If a light bulb blows, and you replace it, only to have the new light bulb blow, and then the next, you likely have a loose connection. Blaming the bulbs and continuously replacing them would be futile.
Unfortunately, when it comes to people, rather than try to determine the cause of deviant, or bad, behaviour – that is, why the light bulbs are blowing – leaders often choose to replace or punish the individuals. Yet, just like a light bulb needs an effective system to shine, so too do people.
Let’s face it: if treated well, people rarely act out. But if treated badly, they feel a need to vent that frustration or seek revenge. When there is high stress, an inability to negotiate workload, lack of communication, ambiguity, and/or perceived discrimination, a psychological imbalance arises in the follower. To bring balance back to the relationship, to make things fair, they engage in deviant behaviour. This can include anything from constant tardiness, to unexplained absences, gossip, bickering, theft, and deliberate underperformance.
Far too often we take a linear approach to personnel management. We see less-than-ideal behaviour and reprimand the individual accordingly. However, doing so is only addressing the symptoms, rather than the cause. Performance, whether positive or negative, emerges depending on environmental factors. It is always driven by something.
Let’s say you go grab lunch with a fellow warrior, and they pay.
Next time you go out for lunch, do you feel it is your turn to pay? Why is this?
Sociologists refer to such quid pro quo behaviour as the ‘social norm of reciprocity‘. But this isn’t restricted to only positive behaviour. In the work place, if followers perceive their leaders or organisation as having treated them badly, they feel a need to reciprocate. Followers often blame their leaders for stress, and deviation from expected behavioural norms is a means to even the score. Whether the behaviour is anti-social, counter-productive, or political, it serves as an outlet to express anger and disappointment, with the overarching intent, being to cause hurt back. This revenge behaviour is subconsciously justified and a means through which the individual attempts to feel less bad. The overall goal of deviant behaviour is to set right what one feels is wrong. “You did wrong by me, so I must do wrong by you“. Psychologically, balance is returned.
If, warrior, you have followers that are engaging in deviant or unsatisfactory behaviour, it is safe to say, they are not happy campers.
So, what do you do?
In the first instance, The Guild suggests you shout the individual a coffee and have an informal chat. Try to find out how they feel about the work and what factors could be impacting their performance. (Noting, the social norm of reciprocity is just one explanation for deviant behaviour, not the sole explanation). However, as the adage goes: prevention is always better than cure.
Leaders who nurture, empower, and encourage followers, and who take the time to invest in their growth and development, will see less deviant behaviour.
If followers feel heard, feel cared for, empowered and supported; there is positive interaction amongst team members; and work promotes mastery and growth, the negative effects leading to deviant behaviour are buffered. Why? Because supportive behaviour creates a sense of obligation in followers to return the behaviour. The social norm of reciprocity playing out again. If you support me, I’ll support you. To put it another way, the main reason for less deviant behaviour when provided support and care is because there is less ability to justify underperformance.
So, forget the old carrot and stick – if you are in a leadership position and you want to drive high performance, you need to provide support. Support that is informational, instrumental, and emotional. You also need to foster follower self-esteem, provide reassurance, and ensure your followers have the necessary skills and resources. Moreover, take the time listen. Often, this is the first step to seeing performance improve.
The Warrior-Womxn's Guild 