Ignoring health and safety procedures, incivility between employees, fraudulent reporting of hours worked – these workplace deviances can be the death knell for the culture and finances of any business. Although these may be signs of endemic issues within an organization, it can still be difficult to identify these problems before they manifest. What is the cause of workplace deviance and incivility, and what can be done to prevent it?
A study from 2016 concluded that unsatisfied workers use these deviances as a form of protest against their employers if faced with harsh working conditions, high periods of anxiety or stress, and limited opportunities for social interactions. In particular, these workers skirted proper procedures and paperwork in order to accumulate more free time for themselves. However, the workers in the study still understood the importance of being seen as a “valuable employee”, so they would be subtle in their deviances. “The study suggests that workers were far more likely to game the system rather than slack off. So rather than resist work entirely, workers were resisting the negative and precarious aspects of work.”
Working on “auto-pilot” may be leading some employees to break company policies. In one study, workers at a Japanese bank who were given a wider variety of tasks were found to adhere to the company’s strict break times better than those who had less variety in their tasks. Additionally, studies have shown that people are less likely to cheat on tests that have different types of questions interspersed with each other, as opposed to tests with long sequences of similar types of questions. Thus, keeping workers cognitively stimulated can help keep them mindful of company policies.
Anti-social behaviour (e.g., yelling, destroying property, and stonewalling) is also becoming an increasingly pervasive issue. “According to a study that was reported by Fortune magazine, U.S. firms spend 13 percent of their time addressing the incendiary fallout of workplace incivility.” However, research shows that in most cases of incivility, the victim is likely to be of lower status than the perpetrator. In other words, most incivility is an abuse of power. To make things worse, employees who witness their leaders’ distasteful behaviour can see it as a signal to what is acceptable in the workplace, and can end up propagating further incivility and creating a malicious work culture. It takes mindful and engaged leadership to ensure the self-feeding cycle of incivility never takes root. One suggestion is to implement zero tolerance policies and reward acts of cooperation between employees and leaders. By upholding cooperation as a core principle at your organization, you can plant the seed for a more inclusive, empathetic culture where every employee understands the impact of their actions.
Author
Viewpoint Research Team