Ron Makaruk, responding to Alice Macpherson who was in turn responding to
Edryce Reynolds, wrote...
>Excuse me Alice. Although you are correct in that frustration is an element
>of the issue, how we respond is subject to our "normal" nature. It becomes
>dysfunctional and irresponsible only when one or the other party looses site
>of the boundaries of their positions and objectives and turn instead to
>massaging mis-aligned egos through inappropriate power-based tactics.
>Workplace war zones develop because of poor management and the inability to
>develop or enforce constructive cultural standards.
Alice had written...
> >On Sun, 28 Nov 1999, Edryce Reynolds wrote:
> >
> >> Well, we all have unresolved issues left over from childhood....that
> >> could explain why we have not treated one another with respect. When we
> >> move into that frustrated part of ourselves, that place where we have
> >> pushed our hurts from the past, we do not react "normally." Could this
> >> also explain why the workplace so often becomes a war zone?
> >
> >In a word ... Yes.
> >
> >I think that it is a worthy aspect to work on for change.
Excuse me, Ron (to borrow your phrase), but I believe you are so wide of
the mark as to have put the spectators in jeopardy. (No, don't take that
personally, I'm just feeling feisty.)
It is unbelievably easy to attribute workplace war zones to poor
management and the inability to develop or enforce constructive cultural
standards. It is an altogether different matter to do something about
those vague, amorphous causal factors that are so easily identified via
nothing more than a mere act of labeling. Wars, whether in the workplace
or elsewhere, are not initiated or fought by countries, groups or
organizations; they are fought by people. (I say that as a career military
man who spent 20 years in the service of his country.) Similarly, as many
noted management and organizational theorists have noted (sorry for the
redundant use of terms), organizations don't do anything, people do. (My
two favorites in this regard are Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch.)
Frankly, I thought Edryce Reynolds had put (his/her) finger on something
very important; namely, that the workplace is a playground for adults and
that we are all "acting out" on this playground. Much of what happens,
then, is a consequence of this "acting out." That, of course, doesn't at
all fit with any view of the workplace as a rational and rationalized place
where controls work as planned, plans work as intended, and the only
intentions that matter are those of the powers that be.
Finally, for what it's worth, I thought that what Edryce said and what you
said are startlingly similar. In fact, I could easily incorporate both
sets of comments in a summary and link the two using this time-worn phrase:
"In other words..."
--
Fred Nickols
The Distance Consulting Company
"Assistance at A Distance"
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.htm
nickols@worldnet.att.net
(609) 490-0095