Comments on: A**holes and Absenteeism http://www.workforceinstitute.org/blog/aholes-and-absenteeism/ The Workforce Institute Helps Empower Organizations to Address Human Capital Management Issues Tue, 07 Feb 2012 19:38:16 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Steve Hunt http://www.workforceinstitute.org/blog/aholes-and-absenteeism/comment-page-1/#comment-300 Steve Hunt Sat, 21 Jun 2008 02:23:51 +0000 http://www.workforceinstitute.org/?p=209#comment-300 Nina, Thanks for the questions. Yes I do think companies can do things to minimize bullying behavior. Bob Sutton talks about this at some length in his book. The key is for companies to focus on what things will drive performance over the long-term, and not just over the next quarter. It is true that leadership behaviors that drive short term financial results are not always the same as the behaviors that drive long-term employee engagement and sustainable profitability. That is probably the essence of this issue: are you in it for the short-term or the long-term? This same question applies both to business leaders and stockholders. Steve Nina,

Thanks for the questions. Yes I do think companies can do things to minimize bullying behavior. Bob Sutton talks about this at some length in his book. The key is for companies to focus on what things will drive performance over the long-term, and not just over the next quarter. It is true that leadership behaviors that drive short term financial results are not always the same as the behaviors that drive long-term employee engagement and sustainable profitability. That is probably the essence of this issue: are you in it for the short-term or the long-term? This same question applies both to business leaders and stockholders.

Steve

]]> By: Nina http://www.workforceinstitute.org/blog/aholes-and-absenteeism/comment-page-1/#comment-297 Nina Fri, 20 Jun 2008 21:37:52 +0000 http://www.workforceinstitute.org/?p=209#comment-297 Interesting post and podcast. I was amazed at how much info is on the web now related to this topic. The site http://bullyinginstitute.org/index.html is devoted to it. Steve, do you think that companies can really do anything to minimize bullying behavior,? First of all, unless the behavior is truly egregious, the bully can argue that the behavior was acceptable. Second, do you think that companies want to do what it takes? If they have to balance their need for financial results with their desire to maintain a civil working environment,, I think most companies will go for the results because they feel more beholden to their stockholders than they do to their employees. The quote from the podcast (I'm taking it out of context here) that stuck with me was "if you get results, the rules don't apply to you." Interesting post and podcast. I was amazed at how much info is on the web now related to this topic. The site http://bullyinginstitute.org/index.html is devoted to it.

Steve, do you think that companies can really do anything to minimize bullying behavior,? First of all, unless the behavior is truly egregious, the bully can argue that the behavior was acceptable.

Second, do you think that companies want to do what it takes? If they have to balance their need for financial results with their desire to maintain a civil working environment,, I think most companies will go for the results because they feel more beholden to their stockholders than they do to their employees.
The quote from the podcast (I’m taking it out of context here) that stuck with me was “if you get results, the rules don’t apply to you.”

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