5 Steps to Detoxify a Toxic Work Culture, According to New MIT Research

Back when just about every business pundit out there was scratching his or her head trying to figure out the causes of the Great Resignation, a team of MIT researchers decided to take a more data-driven approach. They combed through more than a million Glassdoor reviews, collating employee complaints with attrition rates to pin down what was driving people out the door. 

The conclusion after all this number crunching was clear: for the type of workers that use Glassdoor at least, a toxic culture was the top reason to quit. 

“A toxic corporate culture is by far the strongest predictor of industry-adjusted attrition and is 10 times more important than compensation in predicting turnover,” claimed the authors, defining toxicity as “failure to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion; workers feeling disrespected; and unethical behavior.”

The diagnosis was clear, but what about the prescription? It’s one thing to know you really, really shouldn’t tolerate a toxic culture if you want your employees to stick around and thrive in an incredibly tight labor market. It’s another thing to actually understand how to change your toxic culture. 

Clearly some follow-up research was needed, and it’s just been published in the MIT Sloan Management Review. The lengthy article is a must read if you suspect your culture could use some improvement, but the bottom line is that three common sense factors drive toxic cultures: bad leadership, workplace norms, and work design. 

That’s not hard to believe (nor particularly surprising). The more useful part of the article comes when the authors drill down and begin offering specific advice for how leaders can start to detoxify their cultures. Again, the article offers a lot more detail, but here are the first five steps suggested by the research: 

1. Quantify the benefits. You have a lot on your plate as a leader but as we’ve all heard a thousand times “what gets measured, gets managed.” That goes for culture too. “Keep cultural detox on the agenda by explicitly linking cultural improvements to bottom-line benefits, such as lower attrition or employee health care costs,” the researchers advise, adding: “To be clear, leaders should address cultural toxicity because it’s the right thing to do, but quantifying the benefits can help keep culture detox a priority for top teams that are being pulled in many directions.” 

2. Publicly report progress. It’s chaotic and demanding at the top. Don’t expect good intentions to be enough to drive change. Create some external accountability and you’re more likely to get the job done. “Top teams can invite external pressure to stay the course by publicly reporting progress against their cultural aspirations (rather than simply posting a list of core values on the corporate website),” suggest the researchers. That might mean publicly disclosing Equal Employment Opportunity Commission diversity data, for example. 

3. Model good behavior. Employees will ignore what you say and simply copy what you do. Employees “tend to discount lofty statements about abstract values. Instead, they closely observe what leaders do for signals about what behavior is encouraged, expected, and tolerated,” say the researchers. “When leaders act consistently with core values, however, it is one of the most powerful predictors of how positively employees rate their corporate culture.” 

4. Seek out honest data. One of the perils of leadership is becoming insulated from bad but important news. ”In a survey of 16,000 managers across nearly 500 companies, top executives were 24% more likely to say that they addressed unethical behavior quickly and consistently compared with how well middle managers thought the C-suite dealt with unethical actions,” the researchers report. So look for ways to get unvarnished feedback on how you’re progressing, including from sources like Glassdoor. 

5. Coach your managers on how not to be toxic. There isn’t a huge amount of evidence showing coaching can eliminate toxic behavior (true jerks may simply have to be fired or at the very least not promoted), but the authors suggest it’s worth a try. They also cite research that suggests reminding managers about the negative impacts of bad behavior and being crystal clear about what constitutes toxicity encourages them to act in ways that help employees stick around and thrive. 

There are no magic bullets or overnight successes when it comes to something as tricky as overhauling your culture. But this MIT research suggests detoxifying a toxic workplace isn’t a hopeless task either (just ask Satya Nadella).