Doing Nothing … 1
Doing Nothing is Doing Something: The High Cost of Supervisory Inaction
C. W. Von Bergen
Southeastern Oklahoma State University
Key terms: management inaction, extinction, rewards and reinforcements, omission, motivation

Doing Nothing … 2
Doing Nothing is Doing Something: The High Cost of Supervisory Inaction
ABSTRACT
Despite most managers’ belief that doing nothing does not impact performance, managers change employee behavior by their lack of action as well as by their actions. Doing nothing does something; management nonresponse to desirable or undesirable employee performance changes future worker behavior for the worse. Some managers seem incapable of expressing their gratitude and appreciation to those employees who perform well and act as if their feedback philosophy should be one of “no news is good news.” Conversely, some supervisors hesitate to challenge employees needing corrective counseling and appear to endorse a “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil” management approach. Both practices lead to increased levels of poor performance and supervisors who do nothing substantially damage their firms. Supervisory inaction has real, negative consequences and there is a high price of a failure to act.

Doing Nothing … 3
Doing Nothing is Doing Something: The High Cost of Supervisory Inaction
“There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of comfortable inaction.” —John F. Kennedy
Many managers of contemporary firms would agree that employees drive organizational achievement (Harter, Schmidt, & Hayes, 2002; Stajkovic & Luthans, 2003) and represent the greatest improvement opportunity for most firms today (Pfeffer, 1995). Leaders play an important role in creating healthy, engaging, and productive successful workplace environments, but the average business forfeits over $1 million per year in untapped potential because of less than optimal leadership behavior (The Ken Blanchard Companies, 2009). One such costly supervisory practice contributing to this loss, and the topic of this paper, involves managerial nonresponse to worker performance; specifically, supervisory inaction with respect to both desirable and undesirable employee behavior.
Most leaders, however, might not be aware that their inaction influences employee behavior and think that this will have no adverse impact on worker behavior—or the organization. Indeed, a common assumption among most managers is “that doing nothing will have no effect on performance” (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2007, p. 103). Nevertheless, when managers do nothing following worker behavior they often demotivate good performers and frequently encourage poor workers (Daniels, 1994). Those who practice “if you don’t hear from me you know you are doing fine” (Hinkin & Schriesheim, 2004, p. 365) may be doing more harm than they suspect.
When managers do nothing following employee behavior, they change that performance for the worse in one of two ways: 1) they decrease the probability of future desired behavior, and
2) they open the door for increased levels of undesired performance. This paper explores the high costs to organizations when leaders fail to recognize or reward effective employee conduct

Doing Nothing … 4 as well as when they neglect, ignore, or disregard worker wrongdoing. This examination of inaction applies the lens of behavioral management. Reasons why supervisors do not address good or bad employee actions are then presented followed by a discussion of the consequences of such nonresponse. The paper concludes with a summary and implications for managers.
Behavior Management
Behavioral management, now widely recognized and applied in organizations for over five decades, focuses primarily on managing employee job behavior and learning (Luthans &
Kreitner, 1975, 1985; Stajkovic & Luthans, 2003). It offers a systematic, simple-to-apply framework to identify, analyze, and modify employee behavior and has been effectively applied in a variety of manufacturing, service, and not-for-profit organizations, and even across cultures
(Luthans, Stajkovic, Luthans, & Luthans, 1998).
Behavioral theories of learning and motivation, sometimes referred to as applied behavior analysis, operant conditioning, performance management, and reinforcement theory, focus on the effect that consequences of past actions have on future behavior and posits that worker performance is a function of contingent consequences (Komaki, Coombs, & Schepman, 1996;
Pfeffer, 1995); i.e., events that follow behaviors change the probability that they will recur in the future. Contingent consequences control or determine employee behavior through four ways
(Kreitner & Kinicki, 2001): 1) positive reinforcement (making behavior occur more often by contingently presenting something positive, 2) negative reinforcement (making behavior occur more often by contingently withdrawing something negative), 3) punishment (making behavior occur less often by contingently presenting something negative or withdrawing something positive), and 4) extinction (making behavior occur less often by not reinforcing it). The authors

Doing Nothing … 5 examine management inaction to both appropriate and unproductive worker conduct in this paper by focusing attention on positive reinforcement, extinction, and, to a lesser extent, punishment.
Positive reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is the most commonly used technique in behavioral management and one of the most firmly established laws in the psychology of behavior (Vroom, 1964). It consists of providing individuals with some pleasant (from the individual’s perspective) consequence following wanted behavior with the objective of increasing the likelihood that the desired behavior will be repeated in the future under similar circumstances. This happens because behavior that gets rewarded gets repeated. Contingently administered money, feedback, and social recognition (i.e., personal attention, mostly conveyed verbally through expressions of interest, approval, and appreciation for a job well done) are the most recognized positive reinforcers in behavioral management at work (Bandura, 1986; Luthans, 2000). Although rewards are valuable to the reward giver and reinforcers increases the desired behavioral response and technically not the same thing (Stajkovic & Luthans, 2003), for ease of interpretation and because such a distinction is not relevant to this paper, reward and reinforcer are used interchangeably here.
Behaviors that positively impact performance must be contingently reinforced although it might not be necessary that every instance of a target behavior be rewarded. In fact, such partial or intermittent reinforcement can maintain the person’s behavior over long periods of time and can lead to higher levels of performance than continuously reinforced behavior (i.e., reward after every instance of the desired behavior; Weinstock, 1958). Moreover, a 100 percent schedule of praise for every success will often lead to a subordinate’s satiation and discounting the supervisor, as well as the subordinate’s perception that the superior’s behavior is ingratiating.

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Extinction
Organizational studies have generally overlooked extinction, although employees in a variety of business settings suggest that event to be a common managerial practice (Hinkin &
Schriesheim, 2004). While extinction can be technically defined as the withdrawal of positive reinforcement from a behavior previously rewarded, it may be easier to understand it as a condition in which “the performer does something and nothing happens” (Daniels, 1994, p. 29).
When people do something resulting in no reinforcement, they will be less likely to repeat that behavior in the future or, as Skinner (1953) pointed out, “… when we engage in behavior which no longer ‘pays off,’ we find ourselves less inclined to behave that way again” (p. 69). “Just ignore it, and it’ll go away” (Daniels, 1994, p. 62) is basically how extinction works.
A good analogy for extinction is to imagine what would happen to a person’s houseplants if they stopped watering them. Like a plant without water, a behavior without (occasional) reinforcement eventually dies and disappears. In each case, the behavior decreases because reinforcing consequences no longer occur. These examples show that doing nothing after someone behaves properly and positively can weaken and eliminate that worthy behavior.
Punishment
Punishment causes behavior to occur less often by contingently presenting something negative or withdrawing something positive after an individual’s performance (penalty).
Behavior that gets punished tends not be repeated. Punishment could be a frown, disagreeing with someone’s idea, a verbal reprimand, or criticizing a presentation, while penalties might involve a fine, demotion, or suspension without pay. The use of punishment in organizations can be controversial and is often criticized because it fails to indicate the correct behavior but almost

Doing Nothing … 7 all managers report finding it necessary to occasionally impose forms of punishment ranging from verbal reprimands to employee suspensions or firings (Casey, 1997).
With a focus on these three consequences we present two managerial errors involving leadership inaction. The first mistake involves leaders doing nothing in response to acceptable employee behavior. The second mistake involves leaders doing nothing in response to unacceptable worker conduct. We now present a discussion of these two errors beginning with some reasons why supervisors engage in such activities followed by a discussion of the effects of such supervisory inaction.
Management Nonresponse to Desirable Employee Performance
“I can live for two months on a good compliment.” —Mark Twain
Über management consultant and author Tom Peters, who writes and consults with corporations about becoming more effective, stated that successful leaders and companies should
“Celebrate what you want to see more of’” (Peters, n.d.). Great organizations create greater success by praising and celebrating; i.e., by positive reinforcement. Recognizing achievements and milestones boosts pride, camaraderie, and leadership credibility. By providing occasions to acknowledge, recognize, and reward meaningful accomplishments, leaders create a culture where progress and appreciation prevail. Furthermore, Peters (2010) believes that managers and supervisors “grossly underestimate the power of little acknowledgements such as that simple, little, in passing ‘Thanks’ or ‘Nice job’” (p. 150). Positive reinforcement for good work, said
Peters (2010), might also include “A small plaque, a pin, a celebratory banquet ( or lunch!
)
[emphasis in original] at the end of a small but successful project, a smile, a ‘thank you’ or two or three or eleven” (p. 154). Employee recognition must be given more attention by leaders as they attempt to meet today’s organizational challenges (Luthans, 2000).

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Why managers do not discuss good performance with employees
The evidence clearly suggests that people at work do not receive much recognition and attention for good performance (Daniels & Daniels, 2004; Peters, 2010). One reason for this involves a widespread management myth that “employees will coast or because they think that praise is not valued” (Robbins & Judge, 2011, p. 534). Still another reason for not acknowledging good performance could be that some managers believe paying a salary is sufficient and that “coddling employees is unnecessary” (Bacal, 2007, p. 65). Many such managers limit positive reinforcement because they believe that workers must go well above and beyond to deserve praise and recognition because otherwise “you’re just rewarding them for doing their job” (Peters, 2010, p. 151). Such managers do not feel it necessary to provide recognition or praise because “employees are already paid to work” (Podsakoff, Podsakoff, &
Kuskova, 2010, p. 300). Nonetheless, everyone needs to know that their work and successes are noticed and appreciated but salaries do not convey that sense to employees (Bacal, 2007).
Some managers of white collar workers further argue that appreciation and commendation might not be necessary for their subordinates because they are “professionals,” and their salaries will make them assume more responsibility than their blue-collar coworkers.
These beliefs appear to be a dispositional trait characterized by supervisors whose implicit theories about the nature of the world and people think that worker good conduct represents merely doing one’s duty (such as the obligation to fulfill one’s job tasks and responsibilities) and does not deserve reward or recognition, leading them to be less appreciative of good behavior in others (Chiu, Dweck, Tong, & Fu, 1997; Hamilton, Blumenfeld, & Kushlen, 1988).
Still other managers fear that providing positive feedback may cause employees to feel so smug that their performance level will drop. “You have to keep them on their toes,” one boss

Doing Nothing … 9 cautioned, “or else they’ll eat your lunch” (Van Fleet, Peterson, & Van Fleet, 2005, p. 48). Also, discussions with both managers and employees confirmed that in some cases superiors intentionally overlook positive performance and use negative feedback unwarrantedly to justify reducing or withholding pay raises and other monetary rewards when budgets are tight and management cannot provide financial rewards for good performance (Van Fleet et al., 2005).
Additionally, because workers generally do not ask for approval, admiration, commendation, or appreciation managers typically do not realize the costs of not doing it. Finally, busy managers frequently ignore good performers because they are low maintenance workers who often feel guilty taking up their boss’s time (Robinson, 2005). But failing to recognize good performance can become a silent killer, like escalating blood pressure.
The effects of doing nothing on desirable behavior
What is killed, of course, is continuing good performance. Yet many “employees think managers are paid to ‘provide recognition and praise’” (Podsakoff et al., 2010, p. 300) and management attention is a major positive consequence to the vast majority of the work force
(Daniels, 1994), and if missing, then extinction may unintentionally occur which means that the productive behavior will decrease because it was overlooked.
Interestingly, Graham and Unruh (1990) examined the value of 65 potential incentives and four out of the top five rewards ranked by employees as the most motivating were initiated by their manager, based upon performance, and required little or no money. These non-financial incentives involved a manager:
1.
Personally congratulating an employee for a job well done;
2.
Writing a personal note for good performance.
3.
Publicly recognizing an employee for good performance; and

Doing Nothing … 10
4.
Holding morale-building meetings to celebrate successes.
The data also revealed a preference for recognition based upon efforts which contribute to organizational success—not false praise or automatic length of service recognition.
Amount and frequency of reinforcement. The amount of reinforcement needed is generally more than most managers think. Although not in an organizational context, Skinner
(1968) noted that to teach students to be competent in basic mathematical concepts requires in excess of 50,000 reinforcements—roughly a student’s first four grades. This works out to more than 70 reinforcers per hour per student. Since failing to reinforce productive performance can be tantamount to extinction, it is easy to see why performance and motivation decline in even the best people. They are simply not getting the reinforcement they need to continue doing a good job. This could be why in work environments where management does not make a conscious attempt to positively reinforce, extinction of discretionary effort usually results—albeit inadvertently. In this way, managers who do nothing to reinforce good behavior are actually decreasing the odds that it will be repeated (Colquitt, Lepine, & Wesson, 2009). Over time, high achievers can be expected to do one of two things, neither of which benefits the organization: 1) they reduce performance; or 2) they leave the firm.
If managers want desirable behavior to continue they must reward it. Nevertheless, it is a common supervisory mistake to believe that they are rewarding more than their employees perceive. According to Rath and Clifton (2004) 65% of Americans had not received recognition for good work in the previous year. Nevertheless, managers believe they are providing abundant recognition to their followers (Gostick & Elton, 2007) and say, “I use positive reinforcement all the time” (Daniels, 2001, p. 67) yet when their employees were asked when they last received positive reinforcement from the boss, the most common answer by far was “I can’t remember”

Doing Nothing … 11
(Daniels, 2001, p. 67). Managers think they acknowledge their subordinates but worker perceptions differ. A similar frequency error was pointed out by Daniels (1994) who observed that some supervisors exclaim that “I reinforced him but he didn’t change” (p. 70). According to
Daniels (1994), however, “one positive reinforcer will not change your life” (p. 70)—or an employee’s behavior. Frequent positive reinforcement is a necessity for highly productive employees and their firms.
To help overcome this frequency error Daniels and Daniels (2004) offer a 4:1 ratio guide.
The most effective managers employ a ratio of positive to negative interactions that exceeds 4:1.
A helpful tip for managers who need to improve their ratios is to remember that for every time they apply a negative consequence, should find at least four opportunities to reinforce a desired performance. This may require the application of The One-Minute Manager (Blanchard &
Johnson, 1981) principle of catching workers doing something right which requires supervisors to look for, notice, and celebrate it which in turn often involves management by walking around popularized by Peters and Waterman in their mega best seller, In Search of Excellence (1982).
Several recent studies have shown a strong link between employee recognition systems and organizational success. For example, a study surveying 26,000 employees in 31 healthcare organizations found that companies in the top quartile of employee responses to the item “ My organization recognizes excellence” outperformed companies in the bottom quartile on this response in their return on equity, return on assets, and operating margin by a factor of at least three-to-one (Gostick & Elton, 2007). In another study, Welbourne and Andrews (1996) reported that for 136 companies which engaged in an IPO, those that emphasized the use of employee rewards had over a 40% higher likelihood of survival 5 years later than did companies which did not emphasize employee rewards. It appears, then, that the success and viability of a firm likely

Doing Nothing … 12 depends on supervisors’ recognition of deserving performers and that many performance problems may be created, not by what supervisors do, but by what they don’t do.
This was demonstrated by Hinkin and Schriesheim (2004) who studied 243 employees at two different hospitality organizations and compared the effect of managers’ giving feedback to employees on their job performance (Pritchard, Jones, Roth, Stuebing, & Ekeberg, 1988, consider supervisory feedback positive reinforcement) with a group given no comments. As expected, Hinkin and Schriesheim (2004) found a positive relationship between feedback and workers’ effectiveness and satisfaction, and a direct negative relationship with workers’ effectiveness and satisfaction for the group in which managers did not comment on good service performance of their employees. This study, the first which examined extinction in an organizational context, nicely illustrated that ignored effective behavior will eventually be extinguished and eliminated. The researchers also noted, interestingly, that supervisors who do not respond to good performance also disregard poor behavior. This is discussed below.
Management Nonresponse to Undesirable Employee Performance
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” —Edmund Burke
The key learning point above is that organizational stars and those who perform their job satisfactorily should get constructive notice from their supervisors. While good performers should receive managerial attention, a firm’s poor performers deserve lots of attention too— perhaps even more than their productive coworkers. Studies show that most employees want to do a good job at work and it is rare that an employee genuinely wants to sabotage or confound their organization (Buron & McDonald-Mann, 2003). Nevertheless, there are some problematic workers and as organizations look to redirect their efforts, it is often necessary to provide negative sanctions with the expectation that the recipients of this feedback will expend efforts to

Doing Nothing … 13 improve questionable performance. Regrettably, much evidence suggests that most people are reluctant to provide negative feedback to others (Posthuma & Campion, 2008; Rosen & Tesser,
1970) and that the discussion of poor performance is apparently so aversive that it is often neglected (Landy & Farr, 1989) frequently leading to future problems.
For instance, Pope John Paul II’s legacy includes a belief among some that he failed to deal adequately with not only allegations of sexual abuse by priests, but also with bishops who transferred clergymen to new assignments rather than confront the issue (Breen, 2011). This has led some to wonder why he is being beatified (a step on the road to sainthood in the Catholic
Church) despite his record of ignoring the sexual abuse crisis. Consider likewise the supervisors of Army psychiatrist Major Nidal Hasan, the alleged gunman at Fort Hood, charged with killing
13 and wounding 43 soldiers in November 2009. Despite appraisal records which described him as unprofessional, erratic, and disturbing to both his colleagues and his patients, the Army promoted Hasan. Some might argue that the failure to discipline him for his earlier troubling behavior undoubtedly led to the catastrophic violence at the Texas army base (Mulrine, 2010).
Equally disturbing was the failure of Penn State university officials and others who received information to act on reports of a former football coach’s alleged child sexual abuse and who either avoided asking difficult questions or chose to look the other way and not act, even after being reported to them in graphic detail by an eyewitness. This inaction allowed an alleged predator to walk free for nine years permitting him to target new victims (Simon, 2011).
Poor performers show up late, leave early, do not show up for the job at all, do not turn their work in on time, have an excuse for every failing, exhibit low productivity, and engage in unsafe work behaviors. These difficult people are sometimes involved with deviant behavior such as theft, computer fraud, and engage in embezzlement, vandalism, and sabotage. Yet many

Doing Nothing … 14 managers often ignore or do not confront these problematic staffers. For example, a survey of
5,500 employees found that forty-four percent of respondents believed their firm’s management too lenient on under-performers, and that managers should confront slacking employees sooner and more often (Trends, 1988). A more recent survey asked employees if their managers confronted poor performers and only 31 percent of respondents indicated that their manager challenged them (Sunjansky, 2007). Most often managers who continually overlook such workers hope the problem will just disappear and that those employees will somehow turn themselves around or stop their troublesome conduct. Left to fester, however, bad behavior patterns often lead to project delays, expense overruns, and missed deadlines costing firms millions in lost productivity and revenue. Negative behaviors that supervisors ignore do not typically go away—they multiply when leaders fail to act because the behaviors are then assumed to be “accepted by leadership” (Thornton, 2011). Unfortunately, too many leaders seem to follow famous English author Rudyard Kipling’s Shut-Eye Sentry who while on duty would
“… shut my eyes in the sentry box, so I didn’t see nothin’ wrong” (2006, p. 362).
Why managers do not discuss poor performance with employees
Much attention today focuses on the bright side of organizational life—strategies for getting results through people, the organizational approaches of worker empowerment, participation, and involvement, and the virtue of trusting in people to do the right thing
(Ehrenreich, 2009). However, the fact that people engage in numerous ineffective and dysfunctional organizational behaviors follows alongside this people-are-trustworthy theme
(Gandossy & Kanter, 2002). Effective leaders must look on the dark side—at the possibility of malevolence—as well as the positive values of faith in people and trust in their integrity. They

Doing Nothing … 15 need to devote personal time and attention to making sure that performance problems do not slip by unnoticed and perhaps unpunished.
Several factors may prevent leaders from seeing and acting on signs of misconduct.
Perhaps they do not want to rock the boat, fearing that poor performers will retaliate with even worse performance. Maybe they dislike confrontation and possibly they are unassertive. It could be that they fear hurting employee feelings or potential workplace violence. Maybe they have internalized the dictums of “don’t be judgmental” and “don’t say anything at all if you can’t say something nice” making them reluctant to provide non-positive feedback. Or perhaps, they do not know how to confront someone professionally or dislike the formidable time consuming documentation often required when detailing employee performance deficiencies. Some leaders write off instances of wrongdoing as aberrations without relevance to them and so do nothing, and everyone suffers. Despite the reason, such reluctance inhibits managers from providing performance feedback that can help employees grow or enable the organization to eliminate poor performers. They seem to operate on the belief of “See no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil.”
The effects of doing nothing on undesirable behavior
The impact of ignoring undesirable behavior is different than overlooking desirable behavior. As indicated above, ignoring desirable behavior is tantamount to behavioral extinction and decreases in effective performance can be expected if supervisors do nothing with respect to wanted performance. Ignoring undesirable behavior, however, generally tends to maintain or increase ineffective conduct. This could be because the wrongdoing is often self-rewarding to a worker and involves an activity the person already finds intrinsically satisfying. For example, an employee who steals money from a firm experiences the naturally occurring positive consequences associated with having more money which will cause the undesirable behavior to

Doing Nothing … 16 persist because the worker continues to be positively reinforced for their theft. Similarly, if workers are taking shortcuts in the safety area the naturally occurring positive consequences associated with doing a job with less time and effort will often cause the undesirable behaviors to continue and increase. In many situations the safe behavior may be typically less comfortable, convenient, or efficient than some at-risk shortcuts which usually save time, which means a faster rate of output. As a result, such risk-taking may be mislabeled as “efficient” behavior and in some environments, avoiding or over-riding power lockout switches (safety mechanisms) could be acceptable because it benefits production. In such cultures, a worker who fixes equipment without locking out may be seen as a “macho” hero (Geller, 2000) by his or her coworkers (another reinforcer). In these examples there are positive reinforcements that support dysfunctional behavior.
Moreover, supervisory silence about wrongdoing might often be interpreted as subtle acceptance and consent (from the Latin maxim, ‘Qui tacet consentire videtur’ [‘He who is silent seems to consent’]) and consequently such nonresponse may act as an unintended reinforcer for the behavior they do not want (Daniels & Daniels, 2004). The absence of accurate and negative feedback frequently leads employees to believe their performance to be on target and that everything is well (Fedor, Davis, Maslyn, & Mathieson, 2001; Tata, 2002).
Failing to address performance issues also results in lowering performance standards and can lead employees to believe their performance to be at satisfactory levels because management neglects to tell them otherwise. A supervisor might be dissatisfied with an employee’s level of performance, and might truly believe that the employee ought to know he or she to be missing the mark, but unless the boss challenges employees about performance deficiencies and expressly states what needs to be done, change is unlikely. By directly and objectively

Doing Nothing … 17 confronting a worker’s problematic behavior, supervisors clearly show the wrongdoing to be unacceptable (Seidenfeld, 1998).
Negative sanctions. Particularly problematic behavior occurs when people do things illegal, immoral, unethical (e.g., dishonesty, lying, cheating, and stealing), unsafe, unhealthy, or unfair to themselves or others that cannot be ignored or allowed to continue (Daniels & Daniels,
2004). These behaviors might result in devastating effects on organizations and must be stopped.
Immediate corrective action entailing punishment or penalty may be necessary. Such consequences, effectively used, do have appropriate places in management. They are intended to diminish or stop undesirable employee behavior.
However Baron (1988) found that it was generally not the delivery of negative feedback, per se , that produced such unconstructive outcomes as increased levels of conflict, resentment, and aggression, but rather the manner in which supervisors conveyed such information that seemed to play the crucial role. Baron (1988) found that performance discussions about poor performance using constructive criticism (specific, considerate, feedback that does not contain threats of termination or reassignment, or suggestions that an individual’s poor performance results from negative internal attributions such as the person being stupid or lazy) did not generate strong feelings of anger and tension nor increase recipients’ tendency to adopt ineffective techniques for dealing with poor performance (e.g., making endless excuses, refusing to change). Ilgen and Davis (2000) forcefully argue that giving negative feedback carries with it a responsibility to convey the message in a way that will not adversely affect the probability that the person will perform better in the future. Clearly, managers should engage in constructive

Doing Nothing … 18 suggestions with their poorly performing subordinates regarding how they might improve their future behavior.
This may be particularly important because ignoring bad behavior invariably culminates in disillusionment from the very people the business relies most upon—those who consistently produce good results. Research by Schnake and Dumler (1989) supported this view and found that supervisors who fail to punish others’ inappropriate behavior is perceived as punishment by those performing at high levels and that leaders who punish unwanted employee behavior is frequently viewed as rewarding by these high performers. In a similar vein, Podsakoff, Bommer,
Podsakoff, and MacKenzie (2006) found that negative feedback provided by managers to poorly performing workers can have more functional effects on employee satisfaction than positive feedback considered undeserved. Moreover, employees generally feel better about their supervisor, coworkers, and opportunities for advancement when their leaders hold employees accountable for poor performance. This finding confirms research by Carlsmith, Darley, and
Robinson (2002) which showed that people believe individuals should get what they deserve in life and that they tend to be more satisfied when others receive punishment or penalties that are contingent upon low performance or unacceptable behaviors.
Of all the nonactions likely to negatively impact a team’s morale, none appears quite as damning as a supervisor’s failure to respond promptly to a team worker’s poor performance. In a review of 32 management teams, Larson and LaFasto (1989) found that the most consistent and intense complaint from team members was team leaders unwillingness to confront and resolve problems associated with poor performance of individual team members: “more than any other single aspect of team leadership, members are disturbed by leaders who are unwilling to deal directly and effectively with self-serving or noncontributing team members” (p. 83). Moreover,

Doing Nothing … 19
O’Reilly and Puffer (1989) found that subjects in their studies reported that they were more willing to work hard, felt more satisfied, and perceived more equitable treatment from their supervisors when the supervisors punished team members who performed poorly than when poor performing team members received no punishment.
An important feature of using consequences effectively is to apply them contingently or dependent on a person’s behavior. Podsakoff , Tudor, and Skov (1982) and Stajkovic and
Luthans (2003) examined the effects of contingencies and found contingent reward to have strong positive relationships with subordinate outcomes such as satisfaction and performance and that, surprisingly, even contingent punishment had small positive relationships with the outcome measures. This research highlights the importance of a clear link between subordinates’ behavior and supervisory response. Even punishment or reprimands can be well received, as long as subordinates can see a relationship between their behavior and fitting consequences (Baum &
Youngblood, 1975; O’Reilly & Puffer, 1989). Additionally, these researchers noted that workers also have greater liking for supervisors who use discipline appropriately since such supervision may be viewed as performance-based. Such findings suggest that individuals observe and respond to rewards and punishments given to others.
The impact of social contexts. Bandura’s social learning theory (1986) posits that people learn from one another, via imitation, modeling, and by observing others’ behavior, attitudes, outcomes of those behaviors, and the consequences that others receive. The failure to use negative sanctions may, therefore, reinforce unproductive norms as individuals learn, for instance, that it is permissible to arrive late, work at half speed, or that slipshod quality is considered acceptable. Conversely, social learning theory suggests that individuals are less likely to engage in modeled behavior if they perceive that there will be punishing effects than if they

Doing Nothing … 20 anticipate positive outcomes. Properly applied, negative sanctions may act both to set specific goals and to help establish group norms which govern acceptable and unacceptable behaviors.
Failure to use negative sanctions may, from a social learning perspective, act as a reinforcer for undesired behaviors, lead to feelings of inequity, and establishment of unproductive group norms. In part this could be because when misconduct occurs, observers expect that the violators will be punished (Hogan & Emler, 1981). In a social context, then, the use of negative sanctions may be a highly visible and effective tool for increasing both productivity and satisfaction (O’Reilly & Puffer, 1989). It seems that the observed tendency of managers to avoid the conflict inherent with the use of punishment (O’Reilly & Weitz, 1980) may result in a failure to use discipline resulting in feelings of inequity, loss of motivation, and lowered commitment and cohesiveness among productive group members (Curtis, Smith, &
Smoll, 1979; Nicholson, 1976; Podsakoff & Todor, 1985).
While confrontation of poor performers is done privately, leaders who publicly discipline poor performers must recognize that public punishment does not mean public humiliation.
Degrading or belittling followers in the presence of others often creates animosity towards managers and promotes a culture of fear. Instead, discipline should focus on the unwanted behavior and not persons who exhibited it. When done correctly, and in moderation, punishment administered in front of others can be an effective and efficient teaching tool for leaders to employ (Podsakoff et al., 2010). In summary, applying discipline in a social context may be more effective than applying it to individuals because the administration of punishment in social contexts could be observed by people other than the individual receiving the punishment
(Treviño, 1992). While recognizing that punishment can turn out to be “a remedy too strong for

Doing Nothing … 21 the disease” (Jebb, Headlam, & Pearson, 2010, p. 232), it may also have helpful effects that should not be ignored.
Managerial inaction to address an individual’s unfavorable performance might also have significant implications for a workgroup. At least at first, group members may look to their leader to punish a deviant group member (Butterfield, Treviño, & Ball, 1996) but poor leadership may allow a negative person to persist in their destructive activity. If the supervisor does not address this behavior, then those ineffective performers may serve as models for antisocial behaviors and infect the whole group (O’Fallon & Butterfield, 2011). The common idiom “a bad apple spoils the barrel” captures the core idea of negative individuals having deleterious effects on others (Sember & Sember, 2009). Felps, Mitchell, and Byington (2006) identified bad apples as those “individuals who chronically display behavior which asymmetrically impairs group functioning” (p. 180) while Tyler (2004) describes them as “a cancer that spreads throughout the entire workplace” (p. 77). Such individuals have a negative impact on group production related processes of motivation, creativity, and learning, as well as on the integrative processes of cooperation and conflict. Bad apples distract and drag down everyone, and their destructive behaviors, such as anger, laziness, and incompetence, are remarkably contagious. Chronic expressions of toxic behaviors allow these people to become a figurative thorn in the groups’ side—and possibly a “destroyer” of the group itself (Wetlaufer, 1994). Indeed, Felps et al. (2006) noted that groups having a bad apple performed 30% to 40% worse than similar groups without a bad apple. Furthermore, employees are more likely to model caustic behavior of others if they must work closely with them in order to do their job (i.e., high degrees of interaction; Robinson,
& O’Leary-Kelly, 1996; Wagemen, 2000). This could be particularly noteworthy given that task interdependence may grow as organizations move toward the use of self-managed work teams

Doing Nothing … 22 and decentralized organizational structures (Erez, LePine, & Elms, 2002; Navran, 2002). Thus, a negative side effect of such increased interface is that it enhances the likelihood that problematic behavior will be socially contagious requiring managers to ‘nip in the bud’ such actions before such tendencies spread to others. The consequence is that a supervisor can’t wait very long to see if these “bad apples” will mend their ways. Supervisors need to intervene quickly.
Supervisors are obligated to confront wrongdoing. Ignoring certain kinds of unwanted behavior can be especially problematic. For example, the Occupational Safety and Health Act’s most basic provision, the so-called general duty clause, requires that the employer “furnish to each of his employees employment and a place of employment which are free from recognized hazards that are causing or likely to cause death or serious physical harm to his employees” (29
U.S.C., 1976). There is a duty of care to ensure, as far as reasonably practical, that workers and others are not exposed to risks to health or safety arising from the conduct of the employer’s business. In the workplace, “the duty of care addresses the attentiveness and prudence of managers in performing their decision-making and supervisory functions” (Palmiter, 2006, p.
192). Leaders who do not address such harmful action will be seen as condoning it and may also be held responsible for unsafe practices and employees may bring legal action against the supervisor and firm for not taking the proper action to secure a safe workplace. Courts in these cases usually find for the employee (Daniels & Daniels, 2004).
Another area where managerial nonresponse may be problematic involves the failure to appropriately discipline. Consider the case of Andrews v. Fowler (1996) in which plaintiff
Andrews claimed being raped by Officer Fowler and sued under § 1983 of the Civil Rights Act of 1871. Plaintiff alleged the chief of police and mayor knew of several prior allegations of sexual misconduct involving Officer Fowler but failed to discipline him. Plaintiff alleged that

Doing Nothing … 23 this failure was essentially ratification of Officer Fowler’s misconduct and stood as evidence that the “official policy” of the city became tacit authorization of Fowler’s sexual misconduct. The court held that supervisors may be subject to individual liability for failing adequately to receive, investigate, or act upon complaints of wrongdoing by department employees if they: 1) received notice of pattern of unconstitutional acts committed by subordinates; 2) demonstrated deliberate indifference to or tacit authorization of offensive acts; 3) failed to take sufficient remedial action, and 4) such failure proximately caused injury ( Andrews v. Fowler , 1996; see also Ware v.
Jackson County, MO , 1998).
Performance feedback and documentation have become the cornerstone of employers’ defense against discrimination and wrongful termination charges and, as a result, have become one of management’s most important responsibilities (Malos, 1998). Yet appraisals can be an organization’s greatest vulnerability when they are not performed or executed satisfactorily.
Hence, a good idea is to ensure that poorly performing employees are notified of work-related problems, so they cannot later claim that they would have improved but for the employer’s failure to properly manage their performance. Such negligence was addressed in two court cases.
In Chamberlain v. Bissell (1982) a company manager relied on a performance evaluation to discharge an employee. However, the employee in question was never informed that he would be discharged if his performance did not improve. The court held that the manager breached his duty to use ordinary care in conducting performance evaluations. Because the manager was in a position to give the employee an opportunity to improve, the court held that the manager was negligent in conducting the performance evaluation. Likewise, in Schipani v. Ford Motor
Company (1981) the court held that plaintiff could state a cause of action against his employer for negligence in carrying out performance evaluations. The court indicated that “…the law

Doing Nothing … 24 imposes an obligation upon everyone who attempts to do anything for another, even gratuitously, to exercise some degree of care and skill in the performance of what he had undertaken, for nonperformance of which duty an action lies” (p. 623). Thus, legally it may be important to keep employees advised of poor performance so they cannot contest discharge by claiming that their behavior would have improved but for a faulty evaluation and review process.
Furthermore, any act of discrimination should be dealt with immediately. Sexual harassment, a form of sex discrimination, receives much attention in the workplace and properly so. Such behavior can have serious consequences to persons being harassed and to organizations as well. These firms often suffer damaged employee morale, lost productivity, costly law suits, and public relations nightmares because of organizational inaction or a lack of taking immediate action (Peirce, Smolinski, & Rosen, 1998). Indeed, the United States Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission’s (1999) long-standing guidance on employer liability for harassment by co-workers assumes employer liability if the employer knew or should have known of the misconduct, unless it can show that it undertook reasonable care to prevent and promptly correct harassment.
Conclusion
Summary
Management nonresponse to employee productive work behavior is equivalent to extinction which decades of research has shown results in gradual decreases of such desirable behavior. Thus, doing nothing, often described as ignoring good performance in organizational contexts, either consciously or unconsciously, decreases the frequency of effective behavior. The problem with extinction is that the process cannot be directly observed. Since extinction remains a passive process, supervisors may not notice anything happening immediately, but, slowly, over

Doing Nothing … 25 time, the desirable behavior changes for the worse. Every time a worker does something positive and nothing happens, that behavior weakens. Eventually, previously industrious employees do just enough to not get fired, leaving supervisors wondering what happened with those formerly promising workers. Rather than look at what went wrong with subordinates, a more useful approach might be for leaders to consider the possibility that they themselves may be contributing substantially to their employees’ inadequate performance, an approach Campbell,
Von Bergen, Soper, and Gaster (2003) refer to as “mirror management” (p. 21).
Effective managers exhibit both reward and disciplinary behavior towards subordinates
(Arvey, Davis, & Nelson, 1984) and let people know where they stand by recognizing good behavior and correcting those who may be off track. They give ongoing support, guidance, and instruction to those who need improvement and they are not hesitant to confront poor performers. They do not shirk a leader’s primary responsibility which includes ensuring that employees continually perform at desired levels. They correct problems when they occur, not after they have been ignored for so long that they have become disasters. Overlooking the situation and hoping that things will improve is a recipe for disaster. Hope should not be considered a business strategy (Froschheiser, 2010).
Negative performance feedback, though, presents a dilemma. Most believe it necessary but few want to deliver it (Ilgen & Davis, 2000). Due to their aversion to providing workers negative comments managers often avoid doing so and ignore performance problems. This leads employees to believe their performance to be acceptable, until the frequency or severity of performance problems and the manager’s frustration at the employee rise to extremely high levels (Larson, 1989). Such frustration-driven feedback often results in destructive criticism that can be interpersonally biting, sarcastic, inconsiderate, threatening, and harsh (Baron, 1990,

Doing Nothing … 26
1993). Such a reproach may account for Kluger and DeNisi’s (1996) finding that although feedback interventions improve performance on average, they reduce performance in more than one third of the cases and that feedback effectiveness decreases as attention moves up the hierarchy closer to the recipient and away from a task or behavior.
It remains important that leaders understand that people do what they do because of what happens to them when they do it, and a supervisor must carefully examine what consequences workers receive for their good or bad conduct. In many cases a supervisor will see an employee performing unwanted behavior because that action may be more pleasant and satisfying (e.g., easier, comfortable, less stressful, financially rewarding, status enhancing) than engaging in approved ways. Failure to consider what workers obtain from misbehavior is an ill-advised leadership approach.
Implications for managers
A number of implications for managers can be summarized. First, in any type of situation, effective leadership depends on reinforcing, motivating, and rewarding value enhancing behaviors in order to spur superior performance. The vast majority of leaders in organizations, however, believe they are doing so but subordinates tell a different story.
Supervisors are thus encouraged to err on the side of providing too much positive reinforcement and to offer more frequent, specific, and personal recognition to employees. Something as simple as a pat on the back represents a meaningful incentive (Nelson, 1994) and so managers must not feel constrained by budgetary concerns, but rather only by their own imagination. It remains critical to note, though, that inexpensive gifts must be thoughtful and personalized; otherwise, the leader will appear cheap and inconsiderate (Podsakoff et al., 2010).

Doing Nothing … 27
Second, managers must ensure an appropriate relationship between employee behavior and supervisor consequences. This refers to the idea of contingency. Contingent reward behavior may be defined as the leader’s administration of positive feedback in the form of recognition, praise, and/or acknowledgment to those employees who demonstrate good performance whereas contingent punishment behavior can be defined as leader’s administration of negative feedback in the form of reprimands, criticism, or disapproval to employees who exhibit unacceptable behaviors. The general finding remains that both leader contingent reward and punishment behaviors are positively associated with employee attitudes, perceptions, and behaviors beneficial to organizations. Both contingent rewards and punishments administered to workers based on performance or task behaviors reduce role ambiguity and improve employee satisfaction, effort, conscientiousness and performance, although contingent punishment to a smaller extent than contingent reward (Podakoff et al., 2010). Additionally, contingent reward and punishment behavior promotes group drive, cohesiveness, and productivity although again punishment effects appear weaker than contingent reward behaviors.
A third implication suggests that supervisors must realize that for greater misbehavior there is a high cost of doing nothing (Moore, 2002). Typically, bad conduct continues and in many cases will escalate as well as spread to others in the workgroup who may model the undesirable performance. When ignored, little things often turn into big things. To decrease such unwanted behavior punishment may be administered (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2007). Effectively used punishment does have an appropriate place in management; however, if supervisors only punish what they do not want and do not reinforce what they do want, improvement in performance is unlikely. Thus, supervisors should be encouraged to reinforce behavior

Doing Nothing … 28 incompatible with the unwanted behavior; for example, staying at work station vs. taking excessive breaks.
Fourth, supervisors should not allow work-related problems to go unchecked and should counsel poor performers to encourage behavioral improvement and document action taken. Only after a supervisor determines—perhaps through a process similar to Mager and Pipe’s (1984) analyzing performance problems—that an employee does not have a skill or ability deficiency
(perhaps because of a lack of training), or that there are obstacles beyond the employee’s control such as inadequate equipment or disruptive colleagues, should punishment be administered. The point is that if the cause of an employee’s problem exists outside his or her control, then punishment might not be appropriate. If an employee can perform but does not, then punishment may be called for and proper documentation necessary. A good guideline to remember is that “If
It Wasn’t Documented, It Didn’t Happen.” The goal of documentation attempts to clearly memorialize the firm’s efforts to address problematic behavior (Clancy & Warner, 1999). When followed regularly, accurate and contemporaneous documentation will add authenticity and credibility to the events leading to the supervisory action and will help the firm prevail against claims of wrongful discharge, breach of contract, and discrimination. Without proper documentation, the employee would be much more likely to win in the event of a court case
(e.g., Lloyd v. Georgia Gulf Corp ., 1992).
Finally, managers should do their best to address problematic behavior and avoid delivering destructive criticism to subordinates. The costs of doing so, in terms of lowered employee motivation and increased conflict, may be very costly. It is recommended that leaders clarify the negative feedback they administer to workers by identifying the specific behaviors that are being punished and why, be considerate and respectful, communicate no threats or

Doing Nothing … 29 suggestions that an individual’s poor performance might be due to negative internal forces (such as a low intelligence or laziness), ask the employee what further resources he or she needs to effectively do their job, and clearly specify what the employee should do to avoid punishment in the future. These guidelines are designed to correct a problem or modify ineffective behaviors and are not intended to embarrass or publicly ridicule an employee. A constructive disciplinary interview can play an instrumental role in converting an ineffective performer into a productive member of the organization.
Finally, it may be well to remember management guru Peter Drucker’s keen observation that “The manager directs people or misdirects them. He brings out what is in them or he stifles them…. Every manager does these things when he manages—whether he knows it or not. He may do them well, or he may do them wretchedly. But he always does them” (Drucker, 1954, p.
344). Drucker seemed to focus on managerial action but as demonstrated in this paper managerial inaction also influences workers. Most managers seldom recognize the dramatic impact of their own failure to act on their subordinates and that many performance problems are created not only by what they do but also by what they don’t do. There is a high price of a failure to act.

Doing Nothing … 30
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