Author Topic: A Case Analysis : Passive Aggression at Work  (Read 751 times)

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A Case Analysis : Passive Aggression at Work
« on: December 18, 2011, 07:45:06 PM »
By: A. Lorenzo Lucino Jr, M.D-Ph.Dc






        Passive aggressive behavior is a psychological trait in individuals who show disinterest, dissatisfaction towards a particular profession, individual, and social responsibilities that an individual is required to uphold. Individuals who are passive aggressive may even acquiesce to the responsibilities required of them; sometimes even accepting their roles with a smile or positive effect, however, deep inside are antagonistic to it. Their internal objection to the outward acceptance is indirectly shown by different ways (Hall-Flavin, 2009). A specific example of this would be an individual named Henry who works in a home health agency, whose role is the Chief Financial Officer and Office Manager, a role that he has earned through his effective creation of the business with business partners. He completes his job and professional duties, however, always manages to be late and never on time during tax season as well as during presentation for Medicare Auditors, who inspect every single aspect of the business from billing, to patient care, to clinical rotations, to the site to site dispersion of medication by the clinical registered nurses.


   Henry has for years performed her duties as the Chief Financial Officer and Office Manager for the firm because of necessity, the basis for this was so that he could help his mother start a home health care agency, and thus, had to put her plans on continuing with medical studies on hold. Despite her successful tenure as a businessman, his passion was to work on the floor as a physician. Recently though, it has been apparent to him that he has exhibited some symptoms that are classic signs of passive aggressive personality, one in which he has been denying for quite some time.


        These symptoms include resentment and opposition to the demands of others, complaining about feeling underappreciated or cheated, procrastination, stubbornness, inefficiency, memory lapses, sullenness, irritability, as well as cynical attitude (Hall-Flavin, 2009). During the past month, while attending a conference with other home health care agency recruiters, marketers, and physicians, while giving a lecture about his firm’s goals and aspirations, he kept on thinking about physically leaving the room and driving home. The very thought of it continued to replay in his mind up until he finished her presentation. These thoughts have affected not only her ability to perform task and direct the staff, rises in abrupt cancellation of business meetings, constant tardiness to work and abrupt arguments with his mother, the company CEO, as well as with other staff. It was evident that he exhibited not only passive aggressive behavior, but at times, when uncontrolled, exhibited violent aggressive behavior when his patience was wearied thin (Merecz et al, 2009).


   Henry’s behavior had begun to affect not only the Executive CEO, whose patience was wearied thin by his inability to function his executive tasks, as well as overview the financial responsibilities of the company and acquisition of Medicare, and Medicaid reimbursements. As a result of this, the company was suffering financially, considering that most of the workers were Registered Nurses, Nurse Assistants, Physical Therapists and non-skilled aides, all of whom were salaried and paid based on the hour. However, due Henry’s recent failure in acquiring funds and properly billing patients, the company was lacking in funds to pay all of the staff. This is an example of an indirect effect on staff, colleagues in the work place due to passive-aggressive personality behavior. As a result, a number of staff began to complain about Henry’s performance, the performance and the trustworthiness of the company; some of whom filed lawsuits against the company for failure to pay workers and paychecks bouncing in the banks. These are all examples of what Thomas and Hersen mentioned as a negative effect of Passive Aggressive Behavior in the work place (Thomas and Hersen, 2002).


         It is evident that Henry’s performance as an executive, professional and social life was being affected by this psychopathology and the acceptance of it is an important aspect. Acknowledgement of the psychopathology is necessary so as to find new ways to solve the problem. By acknowledging the problem, Henry can enact methods and procedures so as to evade the negative results that she has, unfortunately, been exhibiting in the professional field as well as in his personal social life.


       The proper way in handling this situation after proper acknowledgment would be to seek counseling and a psychotherapist/psychiatrist to find out the reason for the passive-aggression, locating the catalyst and then implementing changes (Cook et al, 2003). In Henry's case, it would probably be the acknowledging of his yearning to go back to medical school and pursuing medical studies that he  has always dreamt of accomplishing. For the colleagues that were affected by his actions, they should also react by making it known to Henry as well as higher officials of her actions and how it has negatively affected them as professionals (Thomas and Hersen, 2002)


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