Bosses really are more disagreeable than workers: study

Office bosses and managers are more antagonistic, extroverted and tougher than their staff, who are more likely to be prone to stress, a new study from the University of Western Sydney reveals. The study also suggests that the deciding factor in a job interview may depend on the personality of the candidate rather than their qualifications.

The research, which was based on data from the Melbourne Institute’s Household Income and Labour Dynamics survey, examined the prevalence of five key emotions in office workers – experience, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and emotional stability.

The study found that office managers and bosses are more likely to be tough, extroverted and more aggressive, possibly due to the fact “individuals with lower agreeableness tend to be able to progress into management at the expense of their more agreeable counterparts”.

The study also showed that clerical workers are more likely to exhibit less emotionally stable personalities and are more vulnerable to stress than managers, who often tackle multiple tasks and responsibilities at once.

Labourers are less likely to accept new training, and often scored lower on exhibiting traits such as diligence, punctuality and organisation.

The study’s authors, Robert Wells, Roger Ham and Raja Junankar, found that the effects of personality in the workplace are “significant, relatively large and persistent across all occupations”.

“Conscientiousness, the trait associated with hard work and effort, is found to significantly increase the probability of an individual being in a management or clerical position, and decrease the probability of an individual being a salesperson, operator or labourer,” the study found.