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Date: WORKPLACE NEGATIVITY Introduction
One employee at the organization sees a problem and goes ahead to mention it to a coworker
who in turn agrees with the former and mentions this concern to a few more people and before
you know it everyone at the workplace is talking about this hot topic. This one of the simple
ways negativity at the workplace can cause very significantly large harm to the company.
Nothing can be compared to the way negativity at the workplace affects employee morale as it
tends to sap the energy of the organization making employees divert their attention and focus
from the company’s core objective and this results into poor performance.
Being a human resource manager or professional makes a person be close with all the employees
in the organization and this allows one to be able to monitor any small changes that may be
leading towards negativity at the workplace (Hazelton, 2014). It makes one be able to see early
warning s that things are not proceeding as planned to because you are in charge of the exit
interviews with those workers leaving the organization so it makes it possible to hear what they
have to say about their remaining coworkers as well as you receive all employee complains.
Negativity can bring a very huge disaster to the organization as it often results into loss of
control, confidence and community. The first step towards trying to solve this issue of negativity
is finding out what the employees are negative about in the first place. As a human resource
professional, talking to the employees will help you make out the exact and height of the
problem your company is facing and to do this it calls for one to point out the exact group of
people who are affected by the negativity going around. WORKPLACE NEGATIVITY Thesis statement
Lack of rewards and recognition, unfair treatment with inconsistency from the employers, and
suppressing employees opinions about the workplace policies and procedures are the main
causes of workplace negativity which tends to diminish most of the employee’s morale. Below
are the three main causes of this negativity discussed in detail.
Causes
Lack of rewards and recognition: Each and every person likes to feel appreciated from time to
time when they do something outstanding. When an employee goes beyond their limits to try and
make their work the best it is all in the benefit of the organization and the least the management
can do is show appreciation for the work done (Singleton, 2012). Simple things such as creating
the “employee of the month” title in which the most outstanding employee is given the token that
month will enable many people to try their best and move out of their comfort zone. If an
employee does an outstanding work and is recognized then all they will talk about are positive
things about the company and this will also be reflected in their performance with the company’s
clients who will be pleased with the services rendered. Rewards are the other factor that may
lead to negativity if not taken care of. An outstanding performance by any employee dictates
that they be rewarded and this may come in different forms for example a fully paid vacation trip
to a chosen designation, this boosts the employee’s morale.
Unfair treatment with inconsistency from the employers is also another main cause of negativity
at the workplace. If there has been a mistake in the organization involving a number of
employees then the consequences are to be faced by all of them. Choosing a number of people to
bear the cross for the whole team is never a good idea from the management team as people will WORKPLACE NEGATIVITY begin to talk about how some of them are always picked on to suffer for the mistakes other
people did. This will mark the beginning of a cold war in the organization which is also referred
to as negativity. As a manager or human resource personnel you should never pick sides within
the employee force as it leads to further division among them rather than solving the problem,
you should be the neutral party in case of a problem and try to negotiate for both teams in a way
that all of them emerge from the situation as winners and not one team feeling like losers as this
will spark up negativity among them.
Suppressing employees’ opinions about the workplace policies and procedures is the other cause
of negativity. Employees’ are the people who work with the company’s policies and procedures
each and every day. So if they have an opinion about this policies it may be valid as they are
experiencing them (Bagga, 2013). Listening to their opinions and tabling the matter to discussion
makes them feel valid in the decision making process of the company and not neglected. This
will make them work better and observe the procedures and polices in place since they are the
ones who had them amended. Shutting their ides down on the other hand bring no good to the
company as they will feel as if they are working under a dictatorship regime. This will cause
resistance and negativity will begin to arise, the effects will be felt in the drop of work and
performance.
Effects
Workplace negativity has major negative effects which include: poor performance among the
employees as there is no team work among them. Team work is the key towards achieving the
organizations goals and losing it will slow down the working process. It creates a productive
environment and people are encouraged to share ideas. Communication loss among the workers WORKPLACE NEGATIVITY is also the other effect posed. Without proper communication at the workplace nothing will work
out as instructions are not passed down the hierarchy level as required.
It also results into loss of creativity among the employees. When the workplace starts to become
more antagonistic to the employees, they tend to begin feeling not to share the ideas they have
with others. When there is no circulation of new ideas the company will not grow. Having a
negative atmosphere around the workplace counteracts the feeling of people being inventive and
innovative.
Tips to minimizing negativity at the workplace
In order to observe efficiency in any organization then this negativity at the workplace needs to
be cured or at least minimized. There are different methods one as a human resource professional
may employ to reduce this negativity and they include.
Always strive to provide opportunities for your employees to make and contribute in the decision
making process and policy making process that directly influence their work in the organization.
As a manager making decision on behalf of other people which are going to directly influence
their work without including them makes your employees feel neglected and the likelihood of
them resisting to implement those decisions is high (Almost & Mildon, 2015). Making them feel
that the decision made was partly from them will make sure that they try and follow it to the later
because they also had a voice in its making.
Try to treat your employees as adults with consistency and fairness in all your decisions. A good
example is that each and every employee has a right to apply for leave time and you as an
employer should grant this wish without discrimination. Also in an event where only a few
people are violating norms, it does not call for you to create rules for everyone, deal with that WORKPLACE NEGATIVITY specific group of people without affecting the rest of the workforce by making them follow some
rules that you came up with while they did not do anything to deserve that treatment. Treating
people as adults makes them behave as adults as well.
It is human nature for people to want to feel like they are part of something bigger than
themselves so providing solid and firm leadership in the organization is one of the ways to make
people respect it. This can be done by providing a strategic framework which includes the vision,
mission, goals and values of the organization (Prabandhan & Shah, 2013). Also provide rewards
and recognition to all employees who have shown outstanding performance to make them feel
that their contribution is valued by the organization.
As an employee also there are ways you can strive to reduce the negativity at your workplace.
They include: Take any complaints you have through proper channels and avoid complaining to
your coworkers. This will not help because they do not have any power to fix the said problem.
Rather, they will just pass the complaint forward to their coworkers making the situation worse.
Conclusion
Workplace negativity can be a serious disease in any organization and fixing it may be the only
way to make sure that the organization moves forward and grows. Finding its causes is the first
step towards solving this problem. And if the above discussed solution are put in place the
workplace environment will be suitable for all people to work, this will reciprocate in the
performance making the organization achieve its goals. WORKPLACE NEGATIVITY REFERENCES
Almost, J., Wolff, A., Mildon, B., Price, S., Godfrey, C., Robinson, S. … Mercado-Mallari, S.
(2015). Positive and negative behaviors in workplace relationships: a scoping review
protocol. BMJ Open, 5(2), e007685.
Bagga, G. (2013). Positive steps to end negativity in the workplace. Human Resource
Management International Digest, 21(6), 28.
Singleton, D. (2012). ENGAGEMENT AND WORKPLACE NEGATIVITY: A SYSTEMATIC
APPROACH TO IMPROVEMENT. Journal of Knowledge & Human Resource
Management, 4(8).
The Attitude Virus: Curing Negativity at the Workplace. Rupa Shah, Pinky Talati Prabandhan:
Indian Journal of Management 2013
Hazelton, S. (2014). Deal with negativity in the workplace. Strategic HR Review, 13(4/5).
doi:10.1108/shr-04-2014-0029
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