Not thinking of any any government department/non departmental governmental organisation in particular, but I thought this was an interesting spot from a colleague this morning on Yahoo’s finance pages:
When senior leaders make virtually all decisions in secret, dole out information in unhelpful drips, and base hiring on sheeplike compliance rather than energy and talent, and the PA system all but blares “Be glad to have a job, stop whining, and get back to work,” your company’s fear problem is off the charts.
I saw an example of this myself the other day when I stopped at a national retailer to look at earrings. A sales associate mentioned to his co-worker, “Crazy thing, I broke something in my car’s engine, and my mechanic says it’ll be $1,400 to get it fixed.” In a flash, the supervisor of the department swooped into the conversation with the message, “Lucky you’ve got a job, aren’t you then! A lot of people are unemployed, and we’ve got a list of people who’d love to have your job. That’s your thought for the afternoon: Lucky Me!” and off she went.
When leadership is based on keeping people in the dark and keeping them off-balance, no one benefits except the tier of managers near the top who justify their existence by devising ways to solidify their stature.
As Paschal noted earlier in the week: “The underlying cause of the crisis is an ethical ‘black hole’ at the heart of corporate capitalism’”… to which I might add, corporations of all kinds… But read all ten, they’re great crack…
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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