Toxic Employees--Downturn or Not

This is the 5th and final in a series of posts based on the April 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review. This post is a review of the article entitled: How Toxic Colleagues Corrode Performance (by Christine Porath and Christine Pearson)

This article is more of a sidebar about the effect of uncivil and noxious employees on a business enterprise. The actions of such bad apples could be a bullying CEO, a bad-attitude employee or a mean spirited bad actor or conniving jerk. The effect on anyone who is a target of these bad actors, is the feeling of frustration, anger or even vengeance. Here are just a few of the 7 effects listed by the authors:

1. 66% said that their performance declined.

2. 48% decreased their work effort.

3. 78% said their commitment to the organization declined.

Heady wine. Read all the stats for a fuller picture of the impact of even one bad apple.

Also in the April Issue:

--A great interview of Doris Kearns Goodwin on the Leadership of Lincoln.
--Understanding your Google strategy.
--When internal collaboration can actually hurt you.
--Predicting you competitor’s response to your actions.
--And much more. Get your copy today…