How Social Treatment by Coworkers Impacts Healthcare Workers’ Work Attitudes and Behaviour
With Sandra Robinson
Date: Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Dr. Sandra Robinson has made a career of studying the dark side of human behaviour in organizations. Her studies, which were conducted in a variety of health care and non-health care settings, focus on bullying, aggression and ostracism behaviour and how those behaviours influence co-workers.
One of Sandra’s main conclusions was that negative behaviours by coworkers has a greater influence on workers’ attitudes and behaviours than management behaviours. Co-workers influence each other through the ways they treat each other in their daily interactions at work and whether we recognize it or not, these interactions have a profound effect on our engagement at work and our ability to do our jobs.
Several of Sandra’s studies were with nurses and she found that negative behaviours were low, and comparable to organizations in other industries. She speculated about reasons that nursing has the perception of being high in negative behaviours, which might arise by contrasting the treatment of colleagues with the high level of caring for patients.
Sandra also studied ostracism (social exclusion) compared to bullying. Ostracism undermines our fundamental need to belong to a group and may have more powerful negative consequences in organizations than bullying. Whether they are positive or negative, we all pick up cues and attitudes from our coworkers that have significant influence on our behaviours at work.
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About the Speaker
Sandra Robinson (Ph.D.) is a Distinguished University Scholar, Professor of Organizational Behavior and Human Resources. Prior to joining UBC, she taught at New York University and Northwestern University in Chicago.
Dr. Robinson’s research expertise focuses on the “dark side” of organizational behavior, including research on bullying, aggression, anti-social behavior, territoriality, toxic handlers, trust betrayal and psychological contract breach. Her numerous publications have appeared in many journals, such as the Harvard Business Review, Administrative Science Quarterly, and Academy of Management Journal. In addition, her work has appeared in a wide range of press outlets, from The Economist, to the Wall Street Journal, to the Washington Post. She speaks frequently with the press on topics such as stress in the workplace, workplace aggression, and employment relationship issues. She has been the recipient of numerous awards for her work, such as the Ascendant Scholar Award from the Western Academy of Management and the Cummings Scholar Award from the Academy of Management, for her significant contributions to the field of management. She recently completed her five year service as Chair for the Organizational Behavior Division of Academy of Management, the 18,000 member international organization for management scholars.
For over a decade, Dr. Robinson has been providing management education to undergraduates, MBA students, PhD students and executives on three different continents. She was appointed by the Premier of British Columbia to serve as a commissioner determining the compensation for elected Members’ of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia. She has also provided training and consulting to a wide variety of organizations, ranging from non-profits, such as the Casey Foundation (Seattle), to government, to public service organizations such as the United States Postal Service (Washington, D.C.), to private enterprises, such as Futureshop (Vancouver) and Citibank (New York City).
Event cohosted by CCHL BC Lower Mainland Chapter
Attendance at this program entitles certified Canadian College of Health Leaders members (CHE / Fellow) to 1 MOC Category I credit toward their maintenance of certification requirement.
Paul Gallant, Chapter Executive, CCHL BCLM |
