Most jokes about bosses are generally bad. Movies like “Horrible Bosses” and TV shows such as “The Office” immortalize the roles of toxic employers and poorly treated employees.

Research by the Workforce Institute at Kronos Inc. debunks much of the bad-boss image just before National Boss’s Day, which is Wednesday.

The Workforce Institute survey found 69 percent of employees who have managers believe their managers set a good example in the way they behave, agreeing they are ethical, honest, collaborative, creative, empowering, innovative, dedicated and trustworthy.

A whopping 92 percent of those who believe this to be true also believe their managers adhere to those values on a regular basis.

“The results of this survey shatter the stereotype of the clownish boss made popular by countless sitcoms and movies. An overwhelming majority of employees are actually saying quite the opposite: they believe their managers set a good example with their behavior and adhere to values that are important in a healthy corporate culture,” said David Creelman, chief executive officer of Creelman Research, a global human capital consulting firm.

When asked to rank the three most important attributes of a good manager, honesty was the strong front runner (78 percent), followed by goal-oriented (44 percent), and compassionate (40 percent).

Sixty-one percent of survey respondents also chose a manager who would invest in their professional development over one who invests in programs to make the work environment more fun.

When it comes to being recognized, 43 percent of employees prefer private, individual praise, while 32 percent favored praise from their manager’s manager and 25 percent expressed interest in being praised in front of their peers.

The survey also revealed that American millenials are not as different from previous generations as other surveys and media accounts have led us to believe.

Their preferences – for individual recognition, investment in professional development over fun work programs, and high-achieving but demanding manager over a nice-but-ineffective manager – are the same as previous generations within the workforce.

“In recent years, we’ve been hearing that millennials will completely change the workplace. Significant shifts are clearly under way, but this research reveals workers who are earlier in their career don’t differ significantly from other generations in the workforce in how they want to be managed and motivated by their boss,” said Joyce Maroney, director of the Workforce Institute.

Instant Insights /

Busting myths in time for Boss&rsquo;s Day

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Busting myths in time for Boss’s Day