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ABSTRACT
In this study, we examined strategies in use for managing the uncivil behavior of instigators who are high performers (HPIs). Using semi-structured interviews, we spoke with University Department Chairs regarding the productive and the unproductive strategies they used to manage HPIs. The themes that emerged from the data through open coding indicated that the best possible outcome of managing HPIs is not eradication of incivility, but containment and management, using techniques such as paying special attention to the instigator and their work assignments and administering sanctions.
INTRODUCTION
Managing difficult employees is one of the inevitable challenges of leadership in an organizational setting; and one of the inevitable results of managing difficult employees poorly is a loss in productivity (Ketchen & Buckley, 2010). The challenge for leaders, then, is to learn how to manage difficult employees effectively. Ketchen and Buckley (2010) note that not all difficult employees are difficult in the same way, and they enumerate six varieties of difficult employees, among which are bullies and divas. One particular type of difficult employee which has recently received attention is the employee who is actually a high performer, but who continuously damages the morale of everyone around them by instigating incivility (Denton, Campbell, & Johnson, 2009).
Managing these high-performing instigators (HPIs) of incivility is a particular challenge in Academe, which is a unique setting. Due to the virtual guarantee of lifelong employment, linked to the granting of tenure, and the wide latitude of behaviors that can be justified as acceptable under the umbrella of academic freedom; Academia is characterized by a high level of job security for tenured members of the Academy, and an attendant high level of tolerance for the idiosyncratic behaviors that may be engaged in under the aegis of academic freedom. This environment of tolerance can be taken to extremes when it extends to the toleration of workplace incivility, or behavior that is rude, disrespectful, ambiguous in its intent to harm others, and violates the norms of the organization (Andersson & Pearson, 1999). The description of workplace incivility as "pernicious, powerful, problematic, and pervasive" (Sypher, 2004, p. 268) underscores the magnitude of the negative impact that it can have on all parties involved, including the instigator of incivility, the target(s) of...