A QUALITATIVE STUDY ON PASSIVE – AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOUR AT WORKPLACE

Mirela Bucurean ()
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Mirela Bucurean: Department of Management-Marketing, Faculty of Economic Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania

Annals of Faculty of Economics, 2019, vol. 1, issue 2, 241-247

Abstract: The current study focuses on the characterization and perception of passive – aggressive behavior at workplace. We interviewed 12 employees, who work in large companies in Bihor county, on the position of base and middle-level managers.Three of the themes that emerged from the analyzed interviews, have a particular importance in the workplace. First, majority of the participants clamed that the PA behavior is present in their organizations and there is a tendency to spread throughout the organization. Second, most participants viewed the PA behaviour as beeing tolerated in their organizations. Third, most interviewees clamed that the PA bevaviour has negative effects in the organization. The PA behaviour was deeply analised by many researchers over the time and it has a wide variety of definitions. We could summarily define the concept as including behaviors that convey aggressive feelings through passive means. One of the dark side is that these pasive means could be confusing many times. While other forms of agression like mobbing, bullying, bossing appear as evident, the PA behavior could be misinterpreted. This destructive behaviour could initially appear at several members and then quickly spread throughout all the organisation. This way, the company could become a toxic environment where the valuable employees do not want to remain anymore. The PA behavior must be discovered in good time and stopped, before to penetrate the whole organization. The three main themes emerged from the analyzed interviews leaded us to interesting discussions and conclusions. We pointed out the main possible ways to prevent and stop the occurrence and spreading of the PA behavior, taking into account the causes of this type of behavior. We also outlined several ways to deal with PA behavior at workplace.

Keywords: passive–aggressive behavior; workplace; negative effects; destructive; aggressive feelings; passive means (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: M10 M12 M14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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