Page 311 - Fundamentals of Management Myths Debunked (2017)_Flat

310 Part 4 • Leading
Maria quits her job. An office clerk slams her keyboard and then shouts profanity whenever
her computer freezes up. Rudeness, hostility, aggression, and other forms of workplace nega-
tivity have become all too common in today’s organizations. In a survey of U.S. employees,
10 percent said they witnessed rudeness daily within their workplaces and 20 percent said
that they personally were direct targets of incivility at work at least once a week. In a survey
of Canadian workers, 25 percent reported seeing incivility daily and 50 percent said they
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were the direct targets at least once per week. And it’s been estimated that negativity costs
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the U.S. economy some $300 billion a year. What can managers do to manage negative
behavior in the workplace?
The main thing is to recognize that it’s there. Pretending that negative behavior doesn’t
exist or ignoring such misbehaviors will only confuse employees about what is expected and
acceptable behavior. Although researchers continue to debate about the preventive or respon-
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sive actions to negative behaviors, in reality, both are needed. Preventing negative behav-
iors by carefully screening potential employees for certain personality traits and responding
immediately and decisively to unacceptable negative behaviors can go a long way toward
managing negative workplace behaviors. But it’s also important to pay attention to employee
attitudes, since negativity will show up there as well. As we said earlier, when employees are
dissatisfied with their jobs, they will respond somehow.

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