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Health SciTech – One ‘Bad Apple’ Really Can Kill the Company – Jeanna Bryner

Business research now shows that in fact one “bad apple” can in fact “spoil the entire barrel.”¬† Bad apple behavior would include:

  • dodging work;
  • dumping responsibilities on others;
  • persistently pessimistic, irritable, or consistently unhappy; and
  • bullying coworkers.

Bullying can include inappropriate remarks, cursing, pranks, or rude and embarrassing behavior.

“Almost all of us have either had the personal experience of working with someone who displayed bad apple behaviors or had a friend, coworker, or spouse who has shared such stories with us,” Felps and Mitchell wrote in a report of their research detailed in the current issue of Research in Organizational Behavior.

Teams with a “bad apple” will spend an inordinate amount of time, energy, and resources dealing with this issue.¬† They will more then likely have conflict, lack of communication, and cooperation breakdowns resulting in poor performance.¬† Team members may not have the means to over come this issue since they may be dealing with peers.

Management must be aware and take direct steps.¬† They should be careful who they hire and in forming teams.¬† Perhaps more important, when a “bad apple” is discovered they have to get it out of the barrel as quickly as possible.

Technorati Tags: behavior, management

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John Morrison
17 years ago

What happens when it is the management, and I mean at the executive level, that is the bad apple?

Where I am currently there are 2 very bad apples at the VP level. They are mean and abusive. It is compounded by this being a public institution.

I will be departing in a month, but if any of you have tactics that can be used by the little guy to dethrone a bad apple I would like to pass them on to my co-workers.

Cheers,
John