Abuse in the Workplace: Management Remedies and Bottom Line Impact
Submitted by WorkCreatively on Thu, 04/23/2009 - 07:04
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Printer-friendly version| Title | Abuse in the Workplace: Management Remedies and Bottom Line Impact |
| Publication Type | Book |
| Pub Year | 1992 |
| Authors | Bassman, E. S. |
| Publisher | Quorum Books |
| Keywords | abuse, administrative slack, appraisal, creativity, credibility, culture, fear, flexibility, ideas, openness, overmanagement, play, supportiveness, whistleblowing |
| Notes |
administrative slack"Certain conditions are necessary for creativity to flourish, one of which is the time to play with ideas while in an open mode of thinking: relaxed, expansive, less purposeful, more contemplative (Cleese 1991). Organizationally, this translates into administrative slack. Peter Drucker relates a company's ability to innovate to the amount of administrative slack it provides in its daily operations ('Creativity in Danger' 1991)." (p. 149) appraisal"A system of performance appraisal creates the appropriate environment for individual abuse by providing managers with opportunities to practice management by fear. Its existence also is an example of institutional abuse, because it contributes to a culture based on management by threat and intimidation....To truly create the conditions that will support an all-out effort towards continuous improvement of products and services, the annual review of individual performance will have to be given up because it drives the wrong behavior. Practicing quality appropriately will also remove opportunities for abusing employees through management by fear." (p. 173) abuse, credibility"Abused employees are in a catch-22 situation. Their harassers are in a position to control a variety of resources, which makes abused employees similar to other victims of abuse. But unlike other victims, they have an added disadvantage. By virtue of their subordinate position, they automatically have less credibility than their supervisors. Charging that they are being treated unfairly by their supervisors would challenge the context of the hierarchical system, which is a very threatening proposition to those who are in a position to help. Even if they succeed in proving an accusation of abuse, abused employees will have identified themselves as whistleblowers, which will undoubtedly cause other potential bosses to question the wisdom of having them as subordinates. If an employee succeeds in winning a fairness dispute with his or her boss, the result is likely to be severely limited career growth within the organization. What has been won?" (p. 48) creativity"If employees do not trust their boss to support them, if they are continually feeling threatened and in fear of punishment and reprisal, there can be no creativity." (p. 149) fear"Employees are well aware of the risks involved in confronting the boss. Those risks contribute heavily to the level of fear experienced by employees. Ryan and Osterich 1, in their study of fear in organizations, found that management practice, meaning the behavior of direct supervisors, was by far the largest category of issues that people in organizations are afraid to discuss." (p. 49) overmanagement"Some managers who tend to overmanage their employees' work will also overmanage their time." (p. 12)
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| URL | http://books.google.com/books?id=rR-NZa_ihFYC |