Petty Tyranny in Organizations: A Preliminary Examination of Antecedents and Consequences

Abstract Petty tyranny is defined as the tendency to lord one's power over others. A model of the individual and situational antecedents of petty tyranny in organizations and the effects of tyranny on subordinates is presented. The model is assessed via 63 sets of respondents, each consisting of one manager and two subordinates, plus 25 partial sets. The hypothesized effects are generally supported, but not the hypothesized antecedents. It is speculated that petty tyranny represents a relatively rare gestalt, that is, an integrated and resilient cluster of antecedents, leader behaviours, and effects on subordinates. Consider the following: In the three months since [the new owner of the pharmacy] has been in charge [he] has made it clear that he is at liberty to fire employees at will . change their positions, decrease their bonus percentages, and refuse time-off and vacation choices. Furthermore, he has established an authoritarian work structure characterized by distrust, cut-backs on many items deemed essential to work comfort, disrespect, rigidity and poor-to-no communication . [He regards employees as] potential thieves and squanderers of work time. As a result, he consistently spies on employees . These changes have been so pervasive that . the employees no longer refer to the [pharmacy] as a "small family" but as the "third Reich" with [him] in the role of Hitler. (Giarrusso, 1990, pp. 5-6) [Harry Figgie] can be the nicest fellow in the world one day and totally abusive the next: "Men running $100 million divisions would come into my office and ask if it was safe to see Harry that day" . "Figgie takes no prisoners when it comes to an insult. He'll call anyone a horse's ass anywhere" . "Headquarters was like a tomb. People were scared. Harry chewed me out again and again and again. Every day he'd work me over. I lost 40 pounds putting in six days a week until ten o'clock every night, never sure I'd have a job in the morning. " (Nulty, 1989, p. 41) "Petty tyrant" is a colloquial term that is often used to describe such managers. It suggests someone who uses their power and authority oppressively, capriciously, and perhaps vindictively. It suggests, in short, someone who lords their power over others. The management, social psychological, and political science literatures have yielded constructs similar to this notion of petty tyranny, such as the authoritarian personality (Adorno, Frenkel-Brunswik, Levinson, & Sanford, 1950), "bureaupathic" individual (Thompson, 1961), and dictator (Rubin, 1987). Recurring themes include close and coercive supervision, an emphasis on authority and status differences, arbitrary actions, severe and punitive treatment of subordinates, and deterrence of subordinates' initiative and dissent. These themes suggest a tendency to overcontrol others and to treat them in an arbitrary, uncaring, and punitive manner. However, these literatures tend to be anecdotal and impressionistic. In an attempt to provide a more coherent framework for this eclectic literature and a basis for survey research, I recently developed a model of petty tyranny in organizations (Ashforth, 1994). As reproduced in Figure 1, the model: (a) described petty tyranny in specific behavioural terms, (b) proposed a set of antecedents of tyranny in organizations, and (c) proposed a set of effects that tyrannical management has on subordinates. Consistent with the themes noted above, empirical work summarized in Ashforth (1994) (see "Measures," below, for more detail) suggests that the construct of petty tyranny is comprised of six major sets of behaviours: (a) arbitrariness and self-aggrandizement (e.g., "Uses authority or position for personal gain," "Administers organizational policies unfairly"), (b) belittling subordinates (e.g., "Belittles or embarrasses subordinates," "Criticizes subordinates in front of others"), (c) lack of consideration (e.g., "Is friendly and approachable" [reversed], "Looks out for the personal welfare of group members" [reversed]), (d) a forcing style of conflict resolution (e. …