Workplace Psychology - Essay Example

?Workplace Psychology In this paper, I have shared one of the psychology related problem that prevailed in my company, with which I have been workingfor the 6 years. My company is a multi-family resident property management organization. Ours is a functional type of organization. Individual departments have gained sufficient control to become significantly free of the influence of the project manager. The project manager has conventionally had little influence upon employees working in different departments because they primarily followed the instructions of the heads of department. Among all problems that emerged because of the limited authority of the project manager, one problem that was quite noticeable and that irritated me the most was the problem of gossiping. I particularly noticed this problem of our company as I was working with a team to rewrite the company policy manual. The way gossiping distorted the teamwork and promoted conflicts among the group members provided me with an insight into the way gossiping in the workplace affects an employee’s morale. Gossiping was so widespread in our organization that it had become more of an element of the organizational culture. Conversation filler was potentially the most innocent form of gossip. In this kind of gossip, people chatted around the workplace regarding the latest proceedings at work. They tended to evaluate the most recent memo that was circulated in the office and made individualistic judgments about the possible causes of a certain decision made by the manager. They could often be observed cursing a new policy. They normally identified one of the workers as the individual who caused the manager to move in a certain way, and that worker’s life at work would be hell for many days to follow. Occasionally, the casual gossip grew into a ferocious argument, thus pointing towards a very serious defect either in the organizational culture or in the people that made part of it. Gossiping at work speaks very bad of an individual particularly because the coworkers tend to attribute all selfish and mean things said by an individual to himself/herself (Pawlik-Kienlen, 2007). This has frequently been referred to as spontaneous trait transference by the philosophers. An individual’s ideas portray his/her personality and mentality. Workplace gossip has a lot of unfavorable outcomes both for the individual that makes the gossip and for others who listen to it. The individual who makes gossip thinks negatively. This lowers his/her cardiovascular functions and defense system when the individual remains stressed for long periods of time. The negative mood has many bad implications upon the individual’s health. While making gossip, most of the people don’t mean to be cruel or insensitive, though there is something about their attitude that lowers others’ morale. Sometimes, even the slips that apparently seem harmless can be as potentially negative in their impact upon others as an act that was intentionally made to offend others. Such harmless acts include but are not limited to calling the colleagues names, snubbing them or not giving them credit for their work. Such acts can cause physical harm to the victims. The physical response to such acts can cause depression, fatigue, hypertension, gastrointestinal disorders as well as insomnia. Rude words and sarcasm can inculcate feelings of unrest both in the bully as well as in the victim, so these acts are bad for the health of all in the organization. Therefore, there is dire need to take objective measures to eradicate gossiping from the workplace, though not many managers happen to choose the right course of action! One day, the manager at my company resolved to take action to eliminate the evil of gossip from the workplace. In order to do this, she called an urgent meeting. As soon as all the employees had occupied their seats in the meeting room, the manager started to shout at them, “You people have made gossiping a habit, and this makes me sick. From this point onwards, I am going to hold accountable anybody who I catch gossiping,” she said. All employees silently listened to her as she went on and on, cursing them for having destroyed the peace of the organization and ruining its culture. After a non-stop lecture of about fifteen minutes, the manager dismissed the meeting. All employees turned their computers on and commenced an endless system of communication through emails. Those that had gone to their offices chatted through emails. Others exchanged views in the toilet or in the kitchen. This led me to the conclusion that by calling the meeting and scolding the employees, the manager had done little to eradicate the gossip from the workplace. Instead, she had just swept it under the carpet! The manager had just provided the employees with a brand new topic to gossip about. The manager could have a greater impact upon the employees had she made a more holistic approach towards the resolution of the problem rather than delivering a furious speech. Although identifying gossiping openly as a problem may reduce the number of gossiping people (Wilhelm, 2011) yet lecturing the employees in such circumstances make the innocent feel unnecessarily reprimanded and the guilty outraged. The manager should instead make use of a participative approach to increase the level of commitment of the employees towards the resolution of the problem. Such a participative approach can be developed through promoting groupthink. To inculcate groupthink in the organizational personnel, the manager should divide all employees into groups and ask each group to brainstorm and identify the way people should treat one another in an ideal workplace. One member of each group should take notes as the rest brainstorm. The manager should provide each group with a pen and a pad and should call for the answers in 10 minutes. The manager should make one employee note down the ideal behavior defined by each group on a piece of paper. Photocopies of this paper should be produced according to the number of groups. Each group should then be asked to assign each ideal behavior a number from 1 to 10 according to the extent to which it currently is displayed at the workplace, with 1 meaning “least” and 10 meaning “most”. After the surveys have been rated, the manager should ask the representative of each group to speak aloud the rating given to each ideal behavior previously defined and the reason it was rated in a particular manner. The manager should allow the groups at least half an hour and then ask the spokesperson from each group to identify the changes that can be made to reduce the gossip. The changes should be noted on a paper. Having received the opinion of each group, the manager should ask the groups to commit to the identified values to reduce gossip. Having conducted a sequential and interesting activity with the manager, the workers will be really committed to make the changes they identified themselves. Employees can also make individual efforts towards the problem’s resolution by not participating in gossips. An employee should either try to change the subject as soon as it gets personal or else, excuse the group saying that he/she would not indulge in such discussions. This will serve several purposes. It will send a message to the gossipers that what they are doing is not acceptable. Others who feel the same way as you do will be more likely to follow suit and not become involved with the gossip, thus taking away the audience. And lastly, you will feel good that you have said ‘no’ to something that wastes time and could cause harm. (Hennessy cited in Nosek, 2009). References: Nosek, V. S. (2009). Gossip in the workplace: Impact can be costly. Retrieved from http://www.easeatwork.com/gossip-in-the-workplace-impact-can-be-costly/. Pawlik-Kienlen, L. (2007). Gossiping at Work - Types of Work Gossip. Retrieved from http://l-pawlik-kienlen.suite101.com/gossip-at-work-a29950. Wilhelm, L. (2011). Workplace gossip – What to do about it. Retrieved from http://www.expressyourselftosuccess.com/office-gossip-what-to-do-about-it/. Read More