The deadly cost of rudeness in the workplace

Teams from the University of Florida, Indiana University, and other universities in the United States and Israel recently conducted five insightful studies on incivility, finding that even mild cases of this behavior can significantly impair employee performance, with potentially life-threatening consequences in critical sectors such as healthcare.

“In many workplaces, incivility is treated as a minor interpersonal problem,” said Amir Erez, Ph.D., W.A. McGriff, III Professor at the University of Florida’s Warrington College of Business. “Our research shows that incivility is a major threat to productivity and even safety. Organizations should treat incivility as such.”

Erez and his colleagues published their results in Journal of Applied Psychologyevaluated teams in various settings (including a medical simulation) and found that team performance was dramatically affected by incivility. Surprisingly, the impact of incivility was disproportionate to its intensity. In one study, relatively mild incivility comments from outsiders accounted for 44% of the variance in medical teams’ performance quality.

The studies also found that incivility poses a social threat and triggers defensive reactions in team members. This causes individuals to become less prosocial and more selfish, hindering the collaboration and coordination necessary for effective teamwork. Specifically, teams exposed to incivility showed reduced information sharing and division of labor, which are two critical components of team performance. In the medical setting, this resulted in poorer delivery of life-saving interventions.

“Our research helps us understand the impact that incivility can have on team dynamics, especially in urgent, tense situations like healthcare,” said Dr. Jake Gale, assistant professor of management at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis. “By understanding how incivility triggers self-centered behavior and impairs communication, we not only advance academic knowledge; we also gain insights that could save lives. It’s a powerful reminder that the way we treat each other has real consequences, especially in critical situations.”

The results show that incivility in the medical field can have deadly effects on patients. However, incivility can also have serious consequences for teams in other industries. Whether the incivility comes from superiors, colleagues, or even customers, it impairs team collaboration and coordination and consistently has a negative impact on team outcomes.

With this in mind, the researchers recommend that organizations implement solutions that help teams prepare to deal with perceived threatening situations, such as rudeness. Training aimed at building team members’ resilience and mindfulness, for example, can better prepare employees to deal with such situations.

“As our understanding of workplace dynamics evolves, our research underscores a crucial point: In the search for high-performing teams, sometimes the smallest courtesies can make the biggest difference,” Erez said.