8.21 DOES RUDENESS REALLY MATTER IN THE WORKPLACE? Studies have established that rudeness in the workplace can lead to retaliatory and counterproductive behavior. However, there has been little research on how rude behaviors influence a victim's task performance. Such a study was conducted, with the results published in the Academy of Management Journal (Oct. 2007). College students enrolled in a management course were randomly assigned to one of two experimental conditions: rudeness condition (45 students) and control group (53 students). Each student was asked to write down as many uses for a brick as possible in 5 minutes. For those students in the rudeness condition, the facilitator displayed rudeness by generally berating students for being irresponsible and unprofessional (due to a late-arriving confederate). No comments were made about the late-arriving confederate to students in the control group. The number of different uses for a brick was recorded for each of the 98 students and is shown at the bottom of page 452. Conduct a statistical analysis (at ?=.01) to determine if the true mean performance level for students in the rudeness condition is lower than the true mean performance level for students in the control group.

Subject Condition UsesBrick:Contro Helpful:Contro var5 Subject Condition UsesBrick:Rud Helpful:Rude 1 Control 1 54 Rude 2 Control 24 55 Rude 3 Control 56 Rude 4 Control 16 57 Rude 5 Control 21 58 Rude 6 Control 7 59 Rude 7 Control 60 Rude 8 Control 61 Rude 9 Control 62 Rude 10 Control 63 Rude 11 Control 64 Rude 12 Control 65 Rude 13 Control 56 Rude 14 Control 67 Rude 15 Control 68 Rude 16 Control 69 Rude 17 Control 70 Rude 18 Control 71 Rude 19 Control 72 Rude 20 Control 73 Rude 21 Control 74 Rude 22 Control 75 Rude 23 Control 76 Rude 24 Control 77 Rude 25 Control 78 Rude 26 Control 79 Rude 27 Control 80 Rude 28 Control 81 Rude 29 Control 82 Rude 30 Control 83 Rude 31 Control 84 Rude 32 Control 85 Rude 33 Control 86 Rude 34 Control 87 Rude 35 Control 88 Rude 36 Control 89 Rude 37 Control 90 Rude 38 Control 91 Rude 39 Control 92 Rude 40 Control 93 Rude 41 Control 94 Rude 42 Control 95 Rude 43 Control 96 Rude 44 Control 10 97 Rude 45 Contro 13 98 Rude 46 Control 47 Control 48 Control 49 Control 50 Control 51 Control 52 Control 53 Control