In a new study, researchers at USC, Stanford Graduate School of Business, and the Kellogg School of Management have found that individuals in roles that possess power but lack status have a tendency to engage in activities that demean others. According to the study, "The Destructive Nature of Power Without Status," the combination of some authority and little perceived status can be a toxic combination.

The research, forthcoming in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, is "based on the notions that (a) low status is threatening and aversive, and (b) power frees people to act on their internal states and feelings."

To test their theses, the authors conducted an experiment with students who were told they would be interacting with a fellow student in a business exercise and were randomly assigned to either a high-status "Idea Producer" role or low-status "Worker" role. Then, these individuals were asked to select activities for the others to perform from a list of 10; some of the tasks were more demeaning than others.

The experiment demonstrated that "individuals in high-power/low-status roles chose more demeaning activities for their partners (e.g., bark like a dog three times) than did those in any other combination of power and status roles."

Sound familiar?

You see this a lot in government agencies. When they give you the rude treatment as if you are not the one paying their salaries (being the taxpayer), you wonder, "What the f*ck is up their ass?!"

Or when a student assistant just gives you the cold shoulder for asking if the professor in that Econ 101 class is the one you are trying to avoid.

Resolution: The next time you are dealing with a person of some authority who may not necesarilly have an esteemed social status (e.g., low paying salary, non-flexible working hours or just plain social disdain of that person's role in this world), try to cut them some slack. It is fair to say that it is not totally their fault that they do not have the most pleasing personality. Be nice and patient, follow the rules, fall in line and do not forget to say thank you in your sincerest way.

Now, if you are leading a team of people and you have empowered them with some authority, good job. But do make sure that they can be proud of what they do in order to avoid the power-without-status syndrome. Some tips below:

1. Pay them well. Make sure that in the hiring process you set the expectation as openly as possible regarding the expected take home pay and if they are amenable to it or not. If they are already in your team and they are paid poorly, be a good leader that you are and advise them of their professional options (within the company or outside) especially if you are not in the position to decide on pay increases.
2. Provide skills development opportunities. You'd be surprised how some people value this over a salary increase or a nicer office cube. Give them something new to work on and give them the flexibility to work on their own as long as it is inline with your teams goals. Challenge them. Allow them to fail miserably in order to understand the value of lessons learned.
3. Purpose! Sometimes people just need to understand what is the real reason of a particular task, job or project in order for them to get it. Especially if their role is just a cog in the whole process, Line of Sight discussions can be very helpful for employees to see the connection of his cog to the entire system and will understand the real value of himself and his work.

These are just a few of what a leader can do. Power without status can really be destructive to a team and I've seen that happen too many times (pissed off customers, hello?) without even knowing what hit you.

Image courtesy of atomic-bomb-guides.blogspot.com.

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Interestingly, I just had a talk with a friend today and he said that one reason why his teammates undervalue themselves (which may lead to power-without-status syndrome) is because of the fact that they work on weekends while their colleagues are assured of weekend restdays. Here's a piece that could open people's eyes on working on weekends and why that actually rocks.