Almost nothing is more frequently lamented in management circles than “bad attitude” employees, those people it seems nothing can be done with.
It’s true that few workplace dynamics are harder to address than antagonism, apathy and hostility.
But rarely mentioned is the role that sincere and well-meaning leaders can play in creating such “bad attitude” employees.
A friend of ours is an avid and life-long gardener. She is the type of person who, if working as, say, a landscaper, would need only the slightest direction to transform a piece of property into a small corner of paradise.
But suppose you, as her supervisor, decided she needed to be “managed.” Suppose you gave her a single tulip bulb and said, “Take this outside and plant it where the X is marked on the ground. I will come by later to check your work. If it’s satisfactory, I’ll give you another bulb to work on.”
And further suppose that company policy required her to secure written permission to pull any weeds under two inches tall and file a requisition order to use any company spades or rakes.
What would her attitude toward her job be then? Would she wake up excited about doing the kind of work that she has loved since childhood? Or would she dread yet another day at the grindstone?
Hiring the right people for the right job is certainly important. But hiring policies will never be sufficient, in themselves, to guarantee or sustain superior organizational performance.
Why? Because organizations are constantly hiring the “right” people—people well-suited to their positions and capable of making significant contributions in them—and promptly turning them into the “wrong” people.
In the example above, our gardening friend would, unquestionably and without a doubt, be a terrible employee. Filled with resentment, hostility, and indifference, she would not only seem like a bad-attitude employee, she would actually be one.
But while a supervisor would rightly identify her as a problem, he or she would be mistaken in assuming that she walked in the door that way.
Our friend was the world’s most enthusiastic gardener when she was hired. It was only through her leaders’ choices, both in direct supervision and in formulating policies, that her attitude gradually soured.
This example, though clearly fabricated, illustrates how leaders’ choices and actions can negate the commitment and motivation associated with the intrinsic enjoyment of work itself.
Of course not every employee will be in love with his or her job, and alternative sources of motivation will need to be identified in many cases.
And yet reducing workplace endeavor to the lowest common denominator will and managing from that standpoint will create a workplace culture toxic to morale and enthusiasm, and virtually guarantee a steady stream of “bad attitude” employees.