Culture of Silence Eats Away at Your Company - Management Assignment

Internal Code: MAS6007

Management Assignment:

“Instead of confronting a problem in a project plan, it was whispered about. Several months of work were put into implementing the plan even though all those involved knew it contained fatal was. The organization fell behind on its output goals and didn’t have the data it needed to forecast projected outcomes.” “When our president and CEO suddenly passed away, the top-level execs (including myself) dealt with a gaping sense of loss and grief. Although we felt lost without our CEO, we knew what we had to do in order to navigate through the situation. However, we never addressed the company other than to say: ‘It’s business as usual.’ Because we didn’t reach out to ease employees’ worries and fears we created an atmosphere of anxiety (i.e., ‘Will the company survive?’ ‘Is my job secure?’, ‘What’s going on?’ etc.) which ultimately led to nearly 25% of our sta leaving within six months of the CEO’s passing.” These aren’t trivial examples. In each case, they had real consequences and costs for the organizations. At VitalSmarts, we’ve researched the propensity for people to stay silent before. In a previous study, we asked people what they would do if someone cut in front of them in line. Most people said they’d promptly and skillfully tell the person to head to the back of the line. But when we put their predictions to the test, we found something else. We went into a busy mall with confederates and a hidden camera to see what people really do when faced with a line-cutter. Here’s what we found: The line-cutting victims stand around looking frustrated yet never say a word. A few make dirty faces behind our confederates’ backs or complain to their neighbour. In our study, only one in 25 spoke up. Questions: 1) Identify and discuss the main argument 2) Identify and discuss the assumptions and limitations that readers of this article need to be aware of when they read it 3) Identify and discuss the research methodology and research methods the authors uses to examine the main issue 4) Identify and discuss the main ideas in this article relevant to the themes and/or concepts taught