The Team Performance Paradox

How a Single Toxic Behavior

Can Sabotage a Project

COMMENTARY

By Luca Paolo Giuseppe Prinzio

Turin, Italy

“A single toxic behavior can cost 40% of performance. Are you measuring it?”

Discover the Felps experiment and how to change team management in projects.

 Abstract

This article, inspired by Will Felps’ experiment, shows how even a single dysfunctional behaviour can drastically reduce a team’s performance. It proposes tools and approaches for the Project Manager to read, prevent, and transform relational dynamics in complex projects.

Introduction

In 2006, researcher Will Felps, together with colleagues Terence R. Mitchell and Eliza Byington, published a study that would leave a profound mark on the field of organisational psychology: How, When, and Why Bad Apples Spoil the Barrel: Negative Group Members and Dysfunctional Groups. The work, published in Research in Organizational Behavior, explored a theme as intuitive as it is underestimated: the destabilising effect that a single dysfunctional behaviour can exert on the entire balance of a team.

Starting from a theoretical analysis and a solid review of the literature, the researchers formalised a principle that many managers experience empirically but struggle to translate into practice: dysfunctional dynamics in groups do not develop linearly, but exponentially. In other words, a single hostile, apathetic, or chronically negative member can disproportionately compromise overall performance, even when the other team members are motivated, brilliant, and well-intentioned.

Among the studies conducted as part of their research, one in particular became emblematic for its evocative power. In a controlled university environment, Felps and colleagues divided students into small working groups tasked with solving a complex management problem within 45 minutes. The group with the best performance would receive a monetary prize. However, in some groups, an actor was inserted—unknown to the other participants—instructed to impersonate one of three dysfunctional roles: the Withdrawn, disengaged and apathetic, often with feet on the table and eyes on their mobile phone; the Sarcastic, critical and contemptuous, ready to ridicule others’ ideas; and finally the Pessimist, constantly demoralised and ready to discourage any initiative with phrases like “We’ll never make it anyway”.

More…

To read entire paper, click here

How to cite this work: Prinzio, L. P. G. (2026). The Team Performance Paradox: How a Single Toxic Behavior Can Sabotage a Project, PM World Journal, Vol. XV, Issue V, May. Available online at https://pmworldjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/pmwj164-May2026-Prinzio-The-Team-Performance-Paradox.pdf

About the Author

Luca Paolo Giuseppe Prinzio

Turin, Italy

Luca Paolo Giuseppe Prinzio is a certified Project Manager and Database Administrator at CSI Piemonte in Turin, Italy, where he participates in complex projects on cloud and security. For over twenty years he has worked in the ICT world and carries out teaching and consulting activities in the field of Project Management. He can be contacted at lprinzio@gmail.com and linkedin.com/in/lprinzio