Coworkers Behaving Badly: The Impact of Coworker Deviant Behavior upon Individual Employees

Abstract

This article provides a review of the literature addressing the impact of coworkers' deviant, dysfunctional, or counterproductive behaviors upon individual employees. We provide a framework for the collection of findings on this issue, revealing that coworker deviant behavior negatively impacts individual employees' attitudes, affect, and actions through three routes: (a) direct impact, whereby an employee is the target of coworkers' deviant behaviors; (b) vicarious impact, whereby an employee is impacted by witnessing or learning of coworkers' deviant behaviors; and (c) ambient impact, whereby an employee is impacted by working in an environment characterized by collective coworker deviant behavior. In our discussion of these routes of influence, we outline the relevant empirical findings for and theoretical perspectives of each, as well as the moderators of these effects. We conclude our review by identifying recommended future research directions based upon our critical assessment of this literature.

Bystander Responses to Bullying at Work: The Role of Mode, Type and Relationship to Target

“…O'Reilly and Aquino (2011) state that when bystanders cognitively judge the severity of harm as high, the perpetrator was to blame and the victim did not deserve it, then the outcome is moral outrage and a desire to restore justice. Similarly, from a stress perspective, bystanders experience stress, develop cognitive and emotional empathy towards the target's experiences and act to reduce the stress (Robinson et al 2014). As a result, we would expect to see bystanders expressing a desire to intervene and defend the victim (or retaliate to the perpetrator).…”

“…adopting a defender, prosecutor or commuter role) to bullying episodes may range widely according to their perception of the situation and who is to blame for the occurrence of bullying (Bloch 2012). Robinson et al (2014) offer three approaches to understanding bystanders' experiences of co-worker deviant behaviour: deontic justice (Folger and Skarlicki 2005), stress perspectives (e.g. Glomb et al 1997) and social learning theory (Bandura 1977).…”

Workplace Incivility in a Swedish Context

“…ver the years, scholars have dedicated much attention to the occurrence of workplace aggression and deviant behavior (Robinson et al, 2014). Studies have to a large extent included overt forms of aggression such as workplace bullying, which subsequently has been tied to detrimental effects such as symptoms related to posttraumatic stress, burnout (Nielsen & Einarsen, 2012), and lower well-being (Lovell & Lee, 2011;Nielsen & Einarsen, 2012;Sloan, 2012).…”

A Dynamic, Inclusive, and Affective Evolutionary View of Organizational Behavior

“…These behaviors are often learned early in life as interpersonal strategies to achieve one's goals and they can have disastrous effects on the target in terms of affect; psychological functioning; and organizational outcomes such as performance, satisfaction, and turnover. Kipling Williams' (2001) Ostracism: The Power of Silence, as well as the substantial contributions over the years by Sandra Robinson and her colleagues on ostracism (Robinson et al 2014), describes both the behaviors and consequences in more detail.…”