Friday, January 05, 2007

Possible Signs of a Dysfunctional Organization

High turn-over. People are jumping ship.

Low turn-over. Supervisors are discouraged from firing poor performers.

Frequent consultation with attorneys. Someone needs to handle all of those lawsuits.

No consultation with attorneys. They have no idea if they’re violating the law and are not eager to find out.

Conflict among managers. There is open and vigorous dissent on the proper course of action.

No conflict among managers. There is no dissent because: (a) people are afraid to speak up or (b) there is groupthink and everyone is enthusiastically running down the wrong road.

An exciting environment. It’s exciting because there are no established procedures for handling routine matters. The wheel is reinvented on a regular basis.

A boring environment. The organization is in a rut and the employees are not working to their full potential.
Creativity is quickly squelched.

1 comment:

Unknown said...

I think this is an excellent list. Thank you very much for the insight. I never saw some of these points you listed before as possible reasons. Thank you again