harvard study on toxic employees
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evince
Truthmatters
The study's findings aren't exactly what you might expect.
First, a toxic worker isn't necessarily a lazy worker. In fact, they tend to be insanely productive, much more so than the average worker.
Housman, a workplace scientist at an analytics firm, and Minor, a visiting assistant professor at Harvard, explain that this may explain why these workers tend to persist in an organization despite their questionable ethics and morals: "There is a potential trade-off. … They are corrupt, but they excel in work performance." They cited as an example a rogue trader who is making millions. A firm might be tempted to look away when he's found to be overstepping legal boundaries. And then there's this maddening fact: At least one previous study has found that unethical workers actually have longer tenures at companies than ethical ones.
Financial impact
Avoiding a toxic worker generates returns that are estimated to be nearly two-to-one compared to the benefits of hiring a superstar worker. And that doesn’t include potential expenses from things like litigation, regulatory penalties or reduced morale related to such a hire.
Avoiding toxic worker
$12,489
Hiring superstar
$5,303
Source: "Toxic workers" working paper by Michael Housman and Dylan Minor/Harvard Business School
The Washington Post
The second characteristic is a bit more obvious. They tend to have what's known as high "self-regard" and a lower degree of "other-regardingness." Or put more simply, they're selfish. "All things equal, those that are less other-regarding should be more predisposed to toxicity as they do not fully internalize the cost that their behavior imposes on others," the researchers wrote. This characteristic was teased out in the job screening program by asking applicants questions like this one that makes them choose between two statements: "I like to ask about other people's well-being" or "I let the past stay in the past." Selecting the first would give them a higher other-regarding score.
Third, the toxic employee also has an tendency to be overconfident of his or her own abilities — a trait believed to lead to unreasonable risk-taking. "Someone that is overconfident believes the expected payoff from engaging in misconduct is higher than someone who is not overconfident, as they believe the likelihood of the better outcome is higher than it really is," the researchers explained.
Finally, if a person is dead-set on following rules, there may be reason to worry. Even though it seems counterintuitive, Housman and Minor said that those employees who claimed in the questionnaire that rules should always be followed with no exceptions (as opposed to those who said sometimes you have to break rules to do a good job) were the most likely to be terminated for breaking the rules.
First, a toxic worker isn't necessarily a lazy worker. In fact, they tend to be insanely productive, much more so than the average worker.
Housman, a workplace scientist at an analytics firm, and Minor, a visiting assistant professor at Harvard, explain that this may explain why these workers tend to persist in an organization despite their questionable ethics and morals: "There is a potential trade-off. … They are corrupt, but they excel in work performance." They cited as an example a rogue trader who is making millions. A firm might be tempted to look away when he's found to be overstepping legal boundaries. And then there's this maddening fact: At least one previous study has found that unethical workers actually have longer tenures at companies than ethical ones.
Financial impact
Avoiding a toxic worker generates returns that are estimated to be nearly two-to-one compared to the benefits of hiring a superstar worker. And that doesn’t include potential expenses from things like litigation, regulatory penalties or reduced morale related to such a hire.
Avoiding toxic worker
$12,489
Hiring superstar
$5,303
Source: "Toxic workers" working paper by Michael Housman and Dylan Minor/Harvard Business School
The Washington Post
The second characteristic is a bit more obvious. They tend to have what's known as high "self-regard" and a lower degree of "other-regardingness." Or put more simply, they're selfish. "All things equal, those that are less other-regarding should be more predisposed to toxicity as they do not fully internalize the cost that their behavior imposes on others," the researchers wrote. This characteristic was teased out in the job screening program by asking applicants questions like this one that makes them choose between two statements: "I like to ask about other people's well-being" or "I let the past stay in the past." Selecting the first would give them a higher other-regarding score.
Third, the toxic employee also has an tendency to be overconfident of his or her own abilities — a trait believed to lead to unreasonable risk-taking. "Someone that is overconfident believes the expected payoff from engaging in misconduct is higher than someone who is not overconfident, as they believe the likelihood of the better outcome is higher than it really is," the researchers explained.
Finally, if a person is dead-set on following rules, there may be reason to worry. Even though it seems counterintuitive, Housman and Minor said that those employees who claimed in the questionnaire that rules should always be followed with no exceptions (as opposed to those who said sometimes you have to break rules to do a good job) were the most likely to be terminated for breaking the rules.
evince
Truthmatters
They tend to have what's known as high "self-regard" and a lower degree of "other-regardingness." Or put more simply, they're selfish. "All things equal, those that are less other-regarding should be more predisposed to toxicity as they do not fully internalize the cost that their behavior imposes on others
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Practically Perfect
So, selfish workers are more valuable? 