Abuse of Authority and Hierarchical Communication

Guido Friebel, University of Frankfurt
Michael Raith, University of Rochester

Abstract

If managers and their subordinates have the same basic qualifications, organizations can benefit from replacing unproductive superiors with more productive subordinates. This threat may induce superiors to deliberately recruit unproductive subordinates, or abuse their personnel authority in other ways, to protect themselves. We show that requiring intrafirm communication to pass through a “chain of command” can be an effective way to provide superiors with an incentive to recruit the best possible subordinates.We discuss alternative ways to prevent the abuse of authority and general implications of our analysis for organizational design. We also present supporting evidence from the literature on human resource management and organizational behavior.

One of your jobs as a manager is to identify and promote newmanagers. Ideally, each newmanager should be less qualified than you. Otherwise that new manager will try to take your job or make you look dumb. It’s in your best interest to keep the talent pool as thin as possible, just as the people who promoted you have done.

Dogbert’s Top Secret Management Handbook (Adams, 1996, Ch. 1, p.15)