Disempowerment Impairs Brain Functioning

Image via WikipediaInteresting new research I came across recently (click here), in the area of "workplace" psychology. It appears that if you cause a person to be placed into a position of "low power," then that person's cognitive functioning (capacity to make effective and sound decisions, for example) will be impaired, compared to the people who are placed into positions of "high power." Here is an excerpt from the "Science Daily" piece about this research:

"New research appearing in the May issue of Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science, suggests that being put in a low-power role may impair a person’s basic cognitive functioning and thus, their ability to get ahead... In one experiment, the participants completed a Stroop task, a common psychological test designed to exercise executive functions. Participants who had earlier been randomly assigned to a low-power group made more errors in the Stroop task than those who had been assigned to a high-power group. Smith and colleagues also found that these results were not due to low-power people being less motivated or putting in less effort. Instead, those lacking in power had difficulty maintaining a focus on their current goal."

This research is really not surprising, in light of prior research that has long indicated that, among primates, when an individual is eliminated from a powerful position, that individual experiences an impairment in the functioning of his serotonin system (serotonin is a neurotransmitter involved in many brain functions, including mood regulation). And, together, these lines of research would seem to demonstrate that adverse employment actions can cause workers to experience significant incapacitation: clinically significant depression, for example, and impairments in judgment and decision-making capacity. And this will likely have a negative impact on the employee's subsequent performance on the job.

Accordingly, we can see more clearly what kind of biological effect the actions of a workplace supervisor can have on her/his employees. In situations (all too common) involving a workplace supervisor who engages in bullying-type actions with employees, the targeted employee will experience changes in his or her brain that will very likely be reflected in his/her mood and capacity to continue to work effectively. For example, supervisors who want to punish an employee might take actions such as: removing the employee from leadership positions; shifting job responsibilities around in such a way that the employee experiences a diminished sense of control over his/her workplace duties; or outright demotion. And I suspect that even seeing one of one's colleague being treated unfairly might well cause co-workers to experience a feeling of fear and disempowerment, as well, thus spreading the ensuing dysfunction even more broadly throughout the workplace. Common sense and life experience tell us that any of these actions will cause employees to have negative emotional responses; now, we can see a bit more about the brain changes that reflect (or produce) these negative effects.