The Burnout Challenge by Christina Maslach

Author:Christina Maslach
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard University Press

Managing Workplace Civility

A positive social culture isn’t the outcome of good intentions and cheerful slogans, any more than posting notices on walls proclaiming work spaces to be respectful will suffice to change behavior. Neither is there a shred of evidence in most organizations that require employees to take online training that completed modules on civility have any impact. When workplaces emphasize such tactics the result is often cynicism, as workers conclude that their employer’s sole interest is in limiting exposure to legal liabilities: having “trained” the staff, they absolve themselves of responsibility for workplace dysfunction. To the extent that is true, leadership is abdicating responsibility for a key dimension of work-life. In addition to the immediate distress it causes, incivility can lead to lasting employee bitterness and distrust, and cause more workers to slide into the disengaged or burnout profiles.

For most employees, their direct supervisor functions as their point of contact with management. What happens in those encounters puts to the test how aligned an organization’s espoused values are with its values in action.2 For management those encounters are the channel through which people reveal if they are actively engaged with the workplace. These encounters have some performative qualities. Managers often receive training on supervisory communication upon which they may draw, and employees often guard their words and actions when encountering authority figures. But with experience, people gain a certain proficiency in seeing through artifice. It is possible to see beyond words to see what really matters in the workplace and to weigh this perspective against official value statements.

First-line managers have a central and ongoing role in the matches or mismatches that employees develop with their work. These supervisory relationships have the capacity to either alleviate or aggravate employees’ susceptibility to experiencing burnout. Supervisors, in addition to their role in determining employees’ workloads, serve a symbolic role in modeling behavior. Employees are quick to notice, for example, whether their bosses take time off or regularly work excessive hours. Social exchanges provide an important medium through which this influence occurs. In one study, for example, employees reported more incivility from supervisors who were experiencing burnout.3 In another, employees reported greater feelings of efficacy from supervisors who were highly engaged in their work.4 Still another piece of research showed that the quality of social exchanges between supervisors and employees boosted the extent to which employees’ level of depersonalization modeled supervisors’ level of depersonalization.5

Encounters among colleagues also convey information about the workplace culture and often prompt reciprocity. Other things being equal, people respond to respect with respect, and to disrespect with disrespect. In our research, we have found that worker incivility correlates more strongly with coworker incivility than with supervisor incivility.6 By responding in kind to colleagues, people actively participate in the workplace culture. Although incivility among colleagues undermines trust and cooperation, giving back what you get affirms membership in the group.

Based on the survey data, we found interesting correlations between civility and the aforementioned profiles. The figure below roughly indicates the frequency of civil and uncivil exchanges experienced by people in each profile group.

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