Bob Sutton’s The No Asshole Rule has gained a lot of traction lately no doubt for two main reasons: the stickiness of the title and the fact that most can probably relate to book’s subject—assholes in the workplace. Most attractive for readers is that Sutton bases his views on academic research, particularly from the fields of social psychology (Bob Cialdini), organizational psychology and primate studies by Robert Sapolsky. Sapolski, Sutton tells us, noticed how monkeys over generations became nicer after old-guard monkeys—assholes in question—were wiped out by eating diseased meat from a garbage dump. Their greed did them in, and the less aggressive—those who were denied choice morsals from the dump by their asshole kin—survived, ulitmately changing the monkey culture to shun asshole behavior. (Reminds me of our own asshole ancestors.) Worthy adjuncts to Sutton’s book are a couple of my favorites: Franz de Waal’s Chimpanzee Politics and Peacemaking Among Primates.

Implications for public relations are numerous in Sutton’s book, particularly for internal communications, understanding organizational culture and overall organizational success and functioning.