Todd in accounting has made a mistake. He’s done this before, and you keep pointing it out, but it Just. Keeps. Happening. So now you face that age-old question; do you say something or stay quiet?
Some studies suggest workers should let it go, but a new study co-authored by Semin Park, a workplace conflict expert at the University of Iowa, looks at circumstances when a worker is more apt to find success by speaking up and expressing disagreement.
The researchers conducted a pair of studies—one watching videos of emergency responders interacting with each other during training sessions, the other an experiment with employees from a wide variety of industries, including IT, education, finance, manufacturing, construction, and retail.
From those interactions, they’ve found that it’s most effective to say something…
When the person is on your own work team. The study showed team members are more willing to listen to someone on their own team. People from other teams can more easily be ignored without damaging a person’s own performance. The more siloed the workplace, the truer this is.
When you can be specific. People are more apt to listen to others who offer specific information about a conflict instead of just a vague comment with little detail. And no, rolling your eyes doesn’t count as specific information and will likely make it worse.
If you think you can settle the issue by bringing it up just once or twice. If you have to keep bringing it up over and over again, then you become the squeaky wheel, and the study found that contrary to popular belief, the squeaky wheel does not get the grease. It gets ignored. (PB/Newswise)