Identifying Manager Blame

When employee satisfaction scores are low, one of the most common reasons is that the employees have a problem with one of their managers. Indeed, those that are not in a management role within the company tend to find that someone above them on the corporate latter is contributing strongly to their dissatisfaction within the company, and unless that changes, the person’s perceptions of the company are unlikely to change. One of the problems, however, is that studies have shown that it is not necessarily the direct supervisor that is the one causing the problems. Many entry level employees, for example, actually find that they appreciate their day to day direct line supervisor, as they are often the individuals that recognize the employee’s contributions best and value them accordingly.

Yet companies have continued the false idea that if the employee is unhappy with their management, the individual to blame must be their direct supervisor. This is despite ample evidence that the supervisor is not the person to blame for the negative feelings. It also creates yet another problem: If the direct supervisor is not to blame, it becomes much more difficult to figure out who is the cause of the negative feelings and how they can be changed.

One recommendation is to start from the executive level of the company and work your way down. It’s hard for executives to accept that they may be to blame for the negative feelings of the company, but any time the executives have direct contact with employees, it is possible that they are creating the fear and dissatisfaction that is leading employees to dislike their jobs. Executives must be willing to self reflect for satisfaction to change.

From there, work on improving satisfaction efforts from the top down, working with each group of workers until you have reached direct line supervisors. If your efforts have been successful and middle management or executives were to blame for any of the negative feelings with the employees, satisfaction scores should increase.

In addition, this approach will help ensure that no one employed by the company – from executives to middle management to supervisors to entry level – believes that they are above the idea that they need to change in order to improve satisfaction. If you try too hard to focus on a specific group, you will end up ignoring the potential contributions from the rest of the management hierarchy.