ABSTRACT
While this book is based on a real research study, and has a theoretical basis, it is perfectly reasonable to compare why people stay in workplaces where they have experienced antisocial workplace behavior (AWB) to why people stay in dysfunctional relationships. Low self-esteem, lack of other options, financial dependence – all of these are easily understood reasons for why people stay in unfortunate, unhealthy relationships. And all of them appear in the organizational context as well. During the research phase for this book, average people would strike up conversation with me when they saw me parked at a table in Panera Bread or Starbucks and ask what I was working on; as soon as I said I was researching why people stay in workplaces where they’ve experienced AWB, everybody had an answer. It often seemed that people were all too ready to give a pat response that would (I guess) eliminate the need for any further study. They’d say, “that’s easy, they stay for the money” or “they stay ’cause they need a job!” Common sense, right? But you know that common sense isn’t all that common.
