In a story titled, rather pejoratively, "The Sea Witch", Time magazine (dated 22nd March) details the track record of Captain Holly Graf who is "the first woman to command a Navy cruiser and who rose fast through the ranks --until reports of her abusive command style caught up with her". The report quotes many persons who happened to work with her and there is near unanimity that the Captain was abusive and demotivational. The Navy report points out, "Persons in authority are forbidden to injure their subordinates by tyrannical or capricious conduct, or by abusive language. But Graf did so by demeaning, humiliating, publicly belittling and verbally assaulting subordinates with harsh language and profanity... rarely followed with any instruction".
Defence services and the fact that the Captain concerned is a lady lend a certain amount of gravitas to the report and probably make it sensational too. However it deserves to be recognised that such unsavoury behaviour in work places is not all that uncommon. People who subscribe to Douglas McGregor's Theory X may not fully appreciate the immense long-term damage done to an organisation by abusive leaders.
ABC (Abuse, Bully and Confound the subordinates) style of management is behind the short-term success of dysfunctional leaders. The sooner an organisation identifies such unethical misfits and screens them out, the better it is.
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