"Hostility, Job Attitudes, and Workplace Deviance: Test of a Multilevel Model"
Timothy A. Judge, Brent A. Scott, Remus Ilies
Journal of Applied Psychology, January 2006
Even model employees can become negative and unproductive if their bosses are rude or mean-spirited, according to a recent University of Florida study that was published in the Journal of Applied Psychology. The research, led by management professor Timothy Judge, finds that exemplary employees join less stellar employees in gossiping, pilfering, backstabbing, and taking long lunch breaks when they feel put down by their superiors. Judge stressed that the findings are important because employers often act as if workers' attitudes are irrelevant and have no effect on how well they perform.
The study brings to light the fact that many companies assume employees are motivated only by opportunities to earn more money or by the threat of losing their jobs. These employers do not realize that positive management-labor relations influence how long workers remain with an employer and the extent to which they engage in helping behaviors.
Judge, Michigan State University management professor Remus Ilies, and Brent Scott, a UF graduate assistant, looked at how people's moods influenced their work attitudes. Sixty-four full-time employees from different parts of the country responded to an online advertisement for study participants, completing daily surveys over three weeks about their mood, job satisfaction, deviant behavior at work and perceived treatment by their supervisor. In addition to self-ratings of deviant behavior, immediate supervisors completed an online questionnaire indicating how often the employee had done things such as steal property from work, litter the work environment, curse at co-workers and leave work without permission.
Most important was the amount of hostility employees felt, which was influenced by how they thought their supervisors treated them. Unfortunately, the authors note, many human resource departments adopt policies and practices designed to squelch bad behavior rather than look for its root causes.
