Hubris and Ego

Webster's online defines "hubris" as exaggerated pride or self confidence. The word is usually associated with attitudes and behavior that begins with arrogance and defensiveness, and ends in some kind of failure or crisis. For example, I've heard a number of managers say to me, "I'll never use the blog" or "I don't need anyone to tell me how to manage stress in the workplace", and I assure you, I'm not here to tell anyone how to do anything. In my presentations, I encourage others to share their perceptions of stress, and what they do that already works, because firedrills work.
But back to the hubristic manager. I don't really get it. You have a free resource that links you to research in applied psychology and hospitality research, from such schools as Cornell and the University of Utah's own Marriott school, where people have been studying stress in the workplace with a conservative scientific view, and the hubristic manager's attitude is: "I don't need anyone to tell me how to do my job".
When would you say the learning stops for such a manager? Better yet, at what point in time is learning no longer necessary in a people profession? When I started Diamondpoint Coaching and began offering presentations to the R&H industry, I focused on 2 important aspects. One, nobody ever offered me information on stress perceptions and situational--let alone cyclical--stress management. Two, stress awareness and management are and have been, in my 26 years in the service industry, at least as important if not more important than quality of product or quality of service.
You can have great product and service, but if you don't react to a stressful customer well, or if you react impulsively to your own loss of stress headroom in a high pressure, high volume environment, you still lose the game. My R&H presentations are cheap and cost effective, and the blog is free. What more could you want?
My intention was to create an information resource and a service to the community in which I have worked most, and learned most. The resources on the blog are the kind you could only access or find out about with a University passkey.
If I were an owner, let alone a manager, the first attitude I'd want to weed out and encourage differently would be the 'I already know all I need to know to manage' attitude. I can tell you from firsthand experience: crises of all kinds can be avoided or their impact softened by weeding out the 'I don't need to learn anything more to do my job'.
Managers who take advantage of free and top notch resources like this blog are apt to create better word of mouth for your marketplace, and a much more attractive work environment, which means higher performance, less stress, and longer tenure for your employees, especially the good ones.
What do you think?

Consumer Complaint Behavior and Stress

Jones, McLeary and Lepisto, in "Consumer Complaint Behavior Manifestations for Table Service Restaurants..." ,

(http://jht.sagepub.com/cgi/reprint/26/2/105)

originally published in the Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research (V.26 #2 May 2002), identified baby boomers with children as the predominant demographic concerned in word of mouth (wom) complaint. They state:
"The results show these individuals to be under greater psychological stress than those in the other two groups (not likely to complain, complain to anyone), as well as less price conscious and less susceptible to interpersonal influence...(p.105)"
While one peer reviewed research study may be less preferential to 3 or 4, my experiences in consumer complaint behavior and stress seem to be reinforced by Jones et al. I would add that from my experience, I theorize that stress management may be the additional product or experience that many customers and clients are seeking through complaint. In other words, I think complaint may not be based at times on quality of product, or quality of service, but on the attempt to manage stress through a marketplace interaction.
If I have stress over my workday, kids, a holiday spent with a destination town full of other people competing for the same events and services as me, I might be more likely to act out on the server, bellperson, guest services agent, manager, restaurant, hotel or resort, reguardless of whether the product or service is up to quality or not, because I need to vent, and the products and services out there are not going to satisfy that need. Complaint will allow me to vent on something symbolic.
I believe the third unstated role of every service industry worker, after offering quality of product and service, is to offer a trained, informed response to stress voiced through complaint. Jones et al suggests this is also significant to customer loyalty.
If you have research to the contrary, or research that backs this up, please post a reference to that research. Meanwhile, what have been your experiences, and what is your perception of the stress-complaint link?