Being a cultural catalyst for change is not easy. Usually, when we get to the organisational collapse stage, people are going to assess their options, and someone will leave (Medina, 2012). Staff leaving will change the organisational, or departmental, dynamics (McCrae, 2020).
Interestingly, I was consulting to a workplace many years ago and the owner was feeling that the workplace culture was going up in smoke. She ended up taking each staff member out for a long lunch individually. She slowly realised that the receptionist was a drip-drip-drip cultural poisoner. The receptionist was dividing that workplace by cumulatively making everyone feel less welcome, less heard, more put-upon, less appreciated; she made repeated sub rosa comments, made snide remarks about the owner, and was the go-to person for "Oo, have you heard" gossip. The owner took immediate action, and had a frank talk to the receptionist about what was appropriate. The receptionist moved on soon afterwards, as they no longer had in-house allies.
In another situation a while ago, I realised that I was contributing to the sniping at work, where we should have had a Manager, but in reality had an Administrator. Like so many in the workplace, I was nice to his face while "white anting" him to my colleagues (management speak for termites eating the heart of the wood, leaving only a shell until the building collapses; Daft, 2008). Once I realised that I was effectively beating a dog for being a dog, I had to deal with my own whakamā for participating, as well as finding ways to nicely shut down the comments from others.
When we recognise weaknesses in others, our response should be to show them better ways, to develop them, to manage up; not to dismantle them sneakily from underneath. But workplace culture is covert, hidden, and pervasive. It can move us from being 'good' people to 'bad', unless we are practiced at noticing. Deal with the problem: positively. In a way our grandmothers would think was worthy!
When we find ourselves in workplaces which are becoming culturally poor, I suggest that our first steps should be in educating ourselves on organisational culture. Ed Schein wrote a lot about workplace culture (1988, 2009), as did Deal and Kennedy (the creators of the "how we do things around here" quote; 1982, p. 4); they both have books at the Internet Archive. Read current research via GoogleScholar. Check out some of my blog posts (here; and read my references). Developing our understanding of cultural behaviours helps us to identify where things are going wrong, and why respect for the professionals/professionalism in our workplace may be draining away.
In addition, taking each person in our department, or workplace, out to lunch (even if it is a sandwich in the park) allows us to have a chat about workplace culture, being the naive inquirer (here). Look for cultural cues. Afterwards we need to record our impressions as soon as we can. Then we think about it. We reflect. And over time, we will start to see a pattern, which we can try to apply corrective action to. And we can be part of the solution, not part of the problem.
I hope that helps!
Sam
References:
Bryant, P. C., & Allen, D. G. (2013). Compensation, benefits and employee turnover: HR strategies for retaining top talent. Compensation & Benefits Review, 45(3), 171-175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886368713494342
Daft, R. L. (2008). The Leadership Experience (4th ed.). Cengage.
Deal, T. E. & Kennedy, A. A. (1982). Corporate Cultures: The Rites and Rituals of Corporate Life. Penguin Books.
Haar, J. M. (2006). The downside of coping: Work–family conflict, employee burnout and the moderating effects of coping strategies. Journal of Management & Organization, 12(2), 146-159. https://doi.org/10.5172/jmo.2006.12.2.146
Haar, J. M., Roche, M., & Taylor, D. (2012). Work–family conflict and turnover intentions of indigenous employees: The importance of the whanau/family for Maori. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 23(12), 2546-2560. https://doi.org/10.1080/09585192.2011.610344
McCrae, E. B. (2020). Do Employees Leave Companies or Do Employees Leave Managers?. Performance Improvement, 59(8), 33-42. https://doi.org/10.1002/pfi.21933
Medina, E. (2012). Job satisfaction and employee turnover intention: what does organizational culture have to do with it? [Doctoral dissertation, Columbia University]. https://academiccommons.columbia.edu/doi/10.7916/D8BG2W48/download
Schein, E. H. (2009). The Corporate Culture Survival Guide (New and Revised Edition). Jossey-Bass.
Schein, E. H. (1988). Organizational Culture. Sloan School of Management, MIT: Working Paper 2088-88. Retrieved 2 April 2017 from https://dspace.mit.edu/bitstream/handle/1721.1/2224/SWP-2088-24854366.pdf?sequenc
Shallcross, L., Ramsay, S., & Barker, M. (2010). A proactive response to the mobbing problem: a guide for HR managers. New Zealand Journal of Human Resources Management, 10(1), 27-37. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/43892/1/Shallcross_et_al_(2010)__NZJHRM_10(1)_27-37_.pdf
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