No I am not swearing. Honest! “The No Asshole Rule” is actually the title of a new wonderful book by someone I really rate. The person is Robert Sutton who is a professor of management science at Stanford University where he collaborates with Dave Ulrich.

Sutton’s book (and the research behind it) is about Building a Civilised workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t. It finds its genesis in a Department meeting at Stanford University fifteen years ago. The meeting discussed a prospective new member of staff. An existing member of the team responded saying, “Listen, I don’t care if that guy won the Nobel Prize…. I just don’t want any assholes ruining our group’. This attitude, the research shows, actually does make a positive difference in terms of business performance and results.

Sutton observes that, 

“There is also a big pile of scholarly research that reaches much the same conclusion without using the term ‘asshole’.  It is conducted under banners including bullying, interpersonal aggression, emotional abuse, abusive supervision, petty tyranny, and incivility in the work place.  These studies show that many workplaces are plagued by ‘interpersonal moves’ that leave people feeling threatened and demeaned, which are often directed by more powerful people at less powerful people”.

Some of us can resonate with this description.

If at all possible, get a hold of Sutton’s book and read it.

This entry was posted on Monday, February 26th, 2007 at 7:41 pm and is filed under Book reviews, Communication, Engaging People. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.