Beware the hot and cold manager: How inconsistency can hurt employees and what can be done to overcome this

Abstract

Key digested messageThis study investigates the relationship between inconsistent management relationships and employee wellbeing. Inconsistency is essentially a working relationship in which a manager blows ‘hot and cold’ with their reports. Above and beyond the quality of working relationships, a lack of consistency in managers’ relations with their employees was found to be detrimental to wellbeing.The study is the first to investigate the relationship between inconsistent leadership relationships and employee wellbeing. It was found that the greater the degree of inconsistency, the poorer an individual’s wellbeing. This effect was worsened when employees ruminated on negative experience but was somewhat mitigated when they took a problem-focused approach to work demands, lessening their reliance on their manager.