Research published by Perceptyx highlights a significant problem affecting organizations across industries: bad bosses. This phenomenon shows up in many ways. During our research, one question surfaced again and again: Why doesn’t an employee with a poor manager just leave for a better job?
The reality is that leaving a job because of an ineffective manager isn't always feasible. Factors ranging from financial stability, caregiving responsibilities, personal health concerns, and more can keep individuals tied to positions despite a subpar supervisor. More often than not, employees love their work — even when they don’t love the environment they work in. This inability to leave a bad boss often leaves workers hoping for organizational intervention or, at a minimum, the perseverance to outlast their inadequate leaders.
While it’s reasonable to expect employees to speak up about what they need in the workplace, in most organizations, the power does not reside with individual employees. Expecting them to immediately move to a new job in the face of bad management is putting the responsibility in the wrong place. The responsibility to rectify the situation lies not with the employee, but the organization. The real question, then, is: why do organizations allow ineffective managers to persist? Despite their impact on the workplace environment, too many organizations are slow to act once a problem is identified.
Data from Perceptyx's recent study reveals significant gaps in management quality:
24% of individual contributors report to the worst boss they’ve ever had.
48% of employees believe they could perform better than their current supervisor.
Impact: Employees under poor management spend significant time on exit plans and experience stress that spills into personal lives.
Employees reporting to their worst manager ever are not only stressed and struggling to perform at work — those who can are also spending at least a portion of their time working on an exit plan. If that’s not enough of a reason for organizations to act swiftly to coach their managers into better leadership practices or move them into a different role, these employees report that related stress is also spilling over into their personal lives, resulting in unhealthy and unproductive behaviors while away from work.
Despite a shared understanding of what constitutes good management behaviors — namely, the sharing or transferring of information, giving recognition, and providing positive feedback — a significant discrepancy emerged between manager self-perception and employee experience. Managers who struggled with these behaviors were less self-aware, with far more employees rating their supervisors as "fair" or "poor" than managers rating themselves.
However, the biggest discrepancy in the perception of skills was in the area of responsiveness. 4 in 10 employees ranked this as one of the top three important management behaviors, while only 3 in 10 managers agreed. In addition, even the best managers seem less aware of their own responsiveness than they are of other management behaviors: more than 4 in 10 say they are excellent at it. Fewer than 3 in 10 employees, on the other hand, would agree. The correlation between responsiveness and manager ratings is stark:
Responsive Managers: 5x more likely to be rated as the "best ever."
Unresponsive Managers: 25x more likely to be rated as the "worst ever."
While the vast majority of managers (89%) received formal training when assuming their roles, continuous coaching is a different matter. Leadership isn’t something you master in a two-day workshop. One-third of the managers in our study said they still need help with core management behaviors, and most ranked communication coaching as their top priority.
The most popular solution appeared to be personal coaching. However, this could be expensive and unrealistic for most organizations. An alternative and scalable solution lies in artificial intelligence coaching. This approach analyzes communications between managers and their teams, offering personalized recommendations to enhance managerial skills. More than two-thirds of the managers were open to this AI-driven approach.
The findings of our study underline the need for continuous management development within organizations. No longer can businesses passively allow ineffective managers to erode employee confidence and productivity. Perceptyx’s AI coaching product Cultivate Intelligent Coaching offers a cost-effective and scalable solution for organizations to systematically improve their managerial staff, particularly in the pivotal area of responsiveness. This proactive approach can not only rectify managerial incompetence but can help cultivate world-class managers, thereby enhancing the overall employee experience. Data should be collected before, during, and after the program to measure progress and optimize impact, and Cultivate’s in-platform analytics make that tracking automatic.
Continuous leadership development is the ongoing cycle of learning, feedback, and practice that helps managers sharpen skills throughout their careers. It blends formal training, coaching from peers or mentors, and real-time lessons from daily work. Perceptyx data shows managers who receive steady coaching are five times more likely to be rated “best ever” by their teams.
Organizations must recognize the dire need to improve their management ranks for the benefit of their employees and overall performance, and organizations have the responsibility to act. When leadership development is ongoing, you cultivate a pipeline of people who are not only capable but confident in stepping up when needed. Harnessing the power of agentic AI for coaching and development, they can provide their managers with the necessary tools to evolve and respond to the needs of their teams, thereby ensuring a healthier, more productive workplace. As employees continue to navigate the challenging terrain of professional life under less-than-ideal managers, companies that prioritize management coaching will undoubtedly lead the way.