Employees who believe they have been treated unfairly by their bosses are not likely to forgive and forget, according to a new study.
Individuals who feel disrespected by management begin to feel unhappy about their jobs in general, leading to a change in job-related attitudes and behaviour, the research, headed by assistant professor of management Michael Cole at Texas Christian University, found.
It looked at incidents in which employees had been singled out for criticism by their managers. Such events create ongoing emotional stress and feelings of psychological fatigue which directly affected the workers' ability to cope with workload demands and performance-related expectations, the study found.
This in turn can lead to a reduced sense of commitment to the organization and, in the worst case, an increased risk of voluntary termination and high turnover within organizations, Prof. Cole concluded.