ORGANIZATIONS AND BOUNDARIES
Standing up for yourself in organizations: Once you understand and
are able to use boundaries in personal life, standing up for yourself
in personal and day-to-day relationships can become fairly
straightforward because of the relatively equal power operating
between the two people concerned. However, standing up for ‘yourself
in hierarchical organizations can be quite another matter,
In the armed forces, the police force and many businesses, a strict
hierarchical structure has to exist in order for the organization to
do its job properly. In such organizations, there should be clear
codes of conduct and accountability, and other strategies, in place to
safeguard everyone against abuse, bullying and intimidation. The
long-term strength and effectiveness of these organizations depends on
the effective operation of these safeguards.
However, there are many organizations, particularly in business,
where there are no safeguards operating other than those imposed by
government regulations, for example anti-discrimination legislation,
and occupational health and safety regulations. People working in such
organizations can have a hard time protecting their rights and keeping
their jobs. Ultimately, each individual has to decide what their
limits are and choose either to put up with the status quo, to
complain or to leave.
Unfortunately, far too often people have to face the reality that
in complaining they - may lose even if they win, for example when the
woman who successfully brings a case of sexual harassment finds that
the ill feeling is such that she cannot return to her job. In these
situations, think very carefully and explore all the options before
taking action.
Be professional but human:
Keep your professional life separate
from your personal life by avoiding intimate relationships with staff.
However, there are many jobs demanding mutual trust where
appropriate personal disclosure helps unite an organization or
team to make them far more effective, for example in teaching, the
police force, hospitals and so on. But in general keep your personal
life and problems at home.
Attending work social functions and mixing in the tearoom or
staffroom are vital to keeping in touch with the organizational
grapevine. Gossip and rumour are natural consequences of people’s
being together, and’ can be very constructive in bonding groups as
they occur only when people are interested in each other. But don’t
engage in or encourage destructive gossip or rumour.
The office Christmas party can ruin promising career or job
prospects. Remember you are ‘on duty’ at a Christmas party, where you
can be more ruthlessly judged than in your professional ‘role’. At a
Christmas party you are perceived as being more the real you’ so be on
guard. Don’t drink excessively, or at all if you can’t tolerate
alcohol. Don’t get into heavy or ‘deep and meaningful’ conversations.
Keep yourself pleasant and happy. and make only appropriate personal
disclosures, for example your interest in butterflies, not your desire
to be a wizard.
I’ve always seen office politics as simply being the task of
getting on with people and having some sensitivity to and
consideration of other people’s needs as well as one’s own. This
approach seems to work extremely well and I have never needed to play
games or stab people in the back. However, I have dealt with
organizations that had a highly manipulative bullying management, in
which case I’ve either got out of the organization as fast as possible
or have had to stand up to the people concerned, while realizing fully
the personal and professional costs of doing so.
Office politics does not have to be a dirty game. Stand back and
assess the situation carefully before deciding whether ‘o stay or to
leave. Be aware at all times that if an organization plays dirty games
and you try to go against this, you will probably be the loser: you
are just too threatening for the more senior management to allow you
to survive. Be satisfied, knowing that in the long term these types of
organizations will destroy themselves anyway.
If you are lucky enough to have come in at the top or as a
consultant to change a corporate structure, you may have to be
ruthless and get rid of key personnel in order to change an
organization’s destructive culture. If you own a business or are
responsible for employing consultants, clarify your short- and
long-term objectives. Consultants have a vested interest in providing
short-term solutions. As long as a consultant produces an illusion of
short-term magic (that doesn’t necessarily work in the long term),
they will continue to be consulted.
In the process they can create appalling human misery and
devastating damage, particularly when hard-working and conscientious
employees leave in disgust after watching deviousness and manipulation
rewarded. Remember that happier workplaces enjoy less absenteeism and
increased productivity. Inappropriate cost-cutting and ‘downsizing’
can create spectacular short-term profits, but spectacular long-term
problems and losses.
If you are training managers, don’t start with the wrong end of the
stick. To develop people into managers who can create happier and
healthier workplaces, it is far easier to sharpen the financial and
business skills of genuine people than it is to teach natural
interpersonal skills to cunning manipulators. Those doing the training
must have real respect for and an interest in other people; cute
phrases and rehearsed body language screams at people that they are
being conned.
So don’t ignore the politics of organizations. Instead become aware
of and embrace them in a healthy, constructive way. If you are an
employee, find an organization that will allow you to reach your
potential without sacrificing your personal integrity, making you a
happier and more productive person. If you own a business, think about
how you can create a happier and healthier work environment. It pays!
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For the Top Ten Ways to Maintain
Your Boundaries When They Are Challenged, send an email to
bs@futurevisions.org
with "MWS Boundaries Top Ten" in the subject and nothing in the body
