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Catching a Cold ... Shoulder
With just one look out of your car window during rush hour, it's easily apparent that we are living in some pretty rude times. But what's worse, new evidence suggests that rudeness can spread throughout an entire organization like a bad cold. A recent study finds that simply observing discourteous behavior can erode the ability of fellow employees to think creatively, solve problems and act as team players. The effect of rude behavior is so deep, says the study's co-author Amir Erez, a professor of management at the University of Florida, that it actually surprised the researchers themselves. "We were very, very surprised [by these results]," says Erez. "Basically, rudeness had the same effect on secondhand targets that it had on [primary] targets. It affected them in the same way." The study, published in the May edition of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, by Erez and co-author Christine Porath, a management professor at the University of Southern California, first examined the effects of rude behavior in 2007, finding that victims of rudeness were negatively affected by the behavior. "Those targets had severe effects on creativity and the ability to solve problems," Erez says. "Even if they just imagined [rude behavior], the results were the same and affected their memory. Basically, it had devastating effects on the targets." The researchers then decided to press deeper -- to explore the effects of "secondhand rudeness," where people were exposed to, but not the target of, rude or boorish behavior. In the most recent experiments, 222 students from both universities were involved in a series of brainstorming activities, including solving anagrams and finding creative uses for a brick. One set of participants observed a fellow student arrive a few minutes late to the experiment, apologize and explain that a previous class ran late. In response, the group leader vocalized a barrage of criticism about the late student being irresponsible and unfit to hold a job in the real world. Meanwhile, a control group only saw a student get dismissed for showing up late. Compared to the control group, the group exposed to the rude behavior solved fewer anagrams, recalled less information and found fewer creative uses for a brick. "People need to be aware that rudeness has such effects at work," Erez says. "It was not completely clear before these studies were conducted." As for preventing such outbreaks at work, Erez says, HR leaders "need to change the atmosphere in the organization, and create the climate that this behavior is just not acceptable." He says HR managers who simply tell their employees to "get over it" or "be tough" might be missing the bigger picture. "Managers may be concerned about long-term effects, but here we see that just one incident affects productivity. ... They just need to pay attention," he says. "Will HR leaders be able to prevent all rude behavior at work? Of course not, but they need to deal with it." Heather Huhman, a career expert based in Washington and founder of the Web site, ComeRecommended.com, says HR leaders need to remain ever vigilant, especially given today's many workplace distractions. "Even in this economy -- perhaps especially in this economy -- HR needs to have a heightened sense of awareness about employee morale," she says. "After all, once the economy turns around, employees not happy in their current environments are going to be looking to jump ship." Dallas Teague Snider, founder of Make Your Best Impression, a business-etiquette consulting firm based in Birmingham, Ala., says it's important to make sure all levels of an organization are being held to a similar standard when it comes to rudeness. "I think that a lot of times, HR people can be thinking of line employees [when it comes to issues of rudeness], but they also need to look at the managers and make sure they're on board as well. Any program they try to instill without an organization's leadership buy-in, it's just not going to work." Donna Flagg, a workplace expert and founder of The Krysalis Group, an HR and management consulting firm in New York, agrees. The challenge for HR departments, she says, "is to put effective mechanisms in place that control the behavior. And the bigger challenge is getting support and cooperation from 'the business.' Oftentimes, the problem here is that the rudest employees also just happen to be the highest producers and line management does not want to let them go." Erez says HR also needs to be prepared to fight back against Hollywood stereotypes. "One of the things HR leaders should pay attention to is that, in many organizations, there is a certain air that glorifies being rude," Erez says, citing the Donald Trump vehicle, The Apprentice, on television and the Meryl Streep movie, The Devil Wears Prada, as examples of that pernicious mind-set. "But it's not a cute thing when it affects the bottom line, and that needs to be taken into consideration," he cautions. As for how Erez himself deals with rudeness around him, he says he tries to keep it simple. "I just try not to be rude," he says. "And I tell my students when I teach: 'Being nice to people has a lot of advantages.' "
August 13, 2009 Copyright 2009© LRP Publications |
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