Some Signs of a Sick Organization (by Adrian R. Lawler, 2011)
If for any of the following generalized questions the answer is yes, then there is a problem with whatever organization is being examined, i.e., it is sick. The more yes answers the more severe the sickness..... Even if only one answer is yes, depending on the importance of the question, the organization may need immediate help from higher authorities to turn it around. The questions are in no particular order. There may be other signs of a sick organization that should be listed.
It is suggested that workers get answers to these questions before they accept a job at the organization they are considering. Others already at a sick organization will have to decide on whether to ride it out in order to get a retirement, or other goal, or leave. Sometimes people are trapped and cannot leave because they cannot get a good (or honest) letter of recommendation from the sick organization. It is stressful to work at a sick organization, and this stress can lead to health, and other, problems. Unfortunately, sick organizations can be found about everywhere covering any job field.
QUESTIONS:
Does organization condone/allow any of following: slander, favoritism, politics trumping research/truth, infighting, persecution, handbook violation, nepotism, etc.?
Are the leaders going around declaring that they, and their organization, are "world-class?"
Does the organization or a supervisor not get it right on the "little" things and thus cannot be trusted to get it right on the "big" things?
Does the organization/person not research very well, if at all, to find the truth before they publish their slanders, thus looking bad for an organization doing research, and putting into question the capabilities, research honesty, and expertise of some of its workers?
Does an organization researcher not do his/her research to find the truth and then publish slanders against another as being the truth, then causing damage to his/her credibility as a researcher and his/her organization's credibility?
Is there retaliation if an employee voices his/her opinion?
Do politics play a greater role than research/truth, or fair play in operation of organization?
Does the organization retain a bullying, slandering supervisor and thus also retain a bad reputation?
Is each type of unit in organization run like a small kingdom with fighting with other kingdoms over money, space, personnel, students/interns, equipment, etc. leading to distrust of others within the parent organization?
Is there any glaring lack of research on anything (even a small case) by someone at an organization doing research?
Is there almost constant drama and turmoil at the organization?
Do authorities take credit for the ideas and work of others?
Do authorities neglect to recognize the good works of the employees?
Does the organization treat employees unfairly, not follow the handbook, or not treat employees with respect?
Do authorities cater to their favorites?
Do employees refuse to acknowledge help from others?
Does the organization have few or no joint projects between separate units?
Are there few, or no, social functions where the supervisors and staff can interact (other than seminars/meetings)?
Does the organization violate US Constitution and other laws and tell people to hire a good attorney if they complain or question?
Are the locals generally unaware of what goes on at the organization in question?
Do authorities "brush off" or ignore or get angry at questioning by members of the public, media, or staff?
Does organization tap phones, monitor email, employ spies, or inspect/divert mail to spy on its staff?
In times of trouble, does the organization keep a teller of jokes over a highly qualified person?
Does the organization tell its staff they can be replaced at any time?
Are people set-up and fired on any reason their boss can think up, or no reason at all?
Does the organization exclude minorities, handicapped, older people, females, etc. ?
Does organization cater to the ones with the biggest "hissy-fit," or voice, or political connection?
Do authorities "twist" the truth to get the answer, or set-up they want?
Does organization leadership operate like a gang of arrogant thugs?
Is the organization changing/making up rules as they go along, going back on promises, lying, etc?
Are employees cheated out of their discoveries or sick, vacation, comp time, or pay?
Are employees kept in their place by constant threats and intimidation?
Are free-thinkers singled out for persecution and/or firing?
Are there people that do little or nothing, or are rarely on site?
Are decisions left hanging for long periods of time?
Do bosses buy stuff just to make sure all their budget is spent?
Are staff meetings held where bosses tell others what to do & staff cannot make comments?
Do BS artists or unqualified people hold positions of power in organization?
Are "yes people" or political darlings showered with the best of everything, or fawned over?
Are employees turned over frequently because bosses use them up?
Is there a high turnover of employees?
Are there bullies or ill-tempered people that have been there a long time?
Is there the attitude of leaders that "we can do anything we want to anybody anytime?"
Does organization give employees impossible tasks that they can never accomplish?
Is there no one to hear problems or suggestions or complaints?
Do know-nothings concerning your job have control over you?
Do bosses give themselves huge raises while giving the employees little or nothing?
Do bosses periodically give employees nasty, dirty jobs to keep employees in their place?
Does the head person refuse to acknowledge an employee's existence, or answer his/her important questions, or defend him/her when he/she is wronged?
Are there wives, girlfriends, or relatives of the leaders also working there?
Do some of leaders use organization property for their own personal use?
If supported by taxpayers, are people making frequent fact-finding trips (vacations)?
Is the staff not given fair warning of any rule changes?
Do supervisors leave nasty notes for the employees to keep them on their toes?
Does organization run on "big show" and "BS" rather than efficiency and accuracy?
Has the turmoil in organization lasted more than a year, or is it still being neglected by higher authorities?
Does organization keep an employee they hate because he/she gets the job done?
Do organization leaders give out hyped-up awards to each other or to their favorites, and not acknowledge the employees actually doing the job?
Do the staff think that PR released is a joke, or hyped up, or wrongly cited?
Do mates/partners of the employees want them to work elsewhere?
Does the organization have a poor or blah reputation among other similar organizations, past employees, local people, or students/interns?
Does organization try to negate those they do not like, that question them, or that do not agree with them?
Do employees find they have little time for a life outside of their work life?
Are the leaders like a bunch of cats, running around to cover up their messes?
Do employees feel they cannot trust their supervisors/leaders?
Does organization conduct "kangaroo court" hearings to justify their actions against employees, or have no hearing at all prior to making their major judgements?
Does organization try to avoid complying with freedom-of-information inquiries?
Do leaders try to bury their mistakes and demand they be hushed up, but make "mountains" out of employee mistakes to make themselves look good and employees bad?
Do employees have an apprehensive or sickening feeling when they arrive on site?
Do leaders always rule against employees in favor of supervisors?
Are employees afraid to question or complain because they get ridiculed or persecuted?
Are employees in mental pain because someone else they are apprehensive about can mess with their job or future?
Do leaders act like they have no conscience, or do not care?
Do supervisors rampage through a work area like a "bull in a china shop," listing, or yelling about, anything they see wrong?
Does a supervisor go through work area at night when no one else is around to note /take pictures of anything out of place to use against the employees?
Do employees work out of fear, rather than out of joy of learning and doing?
Do items mysteriously disappear/get moved from work areas, and supervisor says nothing about it?
Are people at organization afraid to admit an error, and never say "I apologize" or "I'm sorry" when they do something wrong?
Do supervisors manage through adversity, rather than through joint cooperation in learning about or doing job?
Are employees complaining about being violated, or unfairly treated?
Do employees spend a lot of time trying to protect their jobs?
Do people "mind read" and put words/motives as coming from others when it is not true?
Does organization refuse to accept a principle that is generally accepted as the truth/fact by similar other organizations?
Is there a combative relationship between organization, and/or its leaders, and its employees?
Does organization "contain" employees rather than lead them?
Does organization put forth the political position as the answer rather than the truth?
Does the organization refuse to put forth a position on an internal problem, or an ethical question?
Does the organization almost always support those bringing in money, no matter how bad they are as bosses or ethical beings?
Does the organization have a staff handbook they only use to punish those they want to punish?
Do supervisors use industry meetings as means for free vacations?
Does organization allow no other opinions or ideas from the staff?
Does organization control all PR going out, and not allow any PR out making one of their opponents look good?
Does organization say verbal promises that are later denied, or not kept?
Did someone commit suicide to end their involvement and agony and send a message?
Is money being moved from one account to another?
Is leader giving sweetheart deals on property, benefits, etc. to friends or relatives?
Are motor-driven things owned by organization being used as playtoys by the leaders?
Are leaders eating real high on the hog from organization money?
Are leaders charging personal trips to the organization?
See other posts on sick organizations.
If copied, author name must stay with article.
Adrian R. Lawler, Ph.D., (C) 2011 --
I thank two readers of this post for editing it and improving its presentation.
Tried to paste a .rtf file of mine to this post. It did not agree with template so there are problems with questions running together, spacing, etc. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteThe questions came from several people scattered around the country, including my father, and their many jobs over many years (over 60), and a speech given years ago. I tried to generalize the questions so they would apply to any and ALL organizations.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.continuitycentral.com/news05907.html
ReplyDeleteFrom Above:
Dr Tehrani has found four fundamental causes that create sick organizations: organizations born out of trauma and established by individuals or groups of individuals who have experienced or have been touched by a traumatic event; internally damaged organizations - businesses that become traumatised through the activities of one or more employees (rogue traders, failure to adhere to safety standards or other corporate scandals); externally attacked organizations – those caught up in terrorist bombings, fire, floods, hostile take-overs or overbearing monitoring and regulation; and secondary traumatised organizations – emergency services or others interfacing with distressed people, which would cause them to be serially affected by trauma that is indirect, insidious, gradual or hidden.
“Organizations may not even be aware they are (or potentially could be) sick or dysfunctional. It is often only when something goes badly wrong and they think it is the event itself that has caused the bad reaction when actually, they have been dysfunctional all along. All the recent event or trauma has done is bring their dark side to the fore,” observes Tehrani.
Tell-tale signs of dysfunctional organizations (which could also be apparent at a departmental rather than organizational level) are: high rate of staff turnover, high absenteeism, high incidences of employee or ex-employee litigation, either no or little sign of business growth, low productivity, high cost per employee.
“Employees expect their organization to behave in ways that are compassionate, supportive and responsive to their needs but what if the organization itself is traumatised and in need of help? It isn’t helpful to berate it for its failings. We need to focus on providing environments in which employees, leaders and the organization can work together to recognise and deal with the symptoms of extreme stress.” Tehrani concludes.
http://inbadcompanyinc.wordpress.com/bad-company-inc/
ReplyDeleteFrom above:
BCI = Bad Company Incorporated
BCI is a fictitious name of a non-fictitious company I worked for. Other words have been used in business literature like sick organizations, poor leadership, unhealthy organizations, bad managers, etc. The amount of names to describe a sick organization is plentiful. There is a difference between not liking some of your co-workers / managers and to working for a sick organization. I can not concretely say what the threshold is for being a sick organization. There are a lot of factors to determine that the entire organization is sick and it may be so obvious because people are yelling at each other…but what does a company look like when the organization is sick but it is subtle.
BCI is in fact an organization that does not have people yelling, throwing things, screaming, etc. Instead they operate at the subtle level. Meaning they are sick without the general opinion of them being so. And you may question my opinion about this company being sick if there are no obvious signs of its sickness. What would be the fun in that…nothing ever intriguing is obvious. Everything cruel is in fact subtle.
http://www.execupundit.com/2007/02/sick-organizations.html
ReplyDeleteFrom Above:
Some organizations are sick. Upper management routinely sends messages that inadvertently - or perhaps not so inadvertently in some cases - tell employees that they are easily replaced, their co-workers are rivals, management distrusts them, customers are adversaries, and that there is a big gap between what is proclaimed and what is practiced.
In many cases, the illness is so severe that the patient is delusional. Various "problem employees" are identified, but the organization's problem is not noticed. (It reminds me of the old Jackie Mason line that his mother didn't know how much he drank until one day he came home sober.) The leadership of the organization is so steeped in poor practices that the executives think treating people shabbily is normal, wise, and "all part of the game."
Acknowledgements:
ReplyDeleteThe questions came from several people (including an ex, various friends, etc.) scattered around the country, including my father, and their many jobs (experiences) over many years (over 60) and organizations, a speech given years ago by a higher education official (statements turned into questions), various ideas derived from the internet, and me (who has been at various organizations over several states). I tried to generalize the questions so they would apply to any and ALL organizations.
In order to better illustrate sick organizations, which are everywhere, I have added the three above comments to post from the internet.
http://www.organizedchange.com/assess.htm
ReplyDeleteSome taken from above:
Assessing and Improving Your Organization:
Symptoms, Diagnosis and Cures
David Chaudron, PhD
Almost all of us belonged to some sick organization or another and at times all of us feel frustrated with them. Unfortunately, many of us are untrained in diagnosing what is going wrong in an organization. All we know is that it isn't working well.
That sick feeling is from the Stewed Tomato Surprise you had last night, or that disastrous meeting this morning.
To properly diagnose what is happening in an organization, we start like a doctor - with symptoms. Once we can describe what is going wrong, we look for causes, and recommend a prescription for what ails us.
Summary of steps
The process has four steps as described below: 1) get started; 2) assess; 3) choose treatments and use them; and 4) periodically evaluate.
See more at website.
http://www.organizedchange.com/assess.htm
ReplyDeleteFrom above:
Symptoms across most of your organization. If illness is prevalent in your company, it implies that organizational systems are a primary cause of the symptoms. Organizational systems such as the organizational structure, compensation, management style, performance appraisal, employee selection process, authority/communication patterns, as well as organizational mission, vision and goals are the major(but often overlooked) causes of organizational ill health. A rule of thumb is that the more widespread the organizational sickness, the more likely that these systems are causing it.
http://work911.com/articles/toxicorgs.htm
ReplyDeleteSee this site for a good discussion of sick
organizations, "Toxic leader," other signs of a sick organization, and more.