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What Really Matters in the Undercover Workplace


For many organizational leaders and people of influence within them, the organizational goals are just a facade- unimportant, or at least less important, then their own agendas. For these organizations, the control of people and resources take precedence, as do the social and political rules that allow them to attain and maintain power to do so.

In many workplaces, organizational and team goals are stated priorities. Social hierarchy and control are part of operational priorities- the things that are actually rewarded and enforced day-to-day.

Let's dissect this rarely discussed organizational dynamic, how it creates workplace toxicity, and impacts our individual experiences in the workplace.


Priorities of the Undercover Workplace

This concept is an extension of the espoused values versus stated values of the workplace (originally documented by Chris Argyris). Some of my earlier articles talk through this idea.


Most organizations function in a state of dissonance and misalignment, saying they value one thing, while rewarding something not only different, but often the total opposite of the stated values.

I'm going to say the quiet part out loud (what's new...) but stay with me: organizations serve a function that is more than just their stated purpose for operation. Organizations serve the purpose of whatever business they're in, but they also serve to create and reinforce social norms and hierarchy within larger society.


Saying that sentence out loud, many things should start to click (if they haven't before). Things like:


  • Why organizations protect leaders from accountability

  • Short-term incentives taking priority, even when known problems will occur downstream

  • The struggle of women and minorities making it into positions of real power

  • The abuse of anyone who calls out injustice

  • The emphasis on conformity and compliance

  • Valuing speed versus quality

  • The pooling of resources and opportunity at the top

  • Promoting people who lack leadership and emotional intelligence skills, but are persuasive and easy to control


The biggest gap that impacts our workplace experiences is the gap in selecting competent leadership. Leaders are often selected based on how well they match a predesigned template of what leadership should look like, based on the social norms and hierarchy established in society. Not based on skills. Not based on competence. This may be hard to consider, but it is not only based in observation, but also research. Those who make it into senior leadership roles are either aligned to this "template", or have performed their compliance and allegiance to the system well enough to be trusted by it.


Here's an example: an organization that focuses on maintaining the image of meritocracy and fairness will typically also have the highest levels of toxicity and biases in their decision-making because everyone is "performing" stated values. No one is checking that their behaviors are actually aligned to the stated values- they are checking for the performance...creating the gap.


This is the gap that many high performers and people with integrity feel in workplaces. If you take your organization at face value, you will be confused as to why they operate as they do, and why, despite best efforts, things never really ever seem to improve. There are a lot of busy people, putting in a lot of "work"- with marginal impacts or results to show for it. Organizations are designed for maintaining, not for true growth and progress. The stated values only exist to play on humans need to be seen as "good people", enforce the myth of meritocracy, and to get us all to agree to work to help maintain the power and hierarchy that has been established.


How This Fuels the Toxic Workplace

The larger the gap between stated and operational priorities, the more confusion, toxicity, and psychological harm people within the organization experience. Employees are forced to navigate constant cognitive dissonance, hearing all of the stated values, but seeing the people who actually live and work by those values be punished. For the reason stated above, these types of organizations cannot be honest about who they really are and what they really value. They prefer to waste energy in managing perceptions to avoid the gaps becoming visible, rather than just addressing the gaps (although most of us can see them anyway):


  • Leaders perform alignment to stated priorities, while behaving according to operational priorities

  • Authenticity and honesty become liabilities

  • Anyone who expresses difference (misalignment to the "template", speaking up, physical difference, being competent, etc.) will always be viewed and treated as a threat to the system

  • People operate based on fear, becoming hyper-vigilant and ready to throw anyone under the bus to save themselves

  • Manipulation, abuse and lies become norms- compulsive lying and lack of integrity are inevitable in a workplace that is misaligned between their behaviors and beliefs

  • Those most likely to be abused and unsupported are those with the least power, and those who lose social protection by naming the gaps


For those us with a pattern of being abused by organizations, this is your why. It is not because you're inadequate or any of the other lies. You were subjected to a systemic response that is embedded in our social and organizational norms. I'll dig more into this topic in the next article.

Help The Workplace Unfiltered reach more people! If you found this article useful, please comment, like and share/repost. If you are interested in workplace wellness coaching and would like to learn more, you can:



 
 
 

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