Counterproductive work behaviors can debilitate an organisation's productivity and seriously harm individual incentive, a new study reveals.

By Mitch Kusy & Elizabeth Holloway

"The day this person left our company is considered an annual holiday!"  This quote from our national research study on toxic personalities echoes the sentiment these individuals have on an organization's culture and bottom line.  

We conducted a research study in the United States that included in-depth interviews and an 82-item online survey of over 400 leaders.  These leaders representing males and females, as well as profit and non-profit organizations, indicated that a whopping 94% have worked or currently work with a toxic person!  Efforts to work with these individuals have generated a long list of anecdotal suggestions, but few practical and effective solutions.  Yet, statistics below reflect the degree in which counterproductive work behaviors can debilitate an organization's productivity and seriously harm individual incentive, as indicated by these statistics: 

• 25% of "victims" of incivility ceased voluntary efforts.
• 50% contemplated leaving their jobs; 12% did! 
• 20% reduced their rate of work.
• 10% deliberately cut back the amount of time they spent at work. 

With the costs of recruiting ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 times the person's annual salary, the financial erosion from the effects of toxic behaviors is significant.  When you factor in the human toll, the costs become exponential, as this quote from our study illustrates: "This toxic person is in the most Sr. HR leadership role in the organization.  He has experienced 80% turnover of his direct reporting team and staff." The toxic individual is a profit saboteur from two contexts-financial and human.   

Here are some of the commonly held myths regarding toxic persons in the workplace that our findings refuted. That is, these common assumptions are false:

1. Don't mess with their success.
2. Give them feedback.
3. Most people won't put up with toxic behaviors.
4. HR and other consultants can solve the problem.
5. Fire them to resolve the issue.
6. Toxic persons know exactly what they're doing.
7. Toxic behavior is a solo act.
8. When hiring, seek a little extra competence over a little more likeability.
9. Leaders see the systemic effects.

So what did we find out about toxic behaviors in organizations?  Toxicity included behaviors that did not necessarily meet the threshold of bullying or harassment, but rather were more subtle and habitual. Based on our research, we discovered three types of toxic behaviors: 

• Shaming
• Passive hostility
• Team sabotage

These types of behaviors included, for example, pot shots, sarcasm, passive aggression, team surveillance, and territoriality.  Sound familiar?   

We also asked leaders if their reactions and strategies in coping with these people were effective.  Surprisingly, they reported that the typical reactions of reconfiguring the team, simply avoiding the person, or giving performance feedback, just did not work. In fact, the often touted strategy of one-on-one feedback is largely ineffective because toxic individuals are unaware of the negative effect they have on others or simply feel justified in treating others badly.  As many of our respondents claimed, "the toxic person is mostly clueless they are toxic".   

Another revealing finding was that many toxic persons have a protector in the organization or on the team. In some cases the protector was a person who deliberately covered for the toxic person because they received something in return (such as high sales numbers or special consideration for advancement). 

However, some protectors were actually trying to protect their teams from the debilitating effects of the person's behavior and were inadvertently enabling the toxicity to continue unabated. In our workshops, there are many participants who report the "aha" of discovering that they have become part of the problem by protecting! We found three types of protectors: 

• The relationship protector
• The power protector
• The productivity protector

The most critical discovery in our study was the systemic effect of toxicity in the organization.  A toxic person could relatively quickly infect leader and staff confidence, team cohesion, organizational culture, and individual well-being. 

Our findings led to the development of effective strategies to prevent the spread of toxicity through a systems approach.  In our Toxic Organizational Change System (TOCS) © a number of interventions that can be effectively used in concert with one another are discussed. 

The interventions are delivered at organizational, team, and individual levels of the organizations and a few of these are listed below.  

1. Organizational strategies:  

• Large-scale design of concrete values of respectful engagement
• Critical integration of values into existing performance systems
• Design of formal "skip-level" evaluations

2. Team strategies:

• Proactive interventions
  • Behavioral team selection via the "BIG-FIVE" personality factors
  • Translation of organizational values to team norms
• Reactive interventions
  • 360-degree team assessment systems from within and outside the team
  • Innovative use of exit interviews
  • Identification of "toxic protectors" who enable toxicity
    • Special relationship protectors
    • Power protectors
    • Productivity protectors

3. Individual strategies:

• Targeted feedback
• Systems coaching
• Use of formal authority
• Fair-process terminations

As a result of our research, we have been working to help leaders understand the systems components that should be engaged proactively to reduce the probability of a toxic person entering the organization and to create cultures of respectful engagement. 

We are very interested in your experiences with toxic persons and intervention strategies that have worked-both in terms of working directly with toxic personalities as well as creating cultures of respectful engagement. Please share your insights by leaving a comment on this blog.

More detailed information regarding our research and the systems approach to dealing with toxic personalities may be found in our upcoming book: Toxic Workplace! Managing Toxic Personalities and Their Systems of Power (Jossey-Bass, 2009) or by contacting us directly: Dr Mitchell Kusy (mitchellkusy@gmail.com) or Dr Elizabeth Holloway (Elizabeth@elizabethholloway.com). We are now presenting this seminar and coaching series worldwide.  

Visit our new blog "The Toxic Workplace" at toxicworkplace.blogspot.com!

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About the Researchers: 

Dr Mitchell Kusy, an international consultant, has worked internally in several organizations including American Express Financial Advisors as head of leadership development. He is a full professor in the Ph.D. Program in Leadership & Change at Antioch University, a 2005 Fulbright Scholar in International Organization Development, and the 1998 Minnesota Organization Development Practitioner of the Year. A visiting professor at the University of Auckland, School of Enterprise, he has written several books on leadership.  One of them, Fast Forward Leadership, was the #3 best-selling business book in April, 2000.  Based on his most recent book, Manager's Desktop Consultant: Just-in-Time Solutions to the Top People Problems that Keep You Up at Night, he has been interviewed by such publications as the New York Times and Fortune.   

Dr Elizabeth Holloway is a full professor and psychologist with over 25 years experience as a practitioner, trainer, and consultant with leaders worldwide.  She has held faculty appointments at the Universities of California, Utah, Oregon, Wisconsin, and currently at Antioch University, Ph.D. Program in Leadership & Change.  In 1998, she was one of five faculty chosen for the prestigious Leadership Fellow program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  She has achieved the highest practitioner distinction for psychologists-Diplomat of the American Board of Professional Psychology and is a Fellow of Division 17, American Psychological Association. She has published extensively on research and training in supervisory practice.  She consults internationally on organizational interventions that intersect mentoring, coaching, communities of practice, and toxic systems.