YOU’RE NOT FUNNY
CONSIDER THE DILEMMA
You had a sinking feeling in your stomach the moment you discovered that Derek was part of your project group in sociology. Professor Bradley had randomly assigned groups to work on a semester project. Derek and three other classmates—Sylvia, Greg, and Jamie—make up your group. Since the first day of class, Derek has been the typical “funny but annoying guy,” and you’ve been frustrated that Professor Bradley has played off Derek’s humorous comments during lectures.
During your first group meeting in the campus library, Derek immediately starts talking about a Family Guy episode. Jamie and Greg laugh along with Derek, reciting lines from the episode. Since you don’t watch much television, you feel left out and notice that Sylvia is quiet, too.
Deciding to refocus the group to the task, you say, “OK, enough about Family Guy. Who’s had a chance to review the project requirements?” Derek replies, “I didn’t download the assignment. Anyway, did you guys see the episode when Stewie . . .” Unsure of what to do next, you silently review the class assignment while making some notes. Sylvia is now preoccupied with looking over the assignment, too.
After several more minutes, you make up an excuse to interrupt the Family Guy conversation by telling the group you have to leave for an appointment. As you get up, you ask, “Is everyone OK with meeting here at the same time on Thursday?” When they all nod in agreement, you continue, “Great. Then let’s read the assignment requirements, and come with project ideas to talk about then. See you later.”
Driving home, you are fuming, and worry about the potential effects of Derek’s comedic behavior on the group’s performance. You give serious thought to asking Professor Bradley to move you to another group.
CONNECT THE RESEARCH
One exciting aspect of working in groups is encountering others with different personalities and life experiences. But some communication behaviors cause stress, lead to destructive conflict, and divide teams (Felps, Mitchell, & Byington, 2006). Known as bad apple behaviors, these include withholding effort, displaying excessive negativity, and violating important interpersonal norms (Felps et al., 2006). The inability to effectively control bad apple behavior can negatively affect team motivation and performance, or “spoil the barrel.”
In reviewing numerous studies of bad apple behavior in small groups, Felps et al., (2006) identified three ways teammates respond most often:
Motivation intervention is an attempt to change the negative behavior through some manner of influence or verbal assertion (“C’mon, Derek, we need to focus on the assignment”). Individuals will likely respond this way when they believe the disruptive person has control over the behavior.
Rejection consists of ignoring or avoiding the bad apple behavior. Group members would most likely take this route when efforts to change the behavior through influence or assertion have failed.
Defensiveness is communicating in a manner that protects your sense of self, including withdrawing yourself or being verbally aggressive toward the offending party. When direct or indirect attempts to change bad apple behavior are unsuccessful, or you have limited power in the group, you may respond defensively.
The first two strategies can be competent ways of dealing with “bad apples” in a group (Felps et al., 2006). However, the third response, though tempting, may make the problem worse, because the offending person may respond defensively.
COMMUNICATE
Before making a communication choice, consider the facts of the situation, and think about the bad apple behavior research. Also, reflect on what you’ve learned so far about group roles (pp. 268–269),cohesiveness (p. 272), norms (p. 272), and communication traits (pp. 275–276). Then answer these questions:
What ethical obligation do you have to keep Derek from disrupting the group project?
What do you gain and risk by responding to Derek in each of the three most common ways? What might you gain or lose by asking Professor Bradley to be assigned to another group?
What are you going to do?