Management by fear has certainly crippled and shook foundations of many great empires. But many managers fail to understand the importance of management by objectives and managing the workforce by good governance. This policy helps the competitor gain a competitive advantage over the company practicing terror management. Some of the examples which I would like to recount here:
•One of the common issue which most employees feel humiliated is when their boss makes them feel lucky that they have a job. Here bosses typically belittle the subordinates which leads to resentment and eventually failure in executing simple activities.
•Another issue is of disciplinary process involved while punishing the employee for minor mistakes. I have heard stories from people who have been subjected to cut in the pay because of grammatical errors in the memo.
•A popular issue is favoritism which is found in all the offices. This is a touchy subject as many bosses tend to favor yes men and this creates rivalry among peers too.
In the end, terror management is supported by most of the managers as they believe it will keep the subordinates on toes and propel them to work diligently. But in reality, the reverse is true, subordinates do work but produce low quality and discourage creativity among their peers too. A manager should be a leader who knows how to produce results not with meek, submissive and broken down employees but with bright, proactive and happy employees.