In the cubicles and shop floors of any corporation, they call it sucking up, brown-nosing, polishing the apple, back-scratchin’ boot-lickin’ and even kissin’ the ol’ A. But at the boardroom level, it’s called “sophisticated interpersonal influence.”
And boy, does it work, according to academic research unveiled Monday.
“Corporate leaders are more likely to win board appointments…when employing subtle, but sophisticated, forms of flattery and opinion conformity,” professors Ithai Stern of Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management and James Westphal of the University of Michigan’s Ross School of Business, said in a press release.
Their research, “Stealthy Footsteps to the Boardroom: Executives’ Backgrounds, Sophisticated Interpersonal Influence Behavior, and Board Appointments,” appears in the most recent issue of Administrative Science Quarterly.
Based in part on interviews with 42 managers and chief executives of large U.S. companies, the study shows there is a right way, and a wrong way, to blow smoke up someone’s skirt.
“If a person’s behavior is interpreted as ingratiation, that individual is more likely to be seen as self-interested and selfish, cold and calculating, manipulative, weak, and untrustworthy,” the study said.
Those with backgrounds in accounting, engineering, or finance were less likely to understand how blatant sycophancy can backfire:
“One director with a background in engineering replied, ‘I’m not sure I follow you….I didn’t know there was good or bad ingratiation. I guess it’s all bad, or maybe it’s all good. I don’t know.'”
Those with backgrounds in politics, law and sales, on the other hand, had the art of subtle ingratiation down pat. People with upper-class upbringings also had a hand up on this skill over those who grew up in working-class homes.
The study’s authors identified seven of the best tricks:
1) Disguise flattery as advice: “How were you able to close that deal so successfully?”
2) Argue before you agree: “At first, I didn’t see your point, but it makes total sense now.”
As one manager in the study put it: “If you keep saying, ‘yes boss, I agree boss,’ it looks like sucking up. If you appear to challenge the boss a bit before yielding — ‘OK, you’ve convinced me, good point.’ — the agreement seems more genuine.”
3) Talk up the boss to others. “Complimenting someone to his face is kind of obvious brown-nosing, or at least suspect,” one manager in the study said. “If you regularly say nice things about him to his friend, though, he…will almost always find out about it.”
4) Pretend flattery isn’t really flattery: “I don’t want to embarrass you but your presentation was really top-notch.”
5) Espouse common social values: “I’m the same way. I believe we should…” (insert boss’ worldview and agenda here).
6) “Covertly learn…of manager’s opinions from his/her contacts, and then conform.”
7) Reference common affiliations, such as religion or political affiliation: “I watched the Republican National Convention last night. The keynote presented some great points.”
People who master these skills not only control their own destiny, but the fates of others.
“Top managers who are capable of engaging in sophisticated forms of ingratiation may also exert more interpersonal influence over…security analysts, large investors, journalists and public officials,” the study said.
Perhaps it’s just another one of those studies that confirms in academic language what most of us on the street already know.
The people at the top are often just suck-ups. And despite all the years of banter about improving corporate governance, human capacity to select leaders remains comically flawed.
“People say many of the problems with companies occurred…because of the old boys’ club,” Stern said in an interview. “But we’ve seen an increase in the number of women on boards, and in the number of minorities, and nothing has really changed.”
Al Lewis: al.lewis@dowjones.com; 212-416-2617; or tellittoal.com