The battle
On any day in any corporation, you will see barbed e-mails, poisonous meetings, water fountain backstabbings and all-out turf wars. This is common or garden corporate infighting and nothing to write home about, though it may cause some gossip in the pub.
Organisations are chock-full of infighting:
- Conflict between departments
- Conflict between executives
- Conflict between bosses and subordinates
- Conflict between peers
Usually, the conflict simmers below the surface, but it can sometimes explode outwards, creating all-out organisational war.
Corporate infighting has consequences
It results in wasted time and effort, disillusioned employees and organisational angst. None of this does anything for business performance. Opportunities are missed by the score.
The higher in the organisation the infighting starts, the more damaging the disagreement becomes. Big egos wield lots of power, and they can cause some serious destruction.
What causes corporate infighting?
The answer is obvious – different objectives.
- If your bonus depends on you outperforming your peer, don’t be surprised if he is less than helpful
- If your big improvement opportunity makes somebody else feel stupid, they will fight back
- If you are pushing sales and the factory is cutting costs, well, I will leave it to your imagination
You don’t have to be the Brain of Britain to work out how conflicting goals affect an organisation.
Reduce the conflict
It is human nature to compete. There will always be egos to sooth and diplomacy is unlikely to become a dying art. But you can reduce conflict.
There are organisations that:
- Make pay scales transparent and equitable
- Remove the link between appraisal and remuneration
- Set everybody’s bonus and target against the same goals
- Force P&L responsibility down the organisation
Each of these interventions improves cooperation.
The enemy isn’t within
The enemy is your competitor. Fortunately, they are just as busy taking chunks out of each other as you are. Imagine what you could do if you could join forces against them.
There is more conflict within corporations than between them,
and it is generally less ethical ~ Peter Druker
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What if all executives across the organization were in alignment about business goals and outcomes, the culture, etc. If they were all walking the same walk and talk, then silos wouldn’t be formed, and conflicts would be reduced.
Annette :-)
Precisely Annette, though a big what if unfortunately
Hello James,
Is it human nature to compete? Would humans compete if there was no need to compete? Worth considering. Pascal, looking into ‘human nature’ came up with the following: “custom is our nature”.
As for your assertion that the competitor is the enemy, i do not find myself in agreement with you. As far as I, the employee, experience it the competitor is merely a competitor. The enemy (or enemies) I experience as being inside the organisation. The enemies are all the people, processes/practices, rules/regulations, tools that I have to battle against to get stuff done and meet my needs. Is this likely to change in the near future? The Berlin Wall did come down – and it is not an event that occurs frequently.
I hope all is good with you and your loved ones. And I wish you a great Christmas and the very best for 2018. It would be good to meet up in 2018. Let me know if you are up for it.
Thanks for your comment Maz, I’m afraid I do think it is in our nature to compete, put there by years of evolution, but there is a whole other debate….
It would be good to catch up. Let me know if you are in London and we can arrange something.