[kram8]

Who would need a study to state the obvious? In which Universe is a bullying boss help a company? The only example that comes to my mind is when a corporation wants to reduce workforce but doesn’t want to pay severance pay. But this puts people’s health at risk and who in his right mind could want this? I’m working for a SaaS company who takes very much care of its employees and I’m asking myself if I am just naive...

[hodgesrm]

> In which Universe is a bullying boss help a company?

It is interesting that this question is not studied in a more systematic way. There are situations where having a 'thug' manager is the most effective approach to getting good outcomes. For instance, the same personality that is hard on reports can be very effective in standing up to customers. Viewed from the perspective of the company as a whole, this might be a reasonable economic trade-off, which explains why such a management style would be tolerated.

(Confession: I am a consensus-style manager. The only time I've been fired on a project was a case where my manager judged he needed somebody to crack heads to get the project done. It was painful personally but I think he made the correct decision.)

[sgillen]

Even if something seems obvious to you it’s still best to verify it rigorously.

From a cynical point of view a bullying boss might be able to extract more working hours out of employees, or get them to upsell products at places like Best Buy.

[noir_lord]

Absolutely, 'What everyone knows' has been so frequently wrong throughout history, a few people get ill and suddenly that harmless old lady who lives alone outside the village is on the bonfire...

Humans are terrible at attributing cause and effect without a rigourous way of reproducing it.

[simple_phrases]

Abusive people act abusively because it often gets them what they want at the expense of everything else. An abusive boss might get increased productivity from their subordinates in the short term at the long term expense of the organization itself.