Problem People in Organizations LO8043

Rol Fessenden (76234.3636@CompuServe.COM)
23 Jun 96 00:06:33 EDT

Replying to LO8006 --

Regarding problem people, Malcolm says we need to ask:

"what is it about our system that's making it difficult for that person to
be successful?"

I agree with you, but it is _his_ system, of which we are only a part,
which we need to be cognizant of. The problems which caused the change in
behavior may well have originated outside "our" organization.

"And until we are completely satisfied that our mental models and system
structures are as supportive of that individual's learning and change as
we can make them, it's tough (for me at least) to support my friend Rol's
apparent "ignore them, cut them out of the loop, or get rid of them" (and
here I'm wickedly caricaturing what I believe him to have said) approach."

For me, it depends on how much we have already tried to help, how
destructive the behavior is, and how much this person is attempting to
help himself. It also assumes that we are not just eliminating someone
because they are 'different'. We are discussing someone who is genuinely
disruptive. Actually, the best examples for me are of people who are
dishonest. Who spread stories, who wrongly take credit, who depict
themselves as friends of powerful people, who blame others, and so forth.
At some point this behavior can bring an organization to destruction. It
really is a manager's job to protect the organization from this.

I understand that there are a lot of other circumstances when Malcolm's
"get rid of them" is inappropriate. However, as many of you know already,
I subscribe to a theory that says ultimately, we are all responsible for
what we as individuals choose to do or choose not to do. This disruptive
person owns some responsibility for his behavior. I firmly do not own all
of the responsibility for his behavior. Neither does my organization.

I think I have been somewhat confusing also, because there are two quite
different circumstances being discussed. One is when a person has fairly
suddenly changed in his behavior from constructive to destructive and
abusive. Assuming that this is caused by 'poor management' ignores that
there are a lot of other non-work potential causes for such a change. I
have the impression that in the US, work-life is not the majority cause of
such a quick and destructive change. This person may benefit from some
help.

The second circumstance is one in which there is deeply rooted
dysfunctional behavior. It could be abusive, it could be dishonesty, and
so forth. We all know people like this. They are not all in management.

By the way, the dysfunctional people I described in another posting were
managers. Their behavior was particularly destructive because they were
in management. Their behavior was inconsistent with my values. Since
they appeared unwilling to change, I could not support my values and them
at the same time. I also could not maintain credibility about my values
with employees if I kept them in the organization.

I would like to hear if anyone has any suggestions about how else to deal
with such a problem within management. I would also be interested in why
anyone would have different standards for managers than for employees. In
other words, if it makes sense to terminate a manager for such behavior,
why would not termination also apply to an employee for such behavior?

-- 

Rol Fessenden LL Bean, Inc. 76234.3636@compuserve.com

Learning-org -- An Internet Dialog on Learning Organizations For info: <rkarash@karash.com> -or- <http://world.std.com/~lo/>