为什么对老板说“不”很重要

    科佩尔曼认为，结果是高排名大学的院长可能会流露出主导感，在其他人看来就是缺乏合作精神。

    《组织行为研究》(Research in Organizational Behavior)2009年刊登的一篇文章《在恐惧中沉默：恐惧的性质、来源和后果》(Silenced by fear: The nature, sources and consequences of fear at work)指出，我们对主导感做出这样的反应可能是出于本能。但报告称，对主导成员的暗示心领神会的人相比其他人更有优势。而且，现代人从小就生活在等级制度中：家里要听父母亲，学校里听老师。等到进入职场，大多数人都要按指令行事。

    希望能最大程度挖掘员工潜力的经理们必须克服这些情况。

    “必须降低直言的风险，增加直言的回报，提高沉默的成本。”迪特说。“换言之，得成为这样一家公司，在这里人们会说，绝不要成为一个唯唯诺诺的人，”因为如果员工有权力说“不”，公司就会变得更加强大。

    The upshot, Kopelman suggests, is that highly ranked people might exude dominance, which others can interpret as a lack of cooperation.

    We are probably hard-wired to respond to dominance this way, suggests a 2009 paper published in Research in Organizational Behavior titled "Silenced by fear: The nature, sources and consequences of fear at work." Humans who could pick up cues from dominant group members had an advantage over those who couldn't, the report suggests. And modern humans are raised in hierarchies: parents have more power in families, and teachers in schools. By the time we enter the workforce, most of us are conditioned to do what we are told.

    Managers aiming to get the best out of their workers have to combat all of this.

    "You have to decrease the perceived risk of speaking up, you have to increase the perceived rewards of speaking up, and you have to increase the cost of silence," Detert says. "In other words, you have to be a company where people would say that the worst thing you could be is be a 'yes man,' " because companies are stronger when employees have the power to say "no."