Chapter Video

Chapter 12: Individual Behavior

MGMT 310: Management Principles & Practices
Schermerhorn, John R. Exploring Management. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley, 2014.

Incivility in the Workplace

A recent survey confirms that workplace rudeness is up and morale is down. The video addresses the question of who is to
blame and some theories point to leadership and the economy. Many are experiencing an increasingly hostile and rude
work environment and some have even admitted to instigating it. According to the survey, much of the hostility at work
comes from stress, which causes people to focus on getting the job done over and above how they treat others.

Jason Dorsey, author of Y-Size Your Business, gives his opinion of the reasons workplace incivility is so prevalent.
Experienced employees feeling the stress of keeping their jobs is a big cause. Says Dorsey: “when you’re in survival mode,
you’re not worried about manners at all.”

The video explores a survey which points to an increasingly rude and hostile work environment and its alleged culprit,
stressed out employees. The video explores the various factors attributing to an increasingly uncivil workplace. Author
Jason Dorsey has conducted research confirming that stress is certainly an influence, bringing on negative and rude
behavior at work. Company culture, a direct reflection of leadership, is another reason. The video illustrates numerous
concepts in the chapter, including perception, attribution, and how personalities influence individual behavior. The video
concludes with ways companies can create a healthier work environment.

1. Why is workplace incivility so prevalent? Who is to blame? Would you attribute perception to some of this bad
behavior?

2. What can leaders do to create a more healthy work environment? Provide examples of how the individual behavior of
leaders can impact company culture.

3. Since they’re afraid of losing their jobs, people tend to become frustrated and attack colleagues rather than go to upper
level management.
(a) True (b) False

4. Workplace incivility or rudeness can be attributed to _________________.

(a) the economy
(b) a company’s leadership
(c) fear of job loss
(d) employees
(e) all of these

5. __________________ is developing explanations or assigning causes for events such as incivility in the workplace.

6. Locus of control is the belief in the amount of control a person has over personal destiny. When workplace incivility is
blamed on the economy, this is an example of a(n) _____________ locus of control.
(a) internal
(b) destiny
(c) economic
(d) external
(e) political

7. Dorsey suggests having a conversation in the workplace to see what _____________ and _____________ look like.

8.
9. To solve workplace incivility, author Jason Dorsey recommends “bringing diversity to the table.” This includes age and
gender.
(a) True (b) False