Financial uncertainty has helped create a climate in which bullies, bores and bulldozers have thrived and employees have had to suck it up, according to Lindsay Ryan, director of Corporate Education Advisers.

"People who would have changed jobs sometime during the past three years are still in the same job and loathing it because (alternative) jobs have not been around," he says.

But with an ageing workforce and a growing shortage of skilled and capable workers in many industries, the tide is set to turn.

"This means the demand for good workers and, more importantly, good bosses, will increase significantly over the next few years," he predicts.

And not before time. Two-thirds of Australians have a "horrible" or "average" boss, according to a recent survey commissioned by jobs website CareerOne.com. au, while 61 per cent of workers had been bullied by their boss. Such figures should be of the utmost concern to organisations, Ryan says, because being subject to the whims of a bad boss is the most common reason people walk away from a job. "People often resign due to bad bosses, not bad organisations," he points out.

Randall White, an organisational psychologist and founding partner of the US-based Executive Development Group, says what often turns good bosses bad is a surfeit of their strengths.

"A lot of times what makes leaders ineffective is things that they do too much of," he explains.

"So it can be the absolutely brilliant person who makes everyone else feel stupid, abusing and belittling the people around them.

"Or they may rely too much on great interpersonal skills and charm but underprepare the more strategic self that is required (at higher levels)."

Mark Busine, general manager NSW and head of consulting with Development Dimensions International, says the flip typically happens when executives come under pressure. ''That's when confidence becomes arrogance, for example, or detail orientation becomes perfectionism,'' he says

Read the full article from The Australian, Poorer prospects for bad bosses