woman | 22 | 45.83 |
Age
| age_mean | age_sd |
|---|---|
| 40.6875 | 11.96121 |
Education
| edu | N | Perc |
|---|---|---|
| GED | 18 | 37.50 |
| 2yearColl | 8 | 16.67 |
| 4yearColl | 16 | 33.33 |
| MA | 5 | 10.42 |
| PHD | 1 | 2.08 |
Income
Employment
| employment | N | Perc |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time | 32 | 66.67 |
| Part-time | 14 | 29.17 |
| Student | 1 | 2.08 |
| Unemployed | 1 | 2.08 |
oh, I need to exclude the unemployed and student. Bummer.
Stories
Participants saw this prompt (slightly varied wording for “someone
else” and “hypothetical”):
In your own words, please describe a time in which your current or
former manager behaved dominantly toward you in an attempt to change or
shape your behavior at work (like getting you to do
something).
In two or three sentences, please be as detailed as possible in your
description: What were they trying to get you to do or how were they
trying to shape your behavior? How did they act toward you and what did
they do? Please do NOT describe your reaction to their behavior, just
focus on what they did and what result they were trying to
achieve.
Below, I’ll put their stories alongside the type of story (current,
former, someone else, hypothetical), self-reported dominance and
definition we gave to them.
| def | type | dominance | desc |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3 | self_current | 3 | In my office my manager try to give lot of work pressure on and also push to involve in other works. It kind of behavior make me feel very bad and also they do to shape my behavior. But it makes me feel low and stress. |
| 2 | self_current | 4 | A time when a manager behaved dominantly towards me in an attempt to change what I was doing was with my last manager. They tried to get me in trouble for clocking in 5 minutes early to my shift. |
| 2 | self_current | 4 | I had a manager scream at me once. I decided to skip work for a homecoming dance and when I came to work to get my check, the manager accused me of stealing an apron and would not pay me. I had a police officer friend stop in and I got my paycheck. |
| 1 | self_current | 4 | Former job, supervisor was mean to staff me included. Would bark orders and if doing things wrong way, or the way he specifically wanted it. To follow procedures their exact way. |
| 3 | self_current | 5 | They went around nit picking the tasks that I had completed and marked the errors they felt I made but didn’t speak to me about them. I found it to be very disrespectful and degrading and had a desire to no longer work for them. I think they were exhibiting their dominance and control over me in a negative manner. |
| 2 | self_current | 4 | I have a very busy job as I do quality control for our entire group however my manager does this to me where he forces me to do other work, “hard work” because he doesn’t feel having others do it, even though i’m super busy with the qc. He forces me to do this and then my other work falls behind and at that point will tell me that “i need to go so-so done” even though it would have been done if he didn’t force me to do the other work! |
| 2 | self_current | 5 | My manager did not want me to take a vacation day that I had scheduled. She more or less forbade me from taking the day off. She stopped short of threatening to fire me if I took the day off. |
| 1 | self_current | 4 | About six months after I first began my job my manager wanted me to do a work task in a different manner in which I usually do. The suggestion by my manager seemed pointless since it didn’t matter which way I did the task. When my manager would catch me doing it the older way she would be quick to correct it, she also started micromanaging other aspects of my work more too. It seemed her behavior was designed to assert her control and power. She wanted to let me know she’s the one in charge and that we have to do things her way. |
| 1 | self_past | 4 | My former manager tried to get me to talk to an employee and tell her that she was let go of her job. The former manager told me to do it in kind of like a threatening manner. Like if I didn’t do it, then there would be consequences for me. That person had a serious face when they said it. |
| 2 | hypothetical | 1 | i personally havent experienced this kind of scenerio. I also have seen anyone experience this. I have only heard. |
| 3 | self_current | 4 | My manager was trying to motivate me to get customers to sign up for credit. She used a forceful manner telling me if the higher up members of the company expected these accounts to be open and it is up to me and several others to make this happen. |
| 2 | self_past | 5 | We were short staffed at this restaurant I used to work out, I was the only waitress for 30 tables. The manager said he would help me because I voiced my concerns of being able to cover the entire shift alone. Turns up, he didn’t even show up to help me for over 4 hours- he arrives and I told him I’m leaving, he then proceeded to yell at me in my face that I’m selfish and lucky I’m a woman otherwise he’d punch me. |
| 1 | hypothetical | 1 | I have never had a manager behave dominantly toward me or anyone. But if they ever did behave that way toward me, I would stand up to them. And if it could not be resolved I would leave that job. |
| 2 | self_current | 4 | I’m a er nurse and army vet so I’m used to top down strong leadership with hierarchies. When I switched from military to civilian medicine my current dept lead became very clear about the differences and expectations after I tried to fudge things a little. They were direct and curt but ultimately they were right. |
| 1 | self_past | 5 | I worked for a big medical company. When employees left for other job opportunities, no matter if it was on good terms or not, no one was allowed to give a good review to potential employers calling for references for said employee. I got caught giving a temp agency a good review about how she was to work with, and I got pulled up and threatened to be fired. |
| 2 | self_current | 3 |
Years of completely deranged mass hysteria over a flu. Ridiculous mask mandates despite a century of data showing that mass mask wearing has no effect beyond psychological. Completely psychotic forced injections, despite those injections not even stopping the spread of the virus in the first place. Completely irrelevant greenwashing corporate pandering, targeting nutcase extremists perpetually terrified of the weather changing. Absolutely disgusting “equity and inclusion” cultism, bringing skin color, genitals and romantic partner(s) into the workplace (in blatant violation of existing civil rights laws). And all the rest of the ridiculous, stupid, irrelevant corporate bureaucratic idiocy. I assume the “shaping of my behavior” is/was trying to get me to functionally lobotomize myself and behave as a mindless corporate drone. Which is not going to happen. |
| 1 | self_past | 4 | The manager threatened me with a write-up in an effort to get me to scan everything. Except I already did scan everything. I did not appreciate it. |
| 3 | self_past | 5 | A former manager M did not like the direction a project was moving, and threatened to have the entire project team put onto performance management plans. This was a consulting firm where M was not my only manager or superior, and when my other superiors pushed back on there being other issues causing the problem, not my performance, M retaliated against the team. He forced us to stay in the office late hours with scheduled check-ins past 7pm and put me on an informal “PIP” that was his own check-in plan not sanctioned by HR. He did similar things to other team members. He refused to admit that the project had been poorly contracted and could not be accomplished as he had scoped it out. He screamed at us on a regular basis. He essentially wanted us to work harder constantly and used career threats to do it. |
| 1 | self_current | 4 | My manager was very dominant and aggressive about the timeline on a work project. They accused me of being sloppy and wanted me to skip breaks, lunches and to work overtime to complete this project. I felt overwhelmed and under appreciated. They were harassing and pushy. They were disrespectful |
| 1 | self_current | 4 | A time where my former manager behaved dominantly towards me was during the eagles event. He acted a little aggressive. |
| 2 | self_past | 5 | In my last long term position we had an owner who was very domineering. She used our daily meetings to find people who were doing things wrong and attack them verbally/emotionally. It was a very toxic environment. I was attacked because of a mistake I had made and it nearly costed me my job. Thankfully, my skills were needed in another department and I was granted a lateral move. However, I was told to keep my head down and my mouth shut for several months while the situation cooled down. |
| 2 | self_current | 5 | I have a manager that wanted me to do tasks that were not my own. These tasks would have meant basically doubling my work load. But it would not come with any sort of increase in pay. They were trying to suggest I would be fired if I did not do these tasks. They were very aggressive and kept saying I needed to do these tasks for the company or I would be replaced. They did not care how this would impact my current work load and paid no mind to my pleas of more pay. |
| 3 | self_past | 5 | My old manager at a pizza place I use to work for use to use his authority as a dominance position to me by demonstrating that he had the ability to fire me after I reported him for stealing money from the company. He told me to keep my mouth shut or I would be fired. Ultimately I spoke up and was ultimately fired. |
| 2 | self_current | 4 | There was a time when a manger i had really acted dominantly toward me. I was working on a project that was time sensetive. My manager would ask me every hour what the status of the project was. he would want status reports to him at least 3 times a day. He would hound me and make me really nervous that i was not doing it their way. He would tell me how the project would go and then change right in the middle of the planning. I was very annoyed when i would have to change everything just because it was not pleasing to my manager. He would also take long lunches and then really give me trouble if i would leave for lunch. he would make me tell him when i am leaving and when i got back. It was not a good working environment |
| 3 | self_past | 2 | A previous manager expressed their dominance through consequences. They made it clear that if my performance did not pick up or if I could not meet metrics, then it could lead to a role transfer or termination. They were very kind and frank about it, but also more stern than usual. |
| 1 | self_past | 4 | I was working a contract position several years ago. The manager was contract at the company also. She was very rude and domineering. She wanted me to come on staff full time at the company. I was undecided. She threatened to reduce my hours and end my contract early unless I agreed. |
| 3 | self_past | 3 | I was once ordered to work on something at work. I did not like the tone the manager used. It took me a while with no help to get the job done. |
| 2 | self_current | 3 | A time I can recall a manager behaving dominantly was a few months ago. My higher up regional manager told me that I need to up my closing percentage for if I did not I would probably lose my position. |
| 1 | self_past | 2 | A former manager behaved dominantly by basically pushing additional tasks and work on me without proper compensation. I don’t mind helping when needed but this became more of a take advantage of me situation. They stated they were in charge and busy and I HAD to do all this stuff. |
| 1 | self_current | 4 | There was an opening within our department for a software developer position that I really wasn’t interested in. My supervisor set up a meeting with me and was very pushy about me taking this position (it still reported to him). He explained in great detail how advantageous to the company it would be, he was insistent and refused to take no for an answer. |
| 3 | self_current | 4 | My current manager behaved dominantly toward me by trying to get me to work past closing time/the end of my shift. They allowed customers into the restaurant past our “last call” time, thinking that I would be willing to stay late to fulfill the order. The way they acted toward me was by not acknowledging me at all. I had completed all of my cleaning, turned all of the equipment off, and was grabbing my things to leave when they walked over to the table where the customers sat down, and began to take their orders. When I told this manager to have a good night and headed to the door, she looked bewildered at my wanting to leave at my scheduled time. I voiced loud enough for the customers to hear that we closed in under five minutes, and equipment was called to be turned off nearly 20 minutes ago. Since I was finished with my job, I was heading home. She said no. There are guests here, and I was to serve them. I told her no, I will not, and left for the night. |
| 3 | self_past | 5 | A previous manager rudely forced me to stop what I was currently working on in order to take care of something they deemed more important at the time. It was at a grocery store and they saw an item that had run out on the shelves, so I was the one forced to immediately stock it. This was done while completely disregarding the work I was currently doing. |
| 2 | self_current | 5 | My manager asked me to come to his office and told me that I was to be office manager. My job is a math instructor, not office person. I am a woman and he is Asian and I feel he was trying to show his control and dominance. He said I made too much money and needed to be over the office. The secretary at the time was black and I really think it was a very racist situation between female and blacks. He was trying to avoid CC confronting the secretary himself. He wanted someone else to do it. |
| 1 | self_past | 4 | I used to work as a supervisor of a team that supported data center infrastructure. I was two levels below the CIO. I reported an outage to my direct manager and worked with the team proving updates to my manager. I was unaware he was not paying attention to his phone and never reported the outage up the chain of command. The CIO foudn out about the CIO and came down to the room we were owrking the outage. I met him at the hall as I knew he was agressive and I didn’t want him yelling at staff. He yelled at me for being incompetent and hiding an outage. I showed him the text corresponded w/ my manager and that I have been communication the outage the entire time. I advised him to go back to his office an I would communicate directly with him and that we are closing out the resolution, just need to verify it completely resolved the response. After that I was removed out from the manager and directed to report directly the the supervisor. |
| 1 | self_current | 4 | I was scheduled to be off and my manager was short staffed. He promptly told me I was going to fill this shift or he would find someone else to fill my job. I thought this was dominant because my schedule was made out two weeks in advance. I already had made plans with my daughter. |
| 3 | self_current | 5 | In one instance a coworker and I were talking. Our manager came up to us and immediately yelled so the surrounding people could hear. We work at a manufacturing plant so it’s quite loud as it is. He told us both to get up and follow him outside. Where he proceeded to quite literally scream at us for talking. I was in shock that someone would stoop so low as to scream at me like I was a child. All this achieved was pure hatred. I do not respect that manager at all anymore. |
| 1 | self_past | 4 | One time my former manager was trying to get me to clean some stuff even though it was not on my schedule that day for cleaning, so I politely refused indicating that someone else was in charge of it. However, they did not take it kindly and made it very clear that as a manger they can ask me to do anything and so I did. |
| 3 | self_past | 3 | My manager was trying to get me to work overtime without pay. He was saying how an honest employee who cared about the company would do it no questions asked. He was basically guilt-tripping me but I did not fold under the pressure. |
| 3 | self_current | 3 | In a past experience, my manager attempted to shape my behavior by exerting dominance during a team meeting. They forcefully interrupted me whenever I spoke, dismissing my contributions, and monopolized the discussion with their own ideas. Their aim was to assert their authority and establish control over the team’s direction, pushing their agenda forward while suppressing dissenting voices. |
| 2 | self_past | 4 | In my most recent workplace situation I was working for a National company for 7 years. I had a regional boss and most of my work was conducted independently and I had great flexibility to manage my schedule. About 80% of my jobs were solely my responsibility and 20% were jobs that took multiple people to complete. My boss Laura had the big picture responsibility to make sure that all jobs were completed timely or as soon as possible. The 20% jobs were often the lowest paying and it was a disincentive for me to want to complete these jobs that were not being adequately staffed by Laura. In coordinating with Laura, she used her authority to reprioritize my work and to continue working on the 20% jobs. She used direction and guilt manipulation to get me to continue working on the 20% Jobs. Her role was to represent the companies greatest reputational interest my goal was to achieve highest hourly wage possible as it was paid by piece rate. |
| 3 | self_current | 4 | My current manager has behaved dominantly with me multiple times. He likes to tell me how we can’t hire any more help because he can’t afford it. He will then say he would have to give me a pay cut when the topic comes up. I see having more help as a way to increase the load we can handle, thus generate more revenue. |
| 3 | self_past | 4 | My former boss was a racist. He thought I was not getting enough work done so would tell me if I don’t get more work done, he was just going to hire a nigger instead. He would say if you aint Dutch, like him then you aint much. He called me names like no dick because of my Nordic ancestry. He told me that he had more energy in his little pinky than I have in my whole body. I would love to tell my response to this, but the instructions said not to. He had a very strange way of trying to motivate me to get more done. |
| 3 | self_current | 4 | I work as a nursing assistant. Our shifts can get very busy, so it is easy to temporarily put off doing minor things like picking up tied bags of garbage/linen from patients’ rooms. The director of nursing is very strict about cleanliness and us picking up the bags right away. She would enforce her standards by discreetly walking the halls and inspecting the rooms. She walked around with a very intimidating air. If she saw something wrong, she would sternly address us and watch to make sure we corrected things right away. Sometimes, she would also report our behavior to the charge nurse (the nurses working above us), and in turn, those charge nurses would also reprimand us. Overall, not following these standards would lead to feeling embarrassed and just bad for the rest of the shift. |
| 2 | self_past | 5 | Everytime i remember the time my former supervisor squared up to me to get to cover an area for someone else because the fake having a headache, it still makes me angry to this day and wish i would see this punk somewhere outside to fight him this time for real. He came up to my face, being loud not even asking but actually forcing me to go help cover an area for another coworker who is been known to get away with everything to do work so naturally we all got fed up with it and started to go against him and the supervisor at the time. |
| 1 | self_past | 5 | This manager was loud, aggressive and demeaning. They acted aggressive and dominant and tried to tell me that my ideas and thoughts were wrong and their ideas could easily be implemented, disregarding any discomfort to me. They tried to tell me that I can easily fit in more clients into my schedule and also finish all the paperwork needed for them after. I could do this while foregoing lunch and I could finish my work as that is important for the company. |
| 2 | self_current | 4 | I work as a janitor. My boss yelled. “Don’t come in that way, floor’s wet!” I said, “Okay.” She got all aggressive and yelled, “Did you hear me!” |
Oh man. Some of these are somewhat usable. Others are hilarious. A
bunch of them mention reaction, despite us giving instructions not to
mention their reaction. The one about masks, vaccines, DEI, sexual
partners (?) is unhinged, but also super funny.
Anyway, what we might need to do it is either select appropriate ones
ourselves or give them to blind RA’s, or another set of participants, to
mark the ones that adhere to the guidelines we set.
Reactions
What happened as a consequence to your manager’s behavior? Please describe your reaction to it.
| react |
|---|
| It feels me very stress and this kind behavior also indicated double standard. |
| Nothing seemed to come out of it. Nobody really respected that manager and they didn’t actually hold a lot of power over us. |
| The manager was fired. Last I heard he was working at a taco shop greeting customers. |
| Nothing as he was still there. I left got a new job before I found out if anything happened to him. I just followed orders. Hid how upset I was. |
| I eventually left the job feeling that I was being subjected to abusive behavior. My higher manager knew about the incident that included other negative behaviors and wasn’t able to reign in the manager and I felt the environment was too hostile for me to continue working there. |
| As I mentioned, because of him doing this to me my other work than falls behind and he gets upset that isn’t done! |
| I was appalled by my managers behavior. I did not understand why she was acting this way. It hurt our working relationship. I still do not like working with her because of this incident. |
| I felt like the changes were arbitrary, I began to avoid the manager in question more. It also made me feel a bit annoyed and less trusting of the manager overall. Her behavior made me feel as if she didn’t trust my skills as a worker. |
| Nothing happened to the manager, but I shortly left the company after that happened. I was not tolerant of that behavior towards me. |
| To be honest depending on the level of how they acted would result in me either quiting or leaving for the day. |
| I felt initially defensive as if she thought I was not working as hard as I could be in order to open these accounts. I felt like she was blaming me for the higher ups of the company being so demanding with her. |
| I’m not sure what happened to him. I never went back to the restaurant |
| If it had happened and we could not fix the issue, I would quit the job. |
| I took it as constructive criticism. It was from a good place and I was coasting at what I already knew rather than changing to a new enviornment. |
| My manager and upper management got away with it as they always do. I spoke my peace to them about how I felt about that policy. She was nothing by a great employee and had to leave due to circumstances she could not avoid. Why not let a potential employer know that? Anyway, they said I was insubordinate, and I was let go that day. I was made an example of because I would conform to what they were saying. |
| I’ve spent the past few years financially preparing to resign, which I will be doing very soon (without notice, because they don’t deserve it). I also contacted a lawyer about filing a lawsuit over the “equity and inclusion” psychosis. |
| I continued to do my job properly. I cannot control missed scans if I never have the chance to make the scan. |
| Because this manager was not our only manager, we all collectively escalated his behavior to other leaders. Within six months he was removed from the company. I myself changed my work focus within the consulting firm to work on a different kind of project (similar to changing departments) so that I didn’t have the consequences from that kind of behavior directly associated with me any more. |
| My manager realized they were in the wrong because I started to cry once the project was completed. We talked in the managers office and calmly discussed how I felt and where they had lost control. It was actually therapeutic and constructive |
| There was not a consequence for his behavior , he apologized later. |
| I was left feeling numb, stupid, and worthless. I almost lost my job. |
| I did the tasks that I was told to you. They were pleased that I was able to get it done. But the consequences is that I could not do my job as effectively due to the increases in workload. This resulted in a dip in my performance. |
| I was fired from my job as I told on him to corporate about stealing money. |
| The consequence was that my manger was promoted and left my office. He rode my good work and got a better job. to add insult to injury i was not even offered his postion to replace him. i was very angry. |
| I took my manager’s words into consideration, but I also considered my situation at the time and found the expectations a little beyond what I could deliver. As a result, I decided to quit and focus on other things I had going on in my life. |
| It made me ultimately decide not to take the full time position because I couldn’t stand the thought of working for her any longer than I had to. |
| there was no consequence. i didn’t get in trouble. there was no one to complane to about the manager |
| There was no consequence. I worked on my closing percentage and got it to where it was supposed to be. |
| This was a small company and there were no consequences to my managers behavior. |
| I was not interested in the position at all, so I refused it. He was upset at first, but it worked out in the long run. |
| Nothing happened as a consequence. When I returned for my shift the following day, she did not say anything to me about the incident. I also did not bring it up with her. I later found out that she discussed the situation with my other manager and while he did tell me that he was not happy with the way the situation played out, he told me that he understood where I was coming from, and that he was on my side. |
| I just hopped off what I was doing and did what my manager wanted. This guy was known around the job as a jerk who was in charge. I basically disassociated myself from the job and didn’t really care what happened anymore. Whatever they wanted done I would do it, but I really had no actual care for the job if that was how things were run. |
| I was very angry and told him no, that was not my job. I reported him to human resources for title 9. |
| I was able to shield my staff from a dress down and I was moved up in the chain of command to peers with my former manger to the CIO who was the aggressor. |
| I did what he asked and worked the shift. I really had no other choice my bills were due and I really need my health plan. |
| I spoke to hr about the incident and I don’t believe anything was done after that |
| I was angry and then it affected my work, so I did a sloppy and shoddy job of what was asked by my manager. |
| Nothing happened. I did not feel the need to report him. |
| As a consequence of my manager’s dominant behavior, team morale suffered, and collaboration decreased. |
| I am a good employee so I had to put off my scheduling priority and comply with her and the companies wishes. It was not an immoral request but one that was against my own personal financial interests. I felt the company needed to do a better job distributing the work of the 20% jobs. |
| The consequence to his behavior is a lack in motivation at work. It upsets and frustrates me. It’s like he is “putting me in my place.” |
| I told him that is fine that you have more energy in your little pinky because I have more brains in the head of my dick than you have in your whole body! I quit and told him he was going to be reported to the Arizona office of equal opportunity for his racist attitudes. |
| The manager’s behavior was definitely effective. I do not enjoyed being reprimanded, so I usually ended up feeling really embarrassed or remorseful if I got in trouble with my superiors. These negative feelings also affect my mood during the shift and make my work less productive. So, in order to avoid these types of feelings, I made sure to follow the manager’s standards. |
| Nothing happened because he was in the same circle of dominant and aggressive management group and HR representative was with them all the way. |
| I continued to work at my pace with regards to paperwork but did take on more clients as there is no way otherwise to have a discussion on this. |
| It stung me a little and made me mad. I pouted for a while but didn’t get smart or anything. I pay closer attention to where I walk, so she did affect my behavior. |
Measures
Dominance
How dominant was the behavior that you described? (1 = Not at all dominant to 5 = Extremely dominant)
When
How long ago was the incident you described?
| when | N | Perc |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | 45.65 | |
| More than ten years ago | 1 | 2.17 |
| Within the past five years | 9 | 19.57 |
| Within the past month | 5 | 10.87 |
| Within the past six months | 7 | 15.22 |
| Within the past year | 3 | 6.52 |
Oh shit. I F’d up. Participants who are in the “former manager” category didn’t see this question. My b.
Impact: Relationship
What was the impact of your manager’s behavior in this specific incident on their relationship with you? (1 = Strong negative effect on our relationship to 7 = Strong positive effect on our relationship)
Impact: Compliance
After this dominant behavior, to what extent did you comply with what the manager was seeking or requesting? (1 = I did not comply at all with how they wanted me to behave to 7 = I complied completely with how they wanted me to behave)
wow. bimodal much?
Impact: Influence
What was the impact of your manager’s behavior in this specific incident on their influence over you? By influence, we mean their general ability to shape your behavior beyond this situation. (1 = Greatly reduced their influence to 7 = Greatly increased their influence)
Impact: Trust
What was the impact of your manager’s behavior on your trust in them? By trust, we mean the extent to which you believe their leadership is legitimate and reasonable. (1 = Strong negative effect on trust to 7 = Strong positive effect on trust)
Competitive Worldview
1 = Strongly Disagree to 7 = Strongly Agree
1. It’s a dog-eat-dog world where you have to be ruthless at times
2. Life is not governed by the “survival of the fittest.” We should let
compassion and moral laws be our guide [R]
3. There is really no such thing as “right” and “wrong.” It all boils
down to what you can get away with
4. One of the most useful skills a person should develop is how to look
someone straight in the eye and lie convincingly
5. It is better to be loved than to be feared [R]
6. My knowledge and experience tell me that the social world we live in
is basically a competitive “jungle” in which the fittest survive and
succeed, in which power, wealth, and winning are everything, and might
is right
7. Do unto others as you would have them do unto you, and never do
anything unfair to someone else [R]
8. Basically people are objects to be quietly and coolly manipulated for
one’s own benefit
9. Honesty is the best policy in all cases [R]
10. One should give others the benefit of the doubt. Most people are
trustworthy if you have faith in them [R]
Cronbach’s alpha = 0.79
Analysis
Just for fun, let’s look at some correlations.
cool cool cool.