Anger: The silent killer

Tooling & Production, Oct 1999 by Modic, Stanley J

A disgruntled worker walks into the workplace one day and vents his anger by shooting up the place, killing several associates. It has happened enough to become a serious concern for management's considering dismissing, or even reprimanding, an employee. When it happens, the event captures headlines and the attention of much psychological study. The cost of such episodal anger to the organization, when it explodes in the workplace, is obvious.

Now comes a study indicating that even when workplace anger doesn't explode into overt aggression, as most does not, it'll breed a hostile work environment and eat away at the effectiveness of the organization. Over the long haul, it extracts a higher cost than the occasional eruption of overt aggression.

The study was conducted by Donald Gibson and Sigal Barsade of the Yale School of Management. Gallup pollsters asked 1000 workers, "In general, how angry do you feel at work?"

The result: Almost a quarter of them (23.3%) admitted feeling "at least somewhat angry at work." The study's authors found that such feelings of anger are associated with feelings of betrayal by the organization, a sense that promises are not kept, that there is a lack of respect and dignity shown the respondent, and that the worker and the organization do not share the same values.

Asked what caused them to feel angry, 11% cited the cause as a supervisor's or management's actions; Solo blamed their feelings on incompetent associates and heavy workloads. Other factors cited: dealing with customers (8%); lack of cooperation of others (6%).

The study concluded that, whereas overt anger captures the attention, it's the underground, chronic anger that should be getting more of management's time. It manifests itself in subtle ways, if at all. Angry workers are less likely to put their best efforts into their job; are more apt to be competitive, rather than cooperative, in dealing with their associates; and less likely to tell the boss if they find a better or quicker way to get their job done.

In the words of the authors, such anger translates into sins of omission rather than sins of commission. They are harder to detect and can fester for a long time, eating into the organization's effectiveness. Management would do well to spend less time worrying about the disgruntled worker with the gun and more about the silent killer-that chronic anger lurking on the shopfloor.

By Stanley J Modic Editor-in-Chief