Why Poor Sleep May Make You Pick a Fight With the Boss

In This Episode

• Why Brian and his colleagues expected sleepy employees to “punch down” in the workplace
• The surprising result that conflict was strongest with higher-ranking people
• Why the U.S. Army provided an especially interesting environment for studying hierarchy
• What workplace conflict actually looked like in the research
• Neil’s highly scientific description of the problem as a failing “BS filter”
• Why self-control may help explain the connection between sleep and conflict
• How poor sleep can affect anger, risk-taking and rule-breaking as well as interpersonal conflict
• Why recognizing a bad night’s sleep may help you manage the following workday differently
• How chronotype and time of day can compound the effects of poor sleep
• Sleep, workplace injuries and the danger of simply blaming the employee
• Why organizations themselves can contribute to employees’ sleep problems
• The idea of sleep leadership
• Whether managers should be asking employees how they slept
• Why unpredictable work schedules can be particularly disruptive
• Shift work and the importance of regularity when regular daytime schedules aren’t possible
• Whether the same sleep-and-hierarchy dynamic might show up between parents and children
• What happens when both the employee and the boss are sleeping badly
• Whether poor-sleep conflict could cascade upward through an organization
• Why Brian wants to see the findings tested outside the military and in flatter organizations
• What employers can reasonably take away from this research — and what this single study cannot establish

About Dr. Brian Gunia

Dr. Brian Gunia is Professor and Area Chair for Management & Organization at the Johns Hopkins Carey Business School.

His research examines negotiation, organizational behavior and sleep, with particular interest in the ways insufficient sleep can influence decision-making and behaviour in the workplace.

His work has explored topics including sleep and self-control, leadership, ethics, negotiation and interpersonal conflict.

Before entering academia, Brian worked as a management consultant. He earned his PhD in Management & Organization from Northwestern University.

MENTIONED

Sleep and Strife: The Effects of Sleep on Conflict within Organizational Hierarchy

Brian Gunia, Paul Bliese and Amy Adler examined the relationship between sleep problems and interpersonal conflict inside organizational hierarchies. Their research found that sleep problems were most strongly associated with conflict involving people of higher rank — the opposite of what the researchers initially expected.

Brian Gunia — Johns Hopkins Carey Business School

Faculty profile, research interests and selected publications.