"What you permit, you promote..."

It's been said so many times in so many different ways that I can't really say who said it first.  While searching for the origin of this quote, I came across this version by former Fox News commentator Michelle Malkin once said (although many others have said it):

"What you permit, you promote.  What you allow, you encourage.  What you condone, you own.  What you tolerate, you deserve."  

Regardless of who said it first, or even who is saying it now, it is absolutely true!  Leaders create the culture, and the behaviors that they permit or allow are the ones that they encourage and promote.  I have witnessed firsthand (many times) how one disruptive employee can create stress, anxiety, and dissatisfaction amongst the other members of the team.

I recently came across an article that offers further proof that one disruptive employee can create a vicious cycle that encourages disruptive behavior all around.  Kristoffer Holm, Eva Torkelson, and Martin Backstrom reported their findings in a 2015 article entitled "Models of workplace incivility: The relationships to instigated incivility and negative outcomes".  There's a lot to unpack here, so let's start off defining some of the terms used in this study.

First of all, these investigators defined "workplace incivility" as "...low-intensity deviant behavior with ambiguous intent to harm the target, in violation of workplace norms for mutual respect."  These behaviors generally include rude and/or discourteous behavior (including rude looks, ignoring someone, etc) and generally exclude overt behaviors such as yelling or aggresion.  

It's also important to define "instigated incivility" here.  So second, Holm, Torkelson, and Backstrom suggest that "instigated incivility" occurs when others witness or experience incivility themselves, they in turn are more likely to exhibit incivility to others.  In other words, incivility begets more incivility, creating a viscious cycle of behavior, culminating in the creation of what many call a toxic or hostile work environment.

Holm, Torkelson, and Backstrom studied the Swedish hospitality industry - specifically the restaurant and hotel industry to determine whether (1) witnessed or experienced incivility, from either supervisors or peers, instigated further incivility and (2) whether instigated incivility led to adverse outcomes, such as lower employee engagement and satisfaction or even turnover.  What they found may not be surprising to you (I kind of prepared you for this, right?), but the results are important nonetheless.  Workplace incivility - whether it was witnessed or experienced and regardless of where it came from (supervisor or fellow employees) - leads to instigated incivility, lower employee engagement, and employee turnover!

So, at least according to this study, poor behavior in the workplace inspires and instigates further poor behavior in the workplace!  As long as leaders tolerate this behavior, they are directly responsible for promoting the spread of this poor behavior.  In other words, you absolutely promote what you permit!