It’s true about apples – but what about teams? Does one bad apple really spoil the lot? Dr. Will Felps, profession at Rotterdam Business School in the Netherlands would say, unequivocally, “YES” based on his research on group dynamics and group performance: How, When and Why Bad Apples Spoil the Barrel1.
His study planted one person an “undercover actor” into 4 person college level teams assigned a task. The study examined the effect of three disruptive behaviors on team performance. The actor followed one of three scripts – at various times playing the part of:
The Jerk – This person is insulting to others and undermines through criticism. When playing this role, the undercover “team member” does not offer any positive options, only toxic comments.
The Slacker – Both verbally and non-verbally, the slacker is clear that they have no desire to be there and have little intention of contributing.
The Depressive/ Pessimist – Makes it clear that they do not want to be there, do not want to do the task and openly doubts the value of the task or the group’s ability to successfully complete the task.
While the roles were different, the results were the same. Having a bad apple on a team negatively impacted the team’s performance by 30-40%. As if that is not concerning enough, others on the team began to take on the “bad apple” behavior and persona. When a jerk was on the team, insults began to fly from everyone. When there was a slacker, soon others began to disengage. With a depressive/pessimist on the team – others became negative as well.
This American Life, a Public Radio International program, interviewed Dr. Felps about the study – and the 14 minute audio is worth your time if you are either leading or part of a team. You can listen to it here.
What’s a group to do if they are burdened with a Bad Apple? Interestingly, Dr. Phelps found one group that was an exception. In this group, the leader did something differently and as a result, team performance did not decline. Our next blog post will share what that is.
In the meantime, what actions do you recommend a leader take when there is a bad apple on the team?
1 Citation: Felps, W., Mitchell, T. R., & Byington, E. 2006. How, when, and why bad apples spoil the barrel: Negative group members and dysfunctional groups. Research in Organizational Behavior, Volume 27: 181–230.
2 Responses
You know, I have this thing about cliff hangers. Is there only one right answer? I have tended to take different actions depending on which if the three behaviors were being exhibited. Might I be wrong and there is one right answer?
In my leadership keynotes and workshops I stress the importance of how we show up as leaders – how we behave with those looking to us for leadership. It’s no different on teams – we affect one another profoundly and bad actors have a bad affect on others and, ultimately, the outcomes we see. Odd, that we all know this but it takes a study and a new book to remind us and to make us sit up and take notice. So much is like that – we human beings need to be reminded, especially when there are so many distractors vying for our attention.
I just tweeted:
Grt #leadership requires that you remove those who don’t fit-they dispirit your best people. Read Kris Taylor’s report http://bit.ly/NDuu8i
You’re doing something valuable and important and I hope my tweet brings more eyeballs to your message.