Passive-aggressive behavior

Passive-aggressive behavior was first defined clinically by Colonel William C. Menninger during World War II in the context of soldiers' reactions to military compliance. Menninger described soldiers who were not openly defiant but expressed their civil disobedience (what he called "aggressiveness") by "passive measures, such as pouting, stubbornness, procrastination, inefficiency, and passive obstructionism" due to what Menninger saw as an "immaturity" and a reaction to routine military stress.

Passive–aggressive personality disorder can be described as a personality trait marked by a pervasive pattern of negative attitudes and characterized by passive, sometimes obstructionist resistance to complying with expectations in interpersonal or occupational situations. This includes behaviors such as condescension, belittling, snubbing, subtly insulting insinuations, contrarianism, procrastination, stubbornness, sabotage, the silent treatment, victim playing, sarcasm, resentment, sullenness, or deliberate/repeated failure to accomplish requested tasks for which one is responsible.

An outdated definition rejected by the American Psychiatric Association is as follows: Passive-aggressive behavior is characterized by a habitual pattern of non-active resistance to expected work requirements, opposition, sullenness, stubbornness, and negative attitudes in response to requirements for normal performance levels expected by others. Most frequently it occurs in the workplace, where resistance is exhibited by indirect behaviors such as procrastination, forgetfulness, and purposeful inefficiency, especially in reaction to demands by authority figures, but it can also occur in interpersonal contexts.

In conflict theory, passive-aggressive behavior can resemble behavior better described as catty, as it consists of deliberate, active, but carefully veiled hostile acts which are distinctively different in character from the non-assertive style of passive resistance.

Passive-aggressive behavior in the workplace can lead to conflict and damage team unity and productivity. If ignored, it could result in decreased efficiency and frustration among workers. If managers are passive-aggressive, it can end up stifling team creativity. One researcher states that it would "make perfect sense that those promoted to leadership positions might often be those who on the surface appear to be agreeable, diplomatic and supportive, yet who are actually dishonest, backstabbing saboteurs behind the scenes."