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Weekly Wrap: Are People Really Getting Nastier in the Workplace?
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Sometimes, I hear about a new “trend” and it makes me scratch my head.
That’s because what some think is “new” may actually be something that has gone on for a long time and is just now being discovered.
So it seemed this week when I found this story in USA Today proclaiming that bad behavior is a growing problem at work. Here’s a bit of what the story said:
‘Workplace incivility’ is on the rise, researchers said Sunday at the American Psychological Association annual meeting.
The academics define workplace incivility as “a form of organizational deviance… characterized by low-intensity behaviors that violate respectful workplace norms, appearing vague as to intent to harm.”
Translation: rudeness, insults and plain old bad manners.
Research suggests “75% to 80% of people have experienced incivility. It’s a growing and prevalent problem,” said Jeannie Trudel of Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion…
In a study she co-wrote, 86% of 289 workers at three Midwestern firms reported incivility at work.”
Wait a minute — 86 percent of workers at three companies in the Midwest reported bad behavior on the job? That makes me wonder what those three companies are, because there has got to be something going on to cause so many people to act badly in those places.
Yes, when you hear 86 percent it sounds like bad workplace behavior is out of control, but another study cited in the USA Today may actually be a little better indicator of the problem:
The Civility in America 2011 poll of 1,000 adults found 43% of Americans say they’ve experienced incivility at work, and 38% believe the workplace is increasingly disrespectful. In the online survey, done in May by Weber Shandwick and Powell Tate in partnership with KRC Research, 67% cited a “critical need” for civility training.”
Those numbers make a little more sense because they cut the problem they’re having at those three unnamed Midwest firms in half. But it makes me wonder: is this really the huge workplace issue that the USA Today story seems to indicate?
Unfortunately, that’s about as deep as the story gets (so much for depth and meaningful insights from USA Today). CBS News did a story on the same topic and dug into it a little more, but it still makes me wonder: is workplace incivility really the huge problem the mainstream media are making it out to be?
This quote in the CBS News story, from “generational workplace expert” Jason Dorsey, seems to take this discussion in a different direction:
A company’s culture is a direct reflection of their leadership,” Dorsey said. “If leadership is not doing their job, you’re going to see that in the culture. So whatever is happening in a company, at the end of the day, is on the shoulder of the leaders. And anybody who does anything different just doesn’t get it. And the second part is what can leaders do? I mean, from my viewpoint, the leaders have to step up and model the behavior. One of my favorite stories is, when I was at a company and doing a little bit of a secret shopper hanging out, checking out things, like I do a lot, and there was a manager absolutely chewing out this young employee below the sign that said ‘Our company mission is to value our employees.’ That’s the message you’re living.”
OK, now this makes more sense. As Dorsey sees it, the problem we’re seeing — if there really is one — isn’t so much spontaneous incivility taking place in the workplace as much as it is a “direction reflection” on the lack of skilled leadership helping to manage workers and keep things moving along smoothly.
In my longtime experience as a manager, bad behavior from employees can only take place if it is tolerated from above. If managers aren’t actively engaged in managing the workforce, incivility can breed and multiply. What seems to be a rash of workers behaving badly is actually the byproduct of clueless and disengaged management.
Call it what you want, but studies pointing to growing incivility on the job are simply measuring the increasing lack of management skill and attention. When is there going to be a psychological survey digging into THAT?
‘Of course, there’s more than incivility on the job in the news this week. Here are other HR and workplace-related items you may have missed. This is TLNT’s weekly round-up of news, trends, and insights from the world of HR and talent management. I do it so you don’t have to.