Office power tripping
By Ann-Maree Moodie | smh.com.au | 21 March
Does your boss always take the credit for your team's work? Are you irritated by a manager who talks all the time about the solutions they have come up with? Why is the team more relaxed when a certain person is on holiday?
It could be that your workplace has fallen victim to a new psychological disorder more damaging than the "corporate psychopath". It's called Munchausen at Work and it's a subtle, insidious form of workplace behaviour that is difficult to detect and even harder to prove.
The name is derived from a psychological disorder called Munchausen's by proxy, in which a caregiver exaggerates, fabricates or induces illness in another person in order to get praise for then helping the victim. In the workplace, it occurs when an employee creates a fictional organisational problem in order to find a solution and gain recognition from superiors.
"These people want an instant pat on the back for everything they do," says Sydney behavioural strategist Warren Kennaugh.
"They are the sort of people who'd want feedback for making you a cup of tea."
This new workplace phenomenon was identified by Professor Nathan Bennett, of the College of Management in Atlanta, who specialises in studying team performance.
"[It] runs the spectrum from highly destructive tactics to nuisance behaviour that quietly erodes organisational effectiveness," he wrote in a recent article in Harvard Business Review.
"It may involve simply embellishing a real problem or making it appear that one looms on the horizon. Just as solving a creation of one's own can generate rewards, so can bringing an inflated or predicted 'crisis' to the attention of others. [It] wastes management time and resources and can threaten morale and productivity."
Munchausen at Work types include the great "team builder" who goes behind individuals' backs to sow seeds of mistrust and then reconciles the problem. Another is the "reluctant hero" who takes on discretionary duties - mentoring new recruits, for example - only to give up the extra work in the hope management will notice and beg for a return engagement. A third type is the person who lights small fires, such as creating a supply shortage, and then gets credit for putting them out.
Kennaugh, who coaches senior executives and managers as well as elite athletes, says employees who exhibit such behaviour are using their power and authority to seek recognition. "The form of destructive workplace behaviour which has received the most attention of late is the so-called 'corporate psychopath', who is easily identified by aggression, a tendency to explode and bullying," Kennaugh says. "By comparison, the employee who is deliberately sabotaging teams and working to show themselves to be a hero, or a 'saviour', is harder to identify because their actions are much more subtle."
An intense debate about Bennett's article has erupted in management and HR blogs and illustrated the confusion over identifying Munchausen types.
Commentators critical of Bennett's article argue that it is human nature to want to take the credit. "After all, isn't that what half of all meetings are about - some problem created so that someone can swoop down and fix it?" writes Frank Roche on the HR blog site www.knowhr.com, operated by management consultancy iFractal.
Andrew Lyde, from US coaching company the Centre for Courageous Enterprise, writes: "I've gotten jobs by shining the light on some problems that had previously not received any attention. When attention was focused there, I got to create a new position for myself that addressed the problem. Heroically, I might add.
"But those problems existed before I [shone] a light on them. I didn't create the problems. I just drew attention to them. I used my experience and skills and applied them in a way that helped the organisation. I got to grow and be challenged and the organisation had the problem addressed. Does this mean I have Munchausen at Work?"
Kennaugh agrees many companies encourage employees to compete and to take on difficult projects. Success is often rewarded by promotion, greater opportunities for more important work, travel or training, a higher salary and recognition from the boss. "In these cases, the employee is genuine, hardworking, clever - they deserve the recognition," he says.
If a manager suspects an employee of wrongful behaviour, the solution includes reducing the attention and other rewards the employee is receiving for "solving" problems, Bennett says. Another recommendation is to curtail opportunities for the employee to create problems.
Many companies such as banks know that employees who are committing fraud resist taking leave. Encouraging an employee who is suspected of Munchausen behaviour to take a holiday for at least two weeks is one way of testing whether the problem can be lessened or even eliminated. Investigators know most fraud is detected within 10 days.
A spanner in the works
Munchausen At Work researcher Professor Nathan Bennett says managers should ask the following questions to gauge if an employee is deliberately sabotaging the workplace:
* Is the employee disproportionately involved in identifying and fighting organisational problems?
* Is the employee unusually resistant to offers of help in addressing problems that he or she has identified?
* Does the employee deflect management's efforts to understand a problem's underlying cause?
* Are the facts and co-workers' accounts at odds with the employee's claims about a problem's existence or severity?
* Are problems with a project, a customer, a process or between colleagues frequently resolved in the employee's absence?
Ann-Maree Moodie is a management educator and the managing director of The Boardroom Consulting Group.
First published by Smh.com.au on March 21 2008
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