Nurses Who Teach Lead Best

Each employee changed supervisors about four times a year, so researchers were able to tell which managers got better results from their workers.

Although the study was conducted among workers in the tech industry, the authors of the working paper say the results are relevant across industries. The results related to teaching might especially be applied to nursing because nurses are constantly acquiring new patient care skills, both on the job and via continuing education.

The research found that the average boss adds about 1.75 times as much output as the average worker. Teaching work skills or work habits accounts for two-thirds of the gain that bosses added. Moreover, the effect of good bosses on high-quality workers is greater than the effect of good bosses on lower-quality workers.

That suggests that the best bosses should be teamed with the best employees to achieve the best results, not the other way around.

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