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Abstract: This article provides research-backed strategies for addressing the challenges of working under a passive-aggressive boss. Passive-aggressive behavior, marked by indirect expression of negative feelings, can undermine team dynamics, create unclear expectations, stall progress, and breed a toxic work culture. The article recommends proactive approaches grounded in leadership research, including setting clear expectations, directly confronting indirect behaviors, documenting patterns over time, adapting one's own leadership style, and seeking mediation when necessary. By understanding passive-aggression and taking constructive steps, employees can work to establish a more transparent, healthier work environment despite the difficulties posed by an indirectly confrontational supervisor.
Passive-aggression in the workplace can quickly undermine team dynamics and employee morale. A passive-aggressive boss poses unique challenges as they often avoid directly addressing problems or conflict.
Today we will explore how those with a passive-aggressive supervisor can best respond by exploring their behavior, the challenges it creates, and providing practical strategies supported by leadership research.
Understanding Passive-Aggressive Behavior
To address passive-aggression effectively, it is important to first understand its nature. Passive-aggressive behavior involves exhibiting negative feelings in an indirect, ambiguous manner instead of openly addressing problems (Kramer & Smith, 2015). Some key characteristics include:
Procrastination, forgetfulness, and missed deadlines to indirectly resist work duties or authority.
Denying responsibility for mistakes and blaming others despite evidence to the contrary.
Withholding information to express annoyance or stall progress.
Feigning agreement but later undermining plans through lack of follow-through.
The root cause is typically the inability or unwillingness to directly address feelings of frustration, anger, or resentment (Baird et. al, 2010). This leads to indirect expression through subtle acts of obstruction or resistance instead of transparency.
Challenges of a Passive-Aggressive Boss
Having a supervisor who behaves passively-aggressively can create confusion, stress, and conflict in the workplace. Some common challenges include:
Unclear expectations: Passive-aggression makes true priorities, responsibilities, and performance metrics difficult to discern (Kelloway et al., 2006).
Stalled progress: Projects are delayed or derailed by missing details, forgotten meetings, and lack of follow-through on assigned tasks.
Low accountability: Passive-aggressive leaders deny responsibility for mistakes and blame others to avoid direct confrontation about problems.
Toxic culture: Over time, passive-aggression spreads dissatisfaction and distrust among coworkers as the true nature and severity of issues remain obscured.
Poor leadership: An effective leader maintains transparency, resolves conflicts directly, and takes responsibility - all difficult with passive-aggressive tendencies (Hansen et al., 2021).
With an understanding of the behavior and its impacts, leaders can take steps to minimize disruptions and build a healthier work dynamic despite a passive-aggressive boss. The following strategies have research support.
Setting Clear Expectations
One challenge of passive-aggression is unclear expectations that allow responsibilities and accountabilities to remain ambiguous. Taking steps to set clear expectations upfront can help mitigate some issues (Vecchio & Brazil, 2007). Specifically:
Request a formal, written job description outlining key duties and performance metrics if one does not already exist. This establishes benchmarks.
Have a structured conversation with your boss to align on priorities, discuss responsibilities, and agree how and when progress and results will be evaluated. Document any understanding.
Communicate expectations clearly to your own direct reports so they understand how their work ties to goals and can help accomplish tasks on time despite possible roadblocks above.
For example, in education, a department head meeting with their passive-aggressive dean could establish that semester progress reports will be reviewed every six weeks and use a standard rubric. This promotes accountability where there was ambiguity before.
Confronting Indirect Behavior Directly
To build an honest working relationship, it is important not to ignore indirect behaviors but confront them directly in a constructive manner (Rosen, 1995). Specifically:
Privately raise specific examples of problematic behaviors like missed meetings, forgotten details, or late deadlines in a calm, solution-focused way.
Do not attack the person but focus on describing concrete impacts to progress and culture. For instance, "When project plans are changed without communicating it, my team ends up duplicating work."
Suggest remedies within their control, such as committing to schedule reminders or implementing progress check-ins.
Be prepared for defensiveness but maintain composure and steer discussion back to resolving issues, not assigning blame.
For example, a healthcare manager could say "Some staff mentioned feeling uninformed when policies changed without notice. Could we implement a notification system so everyone stays updated on new protocols?"
Documenting Patterns and Building Alliances
When passive-aggression is severe or entrenched, it may require intervention from higher levels of leadership (Furnham, 2010). To make a case:
Privately document specific examples over time of problematic behaviors, their impacts, and any remedies attempted through respectful confrontation.
Speak to other trusted coworkers experiencing similar issues to understand how widespread the problem is across teams.
Request an anonymous survey to validate concerns while maintaining objectivity and solutions-focus.
Build alliances with other managers facing comparable challenges to present a united concern to senior leadership through respectful, fact-based discussion of impacts on culture and productivity.
For instance, a technology director compiling examples of consistently missed deadlines could share anonymized survey results with peer directors to demonstrate effects across departments warranting discussion with the CEO.
Adapting Your Own Leadership Style
The most constructive approach is adapting your own behavior to de-escalate tensions rather than reacting harshly to passive-aggression (Kelloway & Barling, 2010). Specifically:
Maintain composure and communicate professionally even when frustrated to avoid unintentional escalation.
Proactively over-communicate updates, timelines, decisions so your teams know direction even if others do not.
Request timely decisions in writing to build a paper trail when big choices are deferred or delayed.
Foster strong team cohesion so direct reports find social-emotional support from each other when leadership is inconsistent.
For instance, a school principal who communicates reasons for unpopular decisions to staff in writing prevents inevitable backlash from being directed solely at them due to lack of clarity from above.
Seeking Mediation if Needed
In rare cases when these steps have not yielded progress over time and passive-aggression is damaging the work culture, requesting external mediation help may be prudent (Rosen, 1995). Some tips:
Discuss the option privately with HR to maintain discretion and integrity of the process.
Mediation allows airing issues constructively with a neutral third party present to facilitate discussion and recommend solutions all can commit to follow.
Be prepared to acknowledge any ways your own behaviors may have unintentionally contributed or escalated tensions to model self-reflection.
Agree any findings or recommendations will remain private to encourage open participation from all sides.
For instance, a manufacturing plant seeing rising conflicts request an anonymous survey followed by confidential mediation to address workplace stressors across multiple departments.
Conclusion
Passive-aggression presents unique challenges to managing work relationships effectively but proactive steps grounded in integrity and solutions-focus can still foster progress even without direct confrontation. Maintaining composure, setting clear expectations, addressing problematic behaviors respectfully yet directly, documenting patterns over time, building allies, adapting constructively, and considering mediation as a last resort all draw from solid leadership research. Whether in healthcare, education, technology or other industries, these strategies empower dealing constructively with a passive-aggressive boss while prioritizing workplace culture and productivity. With understanding, patience and consistency, a healthier dynamic can be built despite indirect leadership approaches.
References
Baird, B. N., Le, K., & Lucas, R. E. (2010). On the nature of intraindividual personality variability: Reliability, validity, and associations with well-being. Journal of personality and social psychology, 99(3), 502–512. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0020338
Furnham, A. (2010). The elephant in the boardroom: The causes of leadership derailment. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan.
Hansen, A., Byrne, Z. S., & Kiersch, C. (2021). A meta-analysis of the relationship between servant leadership and school climate. Journal of School Psychology, 86, 63-78. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2021.02.002
Kelloway, E. K., Barling, J., & Shah, A. (2006). Workplace Aggression. In E. K. Kelloway, J. Barling, & J. J. Hurrell Jr (Eds.), Handbook of workplace violence (pp. 143–163). Sage Publications. https://doi.org/10.4135/9781412976947.n8
Kelloway, E. K., & Barling, J. (2010). Leadership development as an intervention in occupational health psychology. Work & Stress, 24(3), 260–279. https://doi.org/10.1080/02678373.2010.518441
Kramer, C. Y., & Smith, T.E. (2015). Passive-aggressive behavior. In American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.dsm06
Rosen, C. C. (1995). Interpersonal conflict in the workplace: Sources, consequences, and solutions. In C. L. Cooper & D. M. Rousseau (Eds.), Trends in organizational behavior: Trends and challenges (Vol. 2, pp. 73–92). Wiley
Vecchio, R. P., & Brazil, D. M. (2007). Leadership and sex-similarity: A comparison in a military setting. Personnel Psychology, 60(2), 303–335. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.2007.00081.x
Additional Reading
Westover, J. H. (2024). Optimizing Organizations: Reinvention through People, Adapted Mindsets, and the Dynamics of Change. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.3
Westover, J. H. (2024). Reinventing Leadership: People-Centered Strategies for Empowering Organizational Change. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.4
Westover, J. H. (2024). Cultivating Engagement: Mastering Inclusive Leadership, Culture Change, and Data-Informed Decision Making. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.5
Westover, J. H. (2024). Energizing Innovation: Inspiring Peak Performance through Talent, Culture, and Growth. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.6
Westover, J. H. (2024). Championing Performance: Aligning Organizational and Employee Trust, Purpose, and Well-Being. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.7
Citation: Westover, J. H. (2024). Workforce Evolution: Strategies for Adapting to Changing Human Capital Needs. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.8
Westover, J. H. (2024). Navigating Change: Keys to Organizational Agility, Innovation, and Impact. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.11
Westover, J. H. (2024). Inspiring Purpose: Leading People and Unlocking Human Capacity in the Workplace. HCI Academic Press. doi.org/10.70175/hclpress.2024.12
Jonathan H. Westover, PhD is Chief Academic & Learning Officer (HCI Academy); Chair/Professor, Organizational Leadership (UVU); OD Consultant (Human Capital Innovations). Read Jonathan Westover's executive profile here.
Suggested Citation: Westover, J. H. (2024). Dealing with Passive-Aggression: Strategies for Handling a Passive-Aggressive Boss? Human Capital Leadership Review, 15(4). doi.org/10.70175/hclreview.2020.15.4.10
