There’s an old expression that says, “It’s lonely at the top.” If we picture a company’s management structure as a pyramid, with the seniority of the staff increasing as one moves up the pyramid, we can see how this makes sense.
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Getting Too Close Has Consequences
While there may be many staff members at your level if you’re in an entry-level position, your group of cohorts grows smaller and smaller as you move up the corporate ladder. There are fewer managers than the people they manage, fewer directors than managers, and fewer vice presidents than directors.
This is just one reason many managers develop close relationships—even friendships—with their staff members. Another reason is simply because they work so closely together. But getting too close to staff can have professional and business consequences, as new research suggests.
Futurity contributor, Chuck Finder-Wustl recently reported on a new study that looked at the relationships of 73 pairs of managers and employees working for an IT company in northern China.
A Look at the Research
Let’s look at the implications of this research.
“Bonding too closely can shift workers’ attention to long-term mutual benefits, but create problems in the short term,” says Finder-Wustl. “It could cause employees to become less engaged shortly after daily interactions.”
Additionally, the study found that workers who are close to their managers can feel less compelled to quickly respond to a request or return a favor than those who are not as close.
The result is that these workers might offer less work resources and get less work done in the next interaction. It’s important, therefore, for managers to set a clear timeline for when tasks should be done and to set clear expectations of work standards, says Finder-Wustl.
Similarly, the study found that managers also need to find a common, level ground. “The amount of resources that managers and employees ‘give and take’ fluctuated substantially across their daily interactions,” says Finder-Wustl.
“Such fluctuations also occur for employees who are close with their managers. This finding suggests that it was the best practice for managers to offer more information, more resources, more definition in a specific interaction; workers generally would feel obligated to respond with more work effort right way.”
The Bottom Line
It’s perfectly acceptable and often beneficial for managers to develop close working relationships with their staff members. But if those relationships become too personal and friendly, the manager, the employee, and the company can all end up suffering.