Today’s business world is full of research that offers “no-fail” suggestions to improve various strategies, processes and relationships. Of course, most of it makes the mistake of assuming that the people and companies being addressed are functional — which is delusional at best.

Steve Tobak, a founding partner of Invisor Consulting, recently asked at CNET:

Does your boss act out and throw tantrums like a spoiled child? Does your company ship most of its product the last 24 hours of the quarter? Are you afraid to bring up certain hot-button issues in meetings for fear of being humiliated? Do you spend more time covering your ass than you do sitting on it? Is your company in a perpetual state of limbo because nobody can make a decision? Does your company’s mission statement change weekly?

If so, you likely work in a dysfunctional workplace.

Dysfunctional behavior is characterized by unstable relationships, harmful habits, poor organization, lack of confidence and the inability to make good choices, according to Tom E. Jones, author of If It’s Broken, You Can Fix It: Overcoming Dysfunction in the Workplace.

Knowledge@Wharton recently reviewed Marshall Goldsmith‘s new book What Got You Here Won’t Get You There, outlining the 20 habits that “hold you back from the top” (which Goldsmith discusses in detail in his book). These harmful individual habits, I think it’s safe to say, further contribute to dysfunctional workplaces:

• Passing judgment;
• Destructive comments;
• Negativity;
• Failure to recognize others’ success;
• Claiming unjustified credit;
• Making excuses;
• Playing favorites;
• Not listening;
• Passing the buck; and
• Refusing to express regret — or gratitude, for that matter.

Although dysfunctional types of behavior are not new to the workplace, they are becoming more commonplace and increasingly difficult to handle. Here are some ways to cope in such an environment.

First, “Be optimistic,” says by John Strelecky, author of The Why Are You Here Café, at The Effective Admin.

It is unlikely that the life goal of those who founded the company or those who are running the company is the creation of a place where people spend 40 or more hours per week at a place that is dysfunctional. More likely is that over time dysfunction reared its head, and for some reason has grown and spread. It could have been the result of competing cultures after a buy-out, growth pains as the organization got larger, or possibly just bad leadership.

“Be optimistic that the dysfunctional state can be turned around and that people are trying to do it,” Strelecky writes.

Of course, not all of us are of the optimistic ilk. Moreover, once a workplace becomes dysfunctional, what we typically hear when trying to change it is, “Oh, it’s always been like this.”

So, rather than hope and wish for others to change, what you can actually do is remain in control. Competition in the workplace has become more intense in recent years, as coworkers have become rivals. Remove the likeliness of clashing egos from the equation by ceasing to feed “ego monsters,” for example. Avoid “returning fire — no matter [how] under siege you feel,” as Margot Carmichael Lester writes at Monster.com.

Suck up your ego and take what is dished out — but don’t be a total namby-pamby; when you have ideas to share, be fearless — not foolish.

Enlist allies by finding common ground with one or two others. Establish affiliations of mutual mentality to commiserate, complain or even laugh at others’ workplace antics. This allows you let off steam with those who share similar work-related experiences, in which case it might be best to keep the group under the radar. Plus, this also brings together an alliance to address and improve things.

Above all, remove yourself from the dysfunctional environment. This doesn’t mean leaving your job. Rather, tune yourself out from the negativity (insanity?) and “step away from the action,” Lester writes. Simply do not participate, as “the thing that makes dysfunctional behavior thrive is the participation of dysfunctional people,” Monster.com quotes Donna Flagg, principal of learning and productivity specialist for The Krysalis Group.

Extensive studies have been done on behavioral patterns among groups and have thus concluded that people will imitate behavior that appears to be socially acceptable — even if it is not their normal behavior. In other words, people imitate other people’s actions. In the context of the workplace, people acting dysfunctional will influence others to also act dysfunctional. It’s its own little hell, and it’s self-perpetuating.

Instead, break the chain by being part of the solution. Stay focused, functional. Concentrate on your job performance while others are engaged in less-productive activities.

If none of this works, only then should you consider leaving and looking for another job — where, let’s face, you very well might find yourself in another dysfunctional workplace, in which case revisit the tips above. Rinse, wash, repeat.

Related: Office Politics: Playing the Game with Dignity

Resources

Seven Ways to Handle Your Dysfunctional Office
by Margot Carmichael Lester
Monster.com

Functioning in a Dysfunctional Workplace
by John Strelecky
The Effective Admin

Do You Have a Dysfunctional Workplace?
by Steve Tobak
CNET blog, Aug. 20, 2007

To Marshall Goldsmith: Thank You for Writing This Book (And We’re Not Sucking Up)
Knowledge@Wharton, July 11, 2007