Thursday, October 2, 2008

Risks of Over-identification

The textbook warns about the risks of high levels of identification of employees (page 115) to the organization. This may manifest itself in over-conformity, a lack of creativity, and the risk of lack of risk-taking!

I believe the case of employees staying with one organization over the course of several years, perhaps decades or even a lifetime falls under this scenario. They grow so attached to the organization that they become mypoic and fail to realize that there exist various different cultural norms and that their organization represents only one among many such norms.

This shows the hazards of managers who stay with one company for such a long time that they begin to expect unopposed acceptance by employees of everything that management says, instead of encouraging their employees to challenge existing theories in the light of new facts. This has the unfortunate potential to hinder the improvement of an organization. As we saw in Chapter two of the textbook, it is only by constantly rising up to challenges that an organization evolves in a healthy manner.

1 comment:

PinkLady said...

This blog reminds me of my boss. She has been with the organization since it was founded ten years ago and has no life out side of work. She is always working whether it's in the office or at home. She often doesn't make decisions based on what's best for our group or the organizations. The decisions are based on what the founders would want us to do. Her life solely revolves around the organization and it's sad because she has a family and kids. I think you're right, we all need to be careful not to let go of our lives and become over-identified with our organizations.