7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Book's title says it all, April 14, 2009
This review is from: Getting Even: The Truth About Workplace Revenge--And How to Stop It (Hardcover)
I got this book hoping to gain insight into revenge in the workplace, and perhaps in personal affairs. It's become increasing clear that emotions and irrational thoughts are very important motivators of people's behaviors. Heretofore, most social science research and literature has focused on rational thought and logical motivations, almost as if irrational reactions to economic, political, and social situations don't exist. This book reflects the authors' methodical and scientific approach to the subject of "getting even" and provides greater insight into the subject than what a reader's intuition might lead him or her to conclude.
Based on the review thus far, you may conclude that the book is dry, academic reading. But, that isn't the case. The authors' research on revenge is fleshed out with stories that evoke the very human, and sometimes humorous, dimensions of getting even and vividly bring their subject matter to life. I personally felt that I could easily relate what Tripp and Bies wrote about to my job and to my personal life, especially because of how well they illustrate the things that motivate people to seek revenge.
The authors' assert that the subject of revenge in the workplace has historically been taboo. For what it's worth, I haven't seen other books on this subject. This leads me to believe that their work, and therefore this book, is groundbreaking and important. Yet, while the book is clearly written to meet the standards of social science publications, with proper citations, footnotes, and bibliography, the book is written in an easy to digest and approachable style (really, a lot better than my own). Therefore the book succeeds by bringing this subject under the scrutiny of the scientific method and then disseminating the information in a way that makes their findings more effectively received and subsequently applied in real world situations.
I would recommend this book to anyone but I'd love to assign it as required reading for any workplace manager or supervisor. I also sent my copy to my mother who is a Human Resources Manager.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fascinating scholarly study regarding social and psychological causes as to why employees seek revenge in the workplace..., January 14, 2010
This review is from: Getting Even: The Truth About Workplace Revenge--And How to Stop It (Hardcover)
No matter where you work or what level you work at in an organization, sooner-or-later, you'll see it: two (or more) coworkers who hate each other to the extent that one is determined to get his/her "pound of flesh" from the other. It plays-out in their behaviors: everything from one giving the other the "cold shoulder"; to co-workers leaving names of their "enemies" off memos, not inviting them to important meetings, all the way to where one marks the person they're after down on performance evaluations, even to shouting matches where one or both are the one or seen "going ballistic," complete with venomous remarks and veins popping out of the side of their necks.
It is truly pathetic to watch self-serving professionals who are usually normal and well-adjusted, become focused on revenge to the extent that they destroy the morale and dynamics of an organization. For all involved, it's a roller-coaster with no end in sight. What's a manager to do?
Robert J. Bies, Professor of Management at Georgetown (Ph.D. from Stanford) and Thomas M. Tripp, Professor of Management at Washington State University (Ph.D. from Northwestern) are commended for taking on this difficult subject. As mentioned in the Preface, when they began their research in the mid-1990s, their colleagues thought they "were crazy." Indeed, their work is in a territory that was virtually unexplored by researchers -- yet, when one considers the costs in time, lost production, morale and personnel turnover - their work is now certain to become a standard source for managers seeking practical advice to prevent revenge before it is acted out.
Defining revenge as "an action in response to some perceived harm or wrongdoing by another party, which is intended to inflict damage, injury, discomfort or punishment on the party judged responsible," Bies and Tripp explore how workers' emotional responses serve as the driving force for workplace revenge. It is interesting to note their finding that most workplace revenge is not only not violent, but that what violence does occur in the workplace - e.g. "going postal" - is not typically committed by coworkers. For example, in 1993, of the 1,063 workplace homicides, only 59 involved coworkers.
Looking at fifteen years of research, data and social science literature, the authors come up with a number of interesting findings: First, revenge cannot be predicted by a workers personality, instead it's how those workers are treated and "the actions of their managers and coworkers" that drive their actions; Second, there are more "vigilantes-in-waiting" than you think in every organization, "normal well-meaning people" who if they "believe they can get away with revenge" will "take the law into their own hands and seek to get even"; Third, workers "think just like citizens and juries think," and want to make sure that "troublemakers get the outcomes they deserve," and if they don't, they intend to make sure they do, one way or the other; Fourth, avengers reason that their prey deserves revenge and that their actions, mean-spirited as they may be, are "appropriate and morally justified"; Fifth, while revenge is believed rational, it is acted out of anger - righteous anger - a heated anger, meaning that "revenge is rarely served cold"; Sixth, avengers often blame the wrong person or "blame the right person too harshly"; and, Seventh, avenging employees are often creative - their actions may range from simply fantasizing what they'd like to see happen, to bad-mouthing the person, to lodging a complaint, going to court, all the way to even forgiving and reconciling with that person.
In Chapter Two, the theory is put forth that "most employees who seek revenge are motivated out of a sense of injustice, where the offenses are seen as provocations, which leads to blaming, which leads to anger, and a desire for revenge, which often leads to acts of revenge." In Chapter Three, we read about typical workplace offenses that trip revenge, these include: goal obstruction, breaking the rules and social norms and damage to one's reputation. In Chapter Four we explore psychological and social factors that shape and /or skew the blame process. Chapter Five examines the role of "righteous anger" and how this anger shapes the acts of revenge. In Chapter Six, the authors describe personality differences and how individuals will act out their desire for revenge. Chapter Seven serves as a menu of practical advice to managers who must deal with angry, obsessive employees seeking to exact revenge on an "offender."
While I thought the various examples and cases presented as examples were helpful, I would have liked seeing these examples integrated more fully in the narrative discussions than set apart as they are in boxes. Also, more humor - such as the sections dealing with revenge in movie plots - would help the reader understand that while this is a serious and grim subject, such situations are not the "end of the world," and must be addressed in a timely, proactive manner. I was particularly interested to read about their theory of "sinister attribution errors" and actor-observer bias, as the examples I've seen during my own career of individuals seeking revenge were often those of individuals who were somewhat mentally unstable, and who - as the authors put it - overly "attributed sinister and malevolent motives to others' actions."
The concluding chapters offer much helpful advice to those thinking about going for revenge and/or managers with employees considering it. Consider this content well-worth the money spent for the book as a copy of this text in the hands of anyone out-to-get someone would surely give them pause as the essence of their findings comes down to a person making a choice as to whether to feed one's negative emotions or choosing that which is good, peaceful, joyful, kind, benevolent, and compassionate.
In this reviewer's own experience, the healthy path is that which follows the advice: "Don't get Mad and don't get even! Get ahead!" If you're good at what you do and you find yourself in an organization poisoned with individuals fighting and going tit-for-tat after each other, it's usually a flashing sign that it's time to move on to a happier place of employment elsewhere!
Highly recommended for academic and public library collections and individuals employed in management and/or the functional areas of human resources and customer service.
R. Neil Scott
Middle Tennessee State University
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