Dysfunctional Behaviors in the Workplace and Their Effect on Work Relationships

Dysfunctional Behaviors in the Workplace and Their Effect on Work Relationships
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Introduction
Dysfunctional workplace relationships are workplace behaviours that dampen employees' morale and the general performance of the organization. It violates the norms, culture, and policies of an organization, making the work environment toxic. Several studies and research have been undertaken and reveal that dysfunctional relationships such as sexual harassment, bullying, arrogance, and lying are rising. These behaviours negatively affect the organization through increased job-related stress, dissatisfaction, declined productivity and high employee turnover, leading to instability of tenure and damage to a firm's brand (Balthazard et al., 2006 pg 710). Moreover, the dysfunctional work relationships affect the employee's professional and personal well-being, which can eventually drive them to depression or low self-esteem and derail them from their career path.
Bullying is a form of behavioural dysfunction and refers to the act of mistreating a co-worker or colleague. Workplace bullying includes intimidation, mockery, sexual harassment, and forcing colleagues to do things against their wishes. These behaviours take the form of yelling, teasing, inappropriate touch and preventing employees from raising their voices against vices that take place in corporate corridors (Ramzy et al. 2018., pg 225). The social cognitive theory (SCT) of psychology focuses on how humans pick bullying habits from environmental and personal factors (Brotheridge, C.M., 2013). As per this theory, if some managers or co-workers realize that bullying others will result in positive results or rewards, they will most likely sustain that behaviour. Bullying at the workplace may also increase as employees who've seen others engage in it lessen their inhibitions against it, a process called sublimation. If not controlled, bullying might become deeply ingrained in the organization's culture because top management and HR choose not to take action against it. This aggressive behaviour towards others can severely coordinate tasks, deter teamwork and lead to cat-and-mouse games in the office as employees try to avoid workplace bullies.
Passive-aggressive behaviour is also a form of dysfunctional workplace relationships. It occurs when an employee or group of employees have negative feelings about a particular aspect of their work or other employees. Still, they do not communicate it directly or openly. They instead choose to use subtle or passive means to express their feelings. Proponents of trait and type personality approaches suggest that individuals' personalities comprise different traits whereby some behaviour types can be discrete and others continuous. Passive-aggressive behaviour of a person, for example, might be a habit they have continuously exhibited over their lifetime or a discrete reactive behaviour that they adopt in certain circumstances at work or any other place. This behaviour can lead to blame-games, confusion, hatred and other interpersonal issues in the workplace, thus putting organizational goals on the line.
Suppression of free-will and employees' initiatives by their supervisors might prevent them from achieving their full potential at work. The humanistic psychology theories suggest that human beings are continually striving to make their lives better by reaching their full potential. When employees fail to make career progress due to their supervisors' sabotage, they become disgruntled and lack the motivation to keep working. This negative impact on their morale causes pain and suffering and may not work well due to mental and traumatizing experiences (Burn, 2019). Additionally, the feeling of suppression can arise from hostile and unfavourable working physical environments that affect an employee's health wear down productivity, making it hard to achieve.
Violent resistance to organizational change is any act where employees violently oppose proposed changes by engaging in behaviours that can hurt others or damage property. Violence can be in the form of assault, abuse, or aggressive attitude in the workplace, ranging from abuse and assault to murder, injuries, and physical fights (Ramzy et al., 2018 pg 225). Violence is criminal behaviour that may compromise employees' security in the organization. According to the behaviourist theory, human behaviour, such as violent actions, is learned and can be unlearned. Some line and human resources managers often possess such behaviours. They lack ambitions and find it hard to control their tempers, thus engaging in such violent actions against their juniors (Wortley et al., 2008).
Violence while resisting change can directly affect both the victims and witnesses due to fear of experiencing the same in the future. It can damage the workforce's emotional well-being due to the injuries sustained, affecting their health conditions as an employee may sustain permanent injuries or even death. The overall effect of violent resistance to change is that it m...