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OfficePRO JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012 • -^ r^IZT

C O M I A T I N G

THÉby Catherine M. Mattice, MA

Incivility at work is on the rise. Afterpresenting her research at the recentAmerican Psychological Associationannual convention, researcher JeannieTrudel of Indiana Wesleyan University-Marion told USA Today that "Seventy-five percent to 80 percent of people haveexperienced incivility." Trudel's co-author, Paul Fairlie, added, "White col-lar work is becoming a little more bluecollar. There's higher work demands,longer hours... A lot of people areworking much harder. They've got fluidjob descriptions and less role clarity. Sofor some people... work is becomingmore toxic."

The Civility in America 2011 pollfound similar results and reportedthat 86 percent of Americans are mis-treated at work, 38 percent believethe workplace is becoming more andmore disrespectful, and 59 percentadmit to being uncivil to co-workers.CareerBuilder.com also released areport earlier this year claiming thattheir survey of over 5,600 Americanworkers revealed 25 percent ofAmericans are bullied at work. Thatsurvey follows 25 years of academicresearch that continuously points tobullying as a pervasive issue in theworkplace.

Incivility and aggression at work is

costly. Performance, productivity, com-pany loyalty, time at work, communica-tion, teamwork and job satisfaction alldecrease as a result of employees feelingunhappy with the work environmentand angry at each other.

Before Obi Orgnot was the CEOof OrgNot Ltd., a consulting firm thatworks with clients to increase profit-ability, he managed a sales team domi-nated by aggression. As Orgnot pointsout, incivility can affect your com-pany's customer service. The NationalInstitute for Occupational Safety andHealth (NIOSH) found, for example,that 11 percent of the time bullies atwork bully customers. The Civility pollfound nearly 7 in 10 Americans saythey've stopped purchasing from a com-pany because of an uncivil interactionwith a company representative.

The bottom line? We are alreadyunder pressure to conserve monetaryresources, and incivility could be hurt-ing your bottom line. Incivility spiralsinto more incivility and allows a nega-tive organizational culture to thrive.This is dangerous because culture is avaluable asset to your success—culturesthat advocate positive employee rela-tionships see quality performance, inno-vation, decreased turnover and absen-teeism, reduced stress and better com-

munication among team members—toname a few of the perks. Don't panicor do anything rash, though. There aresteps you can take to remedy the situ-ation.

Present A Business Case ToDecision-MakersMost C-Levels know intuitively thatpositive workplace relationships are avaluable tool to organizational effec-tiveness, but it may be hard to convincethem to actually address it. If incivilityis flourishing in your department, how-ever, it is imperative that you make abusiness case for eradicating it.

Everything that happens in busi-ness can be quantified, so open a freshspreadsheet and start making some cal-culations. If, for example, you are paid$35 an hour and you spent two hours aday for the last two weeks dealing withemployee relationships or poor custom-er service, the company lost $700. Inpreparing your business case, quantifytime wasted and tangible costs such astraining or a lost customer, then presentyour case to management.

Use Assessments To DetermineThe Extent Df IncivilityOnce decision-makers are on board, itmight be wise to spend some time deter-mining how pervasive incivility is with-in your organization so you can developappropriate action plans. Rememberingthat incivility is generally related to anorganization's culture, it would be wiseto take steps to address the problemsystemically.

One tool you might use in thisendeavor is a 360-degree assessment.Most organizations use a top-downapproach to feedback, which meansmanagers deliver performance evalua-tions to their subordinates who, in turn,deliver evaluations to their subordinatesand so forth. But 360-degree assess-ments provide the ability to obtainmuch richer information.

"What you really want to createis a feedback-rich environment," saysKathryn Rippy, Principal of MiglioreConsulting, a leadership and organi-zational development firm. "Three

28 OfficePRO JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2012

hundred-sixty degree assessments canbe utilized to ensure various perspec-tives are 'heard' about an individual'sperformance in relation to the overallculture and goals of the organization."These assessments "allow employeesto hear perspectives from differentindividuals they deal with on a dailybasis. Understanding the impact theirbehavior has on others increases theirability to make corrections and interactin a way that contributes to a more civilworkplace."

Personality tests might be anotheroption, according to Orgnot. "I broughtthe team in for a day and administereda personality test which helped medetermine the leaders of this aggres-sive culture and who was simply actingthis way to fit in. Then I told the lead-ers to find somewhere else to work.Complaints were significantly reduced,and we began to have a more balancedoffice. Most importantly, when anaggressive type slipped through thecracks, they found themselves isolated."

Provide Communication SkillsTrainingA strong business case will likely allowyou to gain permission to bring on acommunication skills expert who canprovide training in effective communi-cation skills. Also consider offering anentire training program around civility.An ongoing program that occurs overtime will have a much greater impactthan a one-time class. Include topicssuch as resilience, conflict manage-ment, positive thinking, assertiveness,empathy, gratitude, compassion andforgiveness.

If your training budget is tight,you could even recommend that eachdepartment choose one of these topicsand work together to create a course fordelivery to the rest of the company.

If none of this is an option, at thevery least request that civility be includ-ed in your already-existing harassmenttraining.

Be Open About OrganizationalChanges111 this post-recession time, organiza-

tions are still making changes to workteams, closing down worksites, or liq-uidating some of the company assets inorder to stay afloat. All this uncertaintymakes people aggressive, and beingopen about those changes can make a

Incivilityspirals into

more incivilityand allowsa negative

organizationalculture to

thrive^

world of difference."Rumor mills about impending

changes can cause incivility, aggres-sion, and low employee morale becausechange makes employees feel unsureall cf the time," according to LindaKonstan, President of Sensible HumanResources Consulting, LLC. "Set up a'rumor mill' page on your Intranet thatwould allow employees to anonymouslylist the latest rumor they've heard. Itgives the management team a chance toaddress that rumor before it gets out ofhand."

As a manager, it is important thatyou remain as transparent about changeas you can. It isn't always possible toshare everything you know, but demon-strating to your employees that you aredoing your best to be open will allowthem to relax a little.

Be Open About Your Campaign ForA Civil Work EnvironmentAgain, change requires transparency.Carol Albright, executive assistant fora staffing firm, started a quarter jar forher office. "The large jar in the middle

of the room reminded everyone to stayon their best behavior, and it also gaveeveryone permission and confidenceto call each other out. When someonewas rude, they had to put a quarter in.Incivility will probably never go away,but the fact that we can talk about itopenly makes life much easier."

When nasty e-mails began flyingaround at a nonprofit organization,Michelle Mathis, a human resourcesassistant, decided to hold a companymeeting. "We essentially gave the entirecompany a verbal warning about appro-priate e-mail communication so thenext time any person sent one we couldcome down on them pretty hard. Themeeting also showed employees we werepaying attention to interoffice commu-nication, and that we had a no tolerancepolicy for disrespectful behavior."

Ultimately, you can't advocate forchange if you're not walking the walk.Albright knew she couldn't hold peopleaccountable for poor behavior if shewasn't engaging in positive workplacebehaviors herself.

On a final note, even if you don'thave access to your company's decision-makers, or the ability to serve as a cata-lyst for a change in your organization'sculture, know that you do have thepower to change the culture within yourown department. Using 360-degreeassessments, being open about yourvision for a civil department, beingopen about organizational changes asbest you can, demonstrating respectfulworkplace behaviors—and acknowl-edging and rewarding employees whoare civil—will allow you to push yourdepartment and your organizationtowards a culture of civilitv.

About the author:

Catherine M. Mattice, MA is the president of Civility

Partners, LLC (www.CivJlityPartners.com), a

training and consulting firm specializing in devel-

oping systemic solutions for eliminating negative

workplace behaviors. Mattice has appeared as an

expert in USA Today, Inc Magazine, MSNBC, and on

FOX, NBC, and ABC news, as well as published in a

variety of business trade magazines. In addition,

Mattice is an adjunct at National University and

Southwestern College.

OfficePRO 29

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