I found this article, “How Bad Apples Infect the Tree”, on the www.nytimes.com that is very interested and I want to share it. The author, Professor Robert I. Sutton also is the author of the book “Good Boss, Bad Boss.”
In the article, the author describes his friend-Ruth’s experience of working in a hostile working environment and points out the unpleasant working environment destroies the effective working performance. Ruth was an executive in Silicon Valley, but constantly treated disrespectfully by her colleagues. However, the nastiness was not only aimed at Ruth. Group members treat each other disrespectfully too. They insult, back-stabbing and teas each other. It affects the whole group performance. According to the many studies, “people respond to demeaning and disrespectful bosses and co-workers by calling in sick more often, making fewer suggestions, working less hard and doing lower-quality work.” It reminds me of what we have learned from the class, Argyris says that workers adapts to frustration in withdraw, become passive, apathetic, resist top-down control through deception or sabotage. Obviously, Ruth quitted her job a year later. In the article, Ruth also shares her strategic of dealing the meanness of the company with the same theory of being out in the water in the river rafting, don’t fight with the rapid, but depends on life vest and float with feet out to protect from knocking into the rock . So “When the personal attacks, dirty looks and finger-pointing commenced, she stretched out her feet in front of her under the table, and told herself, ‘I just got thrown out of the boat by these jerks, but I know how to survive’.” It is a very interested emotion control technique by separated her from being “prevent the poison from touching my soul” as she says. In conclusion, the author suggests the bosses and their organization should “find that it’s more important to eliminate the negative than to accentuate the positive.”
Since it is a very interested article and the writing style of the author, I think I have found my next book to read, “Good Boss, Bad Boss.”
You can view this article at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/jobs/28pre.html?_r=1&ref=business
You can view this article at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/28/jobs/28pre.html?_r=1&ref=business
Yu Mei Wu
I agree with your assessment. It makes so much sense that employee performance, creativity and morale declines when subject to insult and disrespect. It further emphasizes the fact that organizations as well as every one of their workers loses something when the working environment is hostile.
ReplyDeleteI like your analysis, but as a little suggestion, have someone proof read your writing before submitting it (I do it all the time with my work), because there are some common errors here. Example (article, that is very interested) instead of "interesting", or (workers adapts)-subject-verb agreement.
gabriela j.
My pop media review was about this very topic!
ReplyDeleteMy book was "The No Asshole Rule, Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn't" which is by Robert Sutton, the same author of the above article. Sutton also used Ruth's story in the book - and I found that to be one of the most valuable stories and tips in the book. Another was to talk as if you are right, but listen as if you are wrong!
Anyway, in researching the paper I was a little disheartened because there is a TON of research about this very topic. So in my opinion - with so much research demonstrating how widespread workplace incivility is, and how much damage can be done by mean bosses/colleagues why do these problems perpetuate? I came across a great article "Tit for Tat? The Spiraling Effect of Incivility in the Workplace" in which the authors discuss how incivility breeds further incivility in escalating spiral patterns - in effect poisoning the environment creating greater toxicity. In another article called "Abusive Supervision and Employee Exhaustion: Dispositional Antecedents and Boundaries" the authors discuss what is termed "emotional exhaustion" that stems from employees going beyond their own personal limits of energy expenditure relating to colleagues and supervisors when those interactions are negative. Taken together these two concepts highlight what in my opinion is a terrible crises in our work lives - bad behavior seems to fuel further bad behavior and increases stress exponetially. Given the amount of time we spend in the workplace why should we continue to put up with it? It is for this reason that I so strongly advocate that "The No Asshole Rule" be required reading for all people - OK, maybe that is an extreme, but seriously, it was a great book!
Here are the articles I mentioned - check them out...(You can look for them through our library system.
Andersson, L. and Pearson, C. (1999). Tit for Tat? The Spiraling Effect of Incivility in the Workplace. The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 24, No. 3
Wu, T., Hu, C. (2009). Abusive Supervision and Employee Exhaustion: Dispositional Antecedents and Boundaries. Group & Organization Management 2009. 34: 143
-Ken