'Watch out, the dark ages are on their way back!' A fellow delegate said these words to me during a conference in which a speaker had harangued us on the need for the rebirth of tough-minded management. Flexibility, it seemed, was being dismissed in favour of a new, harsher approach. Empowerment is out and old-fashioned discipline, long thought outdated, is back in.
Examples of fear in organisational life are numerous. One of the best-known is that of Robert Maxwell who, it is reported, delighted in the humiliation of subordinates and fostered a paranoid culture within the Mirror Group newspapers.
But does fear really motivate us to produce better results? And how do you distinguish between authoritarianism and genuine authority? It's possible to see the effects of fear an uncertainty in so many areas of work. It is certainly the case that people are taking on a greater burden of work and working longer hours to do so.
At the same time, however, it's generally accepted that the nature of work is changing. Nevertheless, it's tough enough to put up with the continuing problems of ageism and sexism in the office without being told again and again that we can't expect a job for life. Mergers and acquisitions are on the increase and - let's face it - people can be a costly element in business efficiency and profit generation. No wonder the office bully is making a comeback in the insecure world of the Nineties office.
But there are alternatives for the office manager facing pressure from the above to crack the whip. Genuine authority does not depend on installing fear in order to make an impact - it relies on something altogether harder to engender in a workforce: respect.
Workers expend energy protecting their backsides rather than devising solutions to problems
This does not mean that organisations should avoid stretching themselves, or their workforces. After all, if your boss does not make demands on you, it's all too easy to slip into complacency. People are at their best when excited by their work and its potential - employees stimulated by their work naturally push themselves.
In a climate of fear, however, workers tend to expend their energies protecting their backsides and avoiding the pitfalls of office politics instead of devising solutions to problems.
There are, of course, antidotes to fear and they're not that difficult to administer: a clearly communicated vision for your organisation's future; the identification of new markets for your company; the creed that change represents an opportunity rather than a threat - all of these are vital to motivate people in contributing positively to the organisation.
'Make the status quo more alarming than the unknown,' Harvey Jones once said. But if the workforce can't conquer the unknown then a maxim like this loses all its meaning.
Fear, if allowed to spread, paralyses initiative, forces people into short-term thinking and is likely to let down that supreme paymaster - the customer! A humane office environment doesn't just make work a nicer place to be - it makes business sense. As Edmund Burke put it: 'No passion so effectively robs the mind of all its powers of acting and reason as fear.'
Your office: touchy-feely or terror-stricken?
So is fear the prime motivation in your organisation? Just answer yes or no the these questions:
- Are changes explained (not imposed)?
- Do people accept their targets are realistic?
- Do they understand what they are working towards ( in other words is there a clear vision)?
- Does top management understand what really worries people - ie do they listen?
- Has management recently conducted an assessment to identify what makes it harder for people to perform well?
- Are staff informed of opportunities for individual advancement - as opposed to jobs for the boys?
- Do people have all the information required to do their jobs effectively?
- Do you trust the top layers of management to operate in the best interests of the company ( as opposed to their own best interests)?
- Do all staff understand how they are regarded and what they should do to improve their chances of promotion?
- Is your office free of political machinations and malicious gossip
The verdict: if your organisation scored 10 yeses, stick at it. Seven or eight? Par for the course but there may be things you can work on. Five? Look to leadership; is it working to improve or accepting the status quo? Three or under? Get out fast. While you can.
