Professor publishes book about workplace revenge

Posted by Ross Arrowsmith on Friday, January 23rd 2009 under Workplace Violence Resources

When most people think of workplace revenge, they imagine people with evil master plans.

But that is not the case, said Tom Tripp, a WSU Vancouver professor in management and operations, in his new book, “Getting Even: The Truth About Workplace Revenge – And How to Stop It.” The book, which is on sale online and will reach bookstores in the near future, focuses on how and why people commit acts of workplace revenge.

“It is not violent acts, or workers going postal like most people think,” Tripp said. “It is usually not violence. It is very mundane acts, like bad-mouthing other workers, quitting speaking, quitting work without notice, deliberately doing a poor job or working more slowly.” If workers believe their reputation has been attacked, they will work twice as hard to prove they are good at their job, he said.

Tripp and his co-author, Georgetown University professor Robert Bies, have been working in this area of research for 15 years, Tripp said.

They started with the topic of workplace fairness. Their focus then moved to how the workers handled it when they recognized unfairness at work, he said.

“When someone perceives something unfair, we wanted to see what they would do about it,” Tripp said. “They get even, but we more deeply approached the particular response.” The research began as a collection of stories of workplace revenge, Tripp said. They collected more than 800 stories from 500 people.

“We asked them different questions, but we were looking for patterns,” he said.

Tripp and Bies then moved on to more statistically measurable things such as experiments.

The book is not intended for professors, but for “regular people,” Tripp said. He said the target would be people at work, specifically management and people involved in human resources, but also for workers who have dealt with workplace revenge or considered it themselves.

“It is for anyone who has had a conflict at work,” Tripp said, “which is just about everybody.” These regular people are the ones committing the workplace revenge, he said.

“With getting even at work, people think the acts are only done by crazy, out-of-control employees,” he said. “It is actually normal, sane employees that have perceived an injustice at work. Workplace revenge is about justice.” He said personality can play a role in workplace violence.

“When predicting who is going to get even, there are a couple of traits, but they tend to pale in comparison to situational factors,” he said. “They are the stronger predictors. It is people with whom the managers do not act that have the power to get away with it.”