With Cheffing, employees subtly guide their managers to make better decisions. But it shouldn’t have to come to this, experts say.
Make a suggestion here, give a hint there, willingly take on an additional task in a certain specialist area. With these simple means, employees can subtly draw the attention of their superiors and influence their decisions. Because even if managers may have more control, employees also have power – and they use it. Especially if the management culture is not right.
In so-called bossfing, employees even manipulate their superiors, albeit with good intentions. Experts are on the side of the employees because they say: Where Cheffing occurs, managers have failed.
Praise managers and take countermeasures yourself
Cheffing is a new term for something that has been around for many years: leadership from below. Employees then withhold information that would actually be important for their bosses, communicate differently for their team, or praise their superiors for their actions, while they secretly take countermeasures themselves. They are not interested in gaining an advantage for themselves, but rather in achieving a better result for the company or team.
This can be particularly positive if employees have a better overview of the operational business than their superiors or are more likely to recognize everyday problems. Michael Fallgatter from the Chair of Human Resources Management at the University of Wuppertal praises the initiative and passion of the employees at Cheffing – even if they are manipulative. “Cheffing is about something that you are convinced is relevant to your own department or company,” says Fallgatter in an interview with Capital. “If we have a manager who thinks he knows everything best and doesn’t listen to the employees’ ideas, then perhaps there is no other way than subtle influence.”
Cheffing as a countermovement to authoritarian leadership
Industrial psychologist Stefan Diestel from the University of Wuppertal also sees the cause of Cheffing as the bigger problem. As the term suggests, it is also about power discourse. “If a manager grants enough control and autonomy, then Cheffing is not necessary at all,” says Diestel Capital. However, in surveys and leadership training, he is increasingly noticing that the leadership culture in many companies is deteriorating and that managers are exerting a lot of pressure. “If a leadership culture becomes more authoritarian or abusive, then bossing is a kind of counter-discourse.”
The employees’ reaction is then: We prefer to do things ourselves and decide as we think is right in order to prevent damage to ourselves and our company. He has observed this in the past at banks, for example, where competition is particularly fierce.
However, the conclusion is that employees who consider Cheffing necessary in their company are also taking risks. “If an organization is structured very hierarchically, it is dangerous for employees to act like that,” says Diestel. It is therefore advisable to show solidarity with colleagues. “When you coordinate with each other, you also make the others responsible to a certain extent in the sense of: You also knew about it and thought it was right to send the customer this offer and not the one that the boss thought was better.”
Open discourse increases the chances of survival for companies
There is no reliable data on how often Cheffing occurs. From a company perspective, according to HR expert Fallgatter, at least training for managers is necessary. “I wouldn’t say across the board that companies otherwise have no chance of survival,” he says. “But the chance of survival increases if open discussions take place.”
Research into the relationship between superiors and employees has shown that there are different phases of rapprochement. “We talk about role making, role taking and role routinization,” says Fallgatter, i.e. creating, assuming and routinizing a role. “If that was successful and there is a stable relationship between superiors and employees, then in my opinion “It’s no longer possible to have a boss.” He also points to the ambitions of many companies to reduce hierarchies and make management situations more collegial. Employees today are often so well qualified that they can definitely be given responsibility.
Source: Stern
