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by Catherine M. Mattice, MA

3. munication among team members—to
name a few of the perks. Don't panic
or do anything rash, though. There are
steps you can take to remedy the situation.
Incivility at work is on the rise. After
presenting her research at the recent
American Psychological Association
annual convention, researcher Jeannie
Trudel of Indiana Wesleyan UniversityMarion told USA Today that "Seventyfive percent to 80 percent of people have
experienced incivility." Trudel's coauthor, Paul Fairlie, added, "White collar work is becoming a little more blue
collar. There's higher work demands,
longer hours... A lot of people are
working much harder. They've got fluid
job descriptions and less role clarity. So
for some people... work is becoming
more toxic."
The Civility in America 2011 poll
found similar results and reported
that 86 percent of Americans are mistreated at work, 38 percent believe
the workplace is becoming more and
more disrespectful, and 59 percent
admit to being uncivil to co-workers.
CareerBuilder.com also released a
report earlier this year claiming that
their survey of over 5,600 American
workers revealed 25 percent of
Americans are bullied at work. That
survey follows 25 years of academic
research that continuously points to
bullying as a pervasive issue in the
workplace.
Incivility and aggression at work is
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costly. Performance, productivity, company loyalty, time at work, communication, teamwork and job satisfaction all
decrease as a result of employees feeling
unhappy with the work environment
and angry at each other.
Before Obi Orgnot was the CEO
of OrgNot Ltd., a consulting firm that
works with clients to increase profitability, he managed a sales team dominated by aggression. As Orgnot points
out, incivility can affect your company's customer service. The National
Institute for Occupational Safety and
Health (NIOSH) found, for example,
that 11 percent of the time bullies at
work bully customers. The Civility poll
found nearly 7 in 10 Americans say
they've stopped purchasing from a company because of an uncivil interaction
with a company representative.
The bottom line? We are already
under pressure to conserve monetary
resources, and incivility could be hurting your bottom line. Incivility spirals
into more incivility and allows a negative organizational culture to thrive.
This is dangerous because culture is a
valuable asset to your success—cultures
that advocate positive employee relationships see quality performance, innovation, decreased turnover and absenteeism, reduced stress and better com-
Present A Business Case To
Decision-Makers
Most C-Levels know intuitively that
positive workplace relationships are a
valuable tool to organizational effectiveness, but it may be hard to convince
them to actually address it. If incivility
is flourishing in your department, however, it is imperative that you make a
business case for eradicating it.
Everything that happens in business can be quantified, so open a fresh
spreadsheet and start making some calculations. If, for example, you are paid
$35 an hour and you spent two hours a
day for the last two weeks dealing with
employee relationships or poor customer service, the company lost $700. In
preparing your business case, quantify
time wasted and tangible costs such as
training or a lost customer, then present
your case to management.
Use Assessments To Determine
The Extent Df Incivility
Once decision-makers are on board, it
might be wise to spend some time determining how pervasive incivility is within your organization so you can develop
appropriate action plans. Remembering
that incivility is generally related to an
organization's culture, it would be wise
to take steps to address the problem
systemically.
One tool you might use in this
endeavor is a 360-degree assessment.
Most organizations use a top-down
approach to feedback, which means
managers deliver performance evaluations to their subordinates who, in turn,
deliver evaluations to their subordinates
and so forth. But 360-degree assessments provide the ability to obtain
much richer information.
"What you really want to create
is a feedback-rich environment," says
Kathryn Rippy, Principal of Migliore
Consulting, a leadership and organizational development firm. "Three

4. hundred-sixty degree assessments can
be utilized to ensure various perspectives are 'heard' about an individual's
performance in relation to the overall
culture and goals of the organization."
These assessments "allow employees
to hear perspectives from different
individuals they deal with on a daily
basis. Understanding the impact their
behavior has on others increases their
ability to make corrections and interact
in a way that contributes to a more civil
workplace."
Personality tests might be another
option, according to Orgnot. "I brought
the team in for a day and administered
a personality test which helped me
determine the leaders of this aggressive culture and who was simply acting
this way to fit in. Then I told the leaders to find somewhere else to work.
Complaints were significantly reduced,
and we began to have a more balanced
office. Most importantly, when an
aggressive type slipped through the
cracks, they found themselves isolated."
Provide Communication Skills
Training
A strong business case will likely allow
you to gain permission to bring on a
communication skills expert who can
provide training in effective communication skills. Also consider offering an
entire training program around civility.
An ongoing program that occurs over
time will have a much greater impact
than a one-time class. Include topics
such as resilience, conflict management, positive thinking, assertiveness,
empathy, gratitude, compassion and
forgiveness.
If your training budget is tight,
you could even recommend that each
department choose one of these topics
and work together to create a course for
delivery to the rest of the company.
If none of this is an option, at the
very least request that civility be included in your already-existing harassment
training.
Be Open About Organizational
Changes
11 this post-recession time, organiza1
tions are still making changes to work
teams, closing down worksites, or liquidating some of the company assets in
order to stay afloat. All this uncertainty
makes people aggressive, and being
open about those changes can make a
Incivility
spirals into
more incivility
and allows
a negative
organizational
culture to
thrive^
world of difference.
"Rumor mills about impending
changes can cause incivility, aggression, and low employee morale because
change makes employees feel unsure
all c^f the time," according to Linda
Konstan, President of Sensible Human
Resources Consulting, LLC. "Set up a
'rumor mill' page on your Intranet that
would allow employees to anonymously
list the latest rumor they've heard. It
gives the management team a chance to
address that rumor before it gets out of
hand."
As a manager, it is important that
you remain as transparent about change
as you can. It isn't always possible to
share everything you know, but demonstrating to your employees that you are
doing your best to be open will allow
them to relax a little.
of the room reminded everyone to stay
on their best behavior, and it also gave
everyone permission and confidence
to call each other out. When someone
was rude, they had to put a quarter in.
Incivility will probably never go away,
but the fact that we can talk about it
openly makes life much easier."
When nasty e-mails began flying
around at a nonprofit organization,
Michelle Mathis, a human resources
assistant, decided to hold a company
meeting. "We essentially gave the entire
company a verbal warning about appropriate e-mail communication so the
next time any person sent one we could
come down on them pretty hard. The
meeting also showed employees we were
paying attention to interoffice communication, and that we had a no tolerance
policy for disrespectful behavior."
Ultimately, you can't advocate for
change if you're not walking the walk.
Albright knew she couldn't hold people
accountable for poor behavior if she
wasn't engaging in positive workplace
behaviors herself.
On a final note, even if you don't
have access to your company's decisionmakers, or the ability to serve as a catalyst for a change in your organization's
culture, know that you do have the
power to change the culture within your
own department. Using 360-degree
assessments, being open about your
vision for a civil department, being
open about organizational changes as
best you can, demonstrating respectful
workplace behaviors—and acknowledging and rewarding employees who
are civil—will allow you to push your
department and your organization
towards a culture of civilitv.
About the author:
Catherine M. Mattice, MA is the president of Civility
Partners, LLC (www.CivJlityPartners.com), a
training and consulting firm specializing in devel-
Be Open About Your Campaign For
A Civil Work Environment
Again, change requires transparency.
Carol Albright, executive assistant for
a staffing firm, started a quarter jar for
her office. "The large jar in the middle
oping systemic solutions for eliminating negative
workplace behaviors. Mattice has appeared as an
expert in USA Today, Inc Magazine, MSNBC, and on
FOX, NBC, and ABC news, as well as published in a
variety of business trade magazines. In addition,
Mattice is an adjunct at National University and
Southwestern College.
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