Rude Color Glasses: The Contaminating Effects of Witnessed Morning Rudeness on Perceptions and Behaviors Throughout the Workday

Using an experimental experience sampling design, we investigate how witnessing morning rudeness influences workers' subsequent perceptions and behaviors throughout the workday. We posit that a single exposure to rudeness in the morning can contaminate employees' perceptions of subsequent...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of applied psychology 2017-12, Vol.102 (12), p.1658-1672
Main Authors: Woolum, Andrew, Foulk, Trevor, Lanaj, Klodiana, Erez, Amir
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Avoidance
Avoidance behavior
Behavior
Ecological momentary assessment
Employee Attitudes
Employee Characteristics
Employee Interaction
Employees
Female
Goals
Human
Job Performance
Male
Perceptions
Rudeness
Sampling
Self-Evaluation
Social Influences
Social interaction
Task
Task performance
Witnesses
Work ethic
Workplaces
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Summary:Using an experimental experience sampling design, we investigate how witnessing morning rudeness influences workers' subsequent perceptions and behaviors throughout the workday. We posit that a single exposure to rudeness in the morning can contaminate employees' perceptions of subsequent social interactions leading them to perceive greater workplace rudeness throughout their workday. We expect that these contaminated perceptions will have important ramifications for employees' work behaviors. In a 10-day study of 81 professional and managerial employees, we find that witnessed morning rudeness leads to greater perceptions of workplace rudeness throughout the workday and that those perceptions, in turn, predict lower task performance and goal progress and greater interaction avoidance and psychological withdrawal. We also find that the contaminating effect of morning rudeness depends on core self-evaluations (CSE)-employees high (vs. low) in CSE are affected less by exposure to morning rudeness. We discuss implications for practice and theory.
ISSN:0021-9010
1939-1854
DOI:10.1037/apl0000247