|
|||
|
|
|
||||||
|
Managing Rudeness
It certainly seems like we're living in some pretty rude times. From the reality shows we watch on TV to the way our fellow drivers behave on the roadways, it just seems that being rude is how many Americans get business done. Now a new study finds that rudeness can be a corrosive element in any workplace, and not just for the people to whom it is directed, but also to anyone within earshot. Two management professors recently released a study, published in the May edition of Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, finding that simply observing discourteous behavior can erode fellow employees' abilities to think creatively, solve problems and act as good team players. "We were very, very surprised [by these results]," says the study's co-author Amir Erez, a professor of management at the University of Florida. "Basically, rudeness had the same effect on secondhand targets that it had on [primary] targets. It affected them in the same way." For this study, 222 students from both the University of Florida and the University of Southern California, where co-author Christine Porath serves as a management professor, were involved in a series of brainstorming activities. 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 leader of the group unleashed 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 puzzles, recalled less information and came up with fewer ideas. "People need to be aware that rudeness has such effects at work," Erez says. "It was not completely clear before these studies were conducted." While the study took place in a university classroom, experts say the findings can easily be applied to the workplace. "The challenge for HR leaders is that rudeness lowers overall team performance and, consequently, company performance," says Kurt Ronn, president and founder of Atlanta-based recruitment firm HRworks. "In addition, such behavior contributes to a hostile work environment, which can introduce legal and financial ramifications, which are a slippery slope to a discrimination lawsuit." HR leaders, he says, should provide sensitivity and performance-management training on an ongoing basis, because, "just like children, employees also tend to avoid bullies." Michael O'Brien can be e-mailed at mobrien@lrp.com.
November 1, 2009 Copyright 2009© LRP Publications |
||||||
Print
Email
Write to the Editor
Reprints
|
||||
|
||||
|
||||
|
© Copyright 2010 LRP Publications. All rights reserved.
|
||||