Is your workplace dysfunctional? Here are the signs.

Bullying. Aggression. Sabotage. Absenteeism. These are all behaviors that are obviously bad for business. But what are the factors that lead to these types of dysfunction, and how do they spread? A study from Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations revealed several warning signs.

I spoke to the lead author, associate professor Nichelle Carpenter, and here’s what she had to say:

• It may seem obvious, but companies should care about spotting and preventing the spread of dysfunction at work because it doesn’t just impact employee productivity, it also has a negative effect on customer satisfaction, Carpenter told me.
• When a workplace is dysfunctional, it could take longer for customer concerns to be resolved, and there’s a real impact on financial performance.
• A big misconception managers have, according to Carpenter, is that rooting out one or two problematic workers will fix the problem. “It requires more attention than getting rid of one employee,” she said. Instead, managers should focus on modeling appropriate behavior and creating a functional environment.

According to the study, signs of dysfunction at work appear in three areas: leadership, HR and attitudes. By spotting and addressing these issues, managers can get a handle on their workplace dysfunction.

• Counterproductive, or dysfunctional, behavior is more common in teams with an abusive supervisor and less common when they’re led by an ethical or charismatic one. Ethical leaders take time to listen to workers, are honest and transparent in how they explain corporate policies and decisions and send strong cues to their reports that this is the behavior that is expected of them as well. Carpenter recommends people observe cues from their corporate leaders: Which workplace behaviors are rewarded, and which are punished?
• Dysfunction is also more prevalent in companies that hire more based on “gut impressions” rather than structured interviews and “scientifically sound” methods of evaluation. Performance evaluations should also be done in a structured, rigorous manner, recommends Carpenter.
• Finally, employee attitudes also contribute greatly to the spread of dysfunction. When employees believe management is treating them unfairly, bad habits can spread. One tool companies can use to get a feel for prevailing attitudes is through engagement surveys.

Another way your teams at work could be short-circuited? A bottom-line mentality. A second study from Rutgers, published in the Journal of Organizational Behavior, found that performance suffers when employees are terrified of missing their targets.

I spoke to the lead author, professor Rebecca Greenbaum, about what she observed and her recommendations for managers:

• The researchers defined a bottom-line mentality as “a singular focus on one prominent outcome.” That outcome is almost always thought of in terms of metrics tied to profitability, Greenbaum said.
• A bottom-line mentality can be good in some circumstances. It’s just bad when it’s persistent. Always having a mentality that only the outcomes matter can stifle your team’s creativity, according to Greenbaum’s research. In addition, people may not feel as comfortable disrupting norms or challenging other team members with respect to things that “may be off.”
• Too much of a bottom-line mentality within an organization can also result in a loss of psychological safety. People may feel less free in conveying their thinking or being vulnerable with each other. “If you’re not speaking up, then you’re not going to have as many novel solutions to problems,” she said.

So what do you do if you spot some of these behaviors in your workplace? Greenbaum recommends managers make sure they’re paying attention to how they reward. Lip service and telling your employees that you value ethics isn’t enough. If you’re only rewarding them for meeting performance targets, employees may feel pressured to act unethically in order to secure those goals. Convey that you care about more than just profits and meeting goals, and you just might avoid ending up like Boeing, Greenbaum said.

— Michelle Ma, reporter (email | twitter)