CEOs who motivate with 'fightin' words' shoot themselves in the foot

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-07/byu-cwm072214.php

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE: 22-Jul-2014
Contact: Todd Hollingshead
Brigham Young University
CEOs who motivate with 'fightin' words' shoot themselves in the foot

Research shows violent rhetoric affects employee ethics

Heading into the war room to fire up the troops? Declaring war on the competition to boost sales? Well, CEO, you might want to tamp down them's fightin' words—you could be shooting yourself in the foot.

A new Brigham Young University business study finds that bosses who try to motivate their employees with violent rhetoric—think of Steve Jobs declaring "thermonuclear war" on Samsung—end up motivating rival employees to play dirty.

"Business executives use violent language all the time," said David Wood, BYU professor of accounting and one of two BYU authors on the paper. "They say, 'We're going to kill the competition,' or

'We're going to war.' This study shows they should think twice about what they're saying."

Surprisingly, the study found that when an employee's own CEO uses violent rhetoric, those employees are less likely to make unethical decisions. Either way, the research shows clear evidence that violent rhetoric influences ethical decision making—for better or for worse.

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