–Written by Mitch Jackson
Have you ever felt that your workplace was an unbearable place, filled with stress, emotional tension and anger? You may have been working in what is commonly referred to as a toxic work environment.
Ashley McCulloch, who will be graduating in February with a PhD in Psychology from Carleton, recently conducted research on these environments.
Specifically, McCulloch looked at toxic environments as a systemic organizational issue.
McCulloch worked in the areas of change management and leadership assessment before starting her PhD in Organizational Psychology at Carleton.
The motivation for McCulloch to pursue this topic came from her own, as well as colleagues’ experiences in work environments that they felt were toxic.
“I noticed the experience (of workplace toxicity) was not universal to all work group members, but it was also clear that it was not simply an individual problem,” said McCulloch.
McCulloch found that the strongest predictors of toxicity were related to workplace management.
McCulloch also found that management’s lack of involvement of workers in decisions that affect them had a stronger effect on workers’ assessments of toxicity than did abusive supervision.
“This emphasizes that despite the popular figure of a malicious leader in workplace toxicity descriptions, to be malicious is not a leader’s only role in a toxic work environment, and in fact might not even be its most impactful one,” said McCulloch.
“It seems a leader’s most significant role in the big picture of workplace toxicity may be as seemingly benign as allowing it to happen.”
In a rating of non-toxic to toxic work environments, McCulloch found that when participants’ ratings of toxicity increased, there was greater evidence of division between workers and management.
At the same time, other workplace conditions deteriorated as well.
McCulloch found that in very nontoxic work environments, there was respect, constructive communication between management and employees, and issues were dealt with quickly.
In very toxic work environments, there was abuse, difficult conditions of work, and issues were left to fester instead of being resolved or addressed.
McCulloch noted that the PhD program gave her the supportiveness to pursue her research on this particular topic.
“It was not a highly researched topic but was of great interest to me,” said McCulloch.
McCulloch is currently working in conflict management, conducting workplace assessments and investigations.
Individuals that find themselves in toxic work environments should seek resources within their organization to have their concerns addressed, for example, the Human Resources department.
“Ultimately, for those experiencing a toxic work environment, it is important to prioritize and protect one’s well-being and if one finds themselves without the resources to do so,” said McCulloch.
“One should consider whether they truly are “stuck” and try to find ways to get “unstuck” and get out of the harmful work environment.”
Thursday, December 15, 2016 in Grad Student Research, News
Share: Twitter, Facebook
