How leaders perceive employee deviance: Blaming victims while excusing favorites

Area of Science:

• Organizational Behavior
• Social Psychology
• Workplace Dynamics

Background:

• Attribution and perception theories inform our understanding of workplace evaluations.
• Rudeness in the workplace can significantly impact employee perceptions and leader judgments.
• Existing research often overlooks the nuanced evaluations of both victims and perpetrators of workplace incivility.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate how leaders evaluate employees who are victims of rudeness.
• To examine the conditions under which rude employees are evaluated less negatively.
• To explore the moderating roles of leader-member exchange and performance in the perception of workplace rudeness.

Main Methods:

• Four studies were conducted, employing diverse methodologies including leader-follower surveys, dyadic interaction analysis, and policy-capturing designs.
• Study 1 involved 372 leader-follower pairs.
• Studies 2-4 utilized employee roster data from 149 employees across 5 restaurant locations and evaluations of fictitious employees.

Main Results:

• Leaders inappropriately evaluated employees who were victims of rudeness as interpersonally deviant.
• Rude employees were evaluated negatively, but this effect was mitigated by high leader-member exchange (LMX) or high performance.
• Perceptions of deviance were less likely for rude employees with strong leader relationships or high performance.

Conclusions:

• Victims of workplace rudeness may face biased negative evaluations from leaders.
• Leader-member exchange and employee performance can buffer the negative impact of an employee's own rude behavior on leader evaluations.
• These findings highlight the complex interplay of perception, attribution, and relationship dynamics in workplace conduct evaluations.