Rudeness in the workplace causes staff to make more mistakes, even if they are not on the receiving end of it, a psychologist has warned.
According to Professor Rhona Flin at Aberdeen University in a paper published in the British Medical Journal, rudeness, heated discussions and arguments with colleagues all affect personnel’s concentration and impair cognitive skills.
Research undertaken by Flin indicated that students who were insulted by a professor performed worse on memory tests, while other experiments showed that even witnessing discourtesy to other people affected performance.
She added that the problem was a widespread one, with surveys indicating that one in ten workers witness rudeness on a daily basis. Flin cited the example of two airline pilots who overshot a destination airport by 150 miles because they were so distracted by an argument. They later had their licences revoked.
But the issue is of particular concern in healthcare settings, where disagreements between clinical staff are not uncommon. Two thirds of NHS operating staff said that they had been on the receiving end of aggression from nurses and half from surgeons over the last six months.
Flin said: “If incivility does occur in operating theatres and affects workers’ ability to perform tasks, the risks for surgical patients – whose treatment depends on particularly high levels of mental concentration and flawless task execution – could increase.”
Tim Earney, a workplace mediator and founder of consultancy Time Mediation, agreed, pointing out that unmanaged conflict was probably the largest preventable cost to business, but remained one of the least recognised.
“And as the economy starts to recover, there will be less people doing the same amount of work, with job insecurity always looming in the background. This is a breeding group for conflict,” he added.
But HR consultant Coreen Nugent, who set up consultancy Opt for Learning, has published a training resource entitled ‘Recognising and resolving inappropriate workplace behaviour’, which might be able to help.
The book makes several recommendations, which include creating a working environment where concerns can be raised without fear of reprisal. This means ensuring that managers are genuinely committed to having all staff treated with dignity and respect, with such attitudes backed up by up-to-date policies and relevant training and guidance.
The aim here is to make certain that all workers and leaders have a clear and common understanding of their roles and responsibilities as well as what constitutes appropriate workplace behaviour from the induction process onwards.
But managers also need to be equipped with the skills to deal with inappropriate behaviour as soon as possible, which includes training in how to resolve issues informally and how to minimise the disruption caused by a formal resolution process.
Finally, all staff need to be equipped with the skills to raise matters in a non-emotive and depersonalised fashion in order to avoid generalisations and personal attacks.
