
Supervisors Driven by Bottom Line Fail to Get Top Performance: Study - bsg75
https://www.baylor.edu/mediacommunications/news.php?action=story&story=211538
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hn_throwaway_99
Honestly, reading some details of this study gives me very little respect for
social science research. From the article:

> Employees rated their supervisors’ BLM by scoring on a scale statements
> like: “My supervisor treats the bottom line as more important than anything
> else” and “My supervisor cares more about profits than his/her employees’
> well-being.”

So it uses those questions to assess "bottom line mentality", and then,
surprise surprise, people who say that their "supervisor cares more about
profits than his/her employees’ well-being." also generally have poor opinions
of their managers. IMO this study is bunk.

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seanmcdirmid
People are difficult to use in truly controlled studies, so there is a lot
more emphasis on qualitative rather empirical evidence.

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solveit
Sure, but "My supervisor treats the bottom line as more important than
anything else" is universally understood to mean that the supervisor is an
asshole. If a supervisor treated the bottom line as more important than
anything else, and treated employees well _in order to boost the bottom line_
, the employees wouldn't say that "my supervisor treats the bottom line as
more important than anything else".

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bsanr2
This is shown clearly in the employment dynamics of flagging retailers. As
prospects become tighter and "making goal" becomes more and more
overemphasized (preempting perks for labor, like abundant working hours and
raises), employees with the most experience are overrepresented among the
first to leave. Why stick around? They're skilled but obviously not valued.

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WalterBright
It's not about being driven by the bottom line. It's about correctly
understanding what leads to the best bottom line. And that's a very difficult
problem.

Besides, whether you care about the bottom line or not, if you run out of
money, you're out of business and your employees are on the street.

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GoToRO
I agree with everything and on the last part I would add " your employees are
on the street where your competition has offices".

