Industrial psychology

Office killers

Luc Brunet and André Savoie, professors of the Psychology of Work at Université de Montréal, didn't know what to expect when they went to a school where seven principals had resigned in 10 years due to major depression. The interviews they conducted with staff members left them flabbergasted. “Four teachers had taken over the school,” Luc Brunet recalls. “They had set up a sort of reign of terror. Every time a new principal was appointed, they wanted his head. The bets were on: how much time would he keep the job? The conspirators made sure that the principal was not invited to social activities, they intercepted his mail, wouldn't talk to him, etc.

During their meetings with the Université de Montréal psychologists, some young teachers were visibly nervous. They were terrified by the consequences their statements might have. The four rebel teachers exerted considerable pressure on the rest of the staff. Anyone who came to the principal's defence would be subjected to the same treatment. With the recommendation to introduce a stricter administration, the four teachers fell back in step and things resumed their normal course.

The University psychologists receive more and more requests to deal with this kind of crisis. “Not so long ago, antisocial behaviour was taboo in organizations,” “André Savoie recalls. “Nobody wanted to talk about it. Companies preferred to deal with their dirty laundry in-house.” In 1983, one of the first articles Mr. Brunet submitted to a scientific journal was rejected with the comment that no one was interested.

Today, the phenomenon is right out in the open . Nearly 40 organizations have opened their doors to Luc Brunet and André Savoie in the past decade, including small, medium sized and large corporations, schools and government departments. By conducting interviews and distributing questionnaires in these organizations, the psychologists have turned up a number of antisocial behaviours, such as verbal and sexual harassment, theft, vandalism, and physical violence.

Antisocial behaviour can be defined as any act which is intended to harm an individual or organization. Some employees wilfully fail to convey messages to a colleague. Others start rumours. Still others spend their days using the Internet or telephone for personal purposes, which is detrimental to the company's productivity. According to studies done by Mr. Brunet and Mr. Savoie, no organization is immune to antisocial behaviour, not even religious communities! “Deviance is not necessarily acceptable, but it is human,” Mr. Brunet stresses. “An organization is a microcosm of our society. It reflects the same human relationships and the same tensions.”