Incest 0000i-xiv FM 1 - William L. White

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t h e i n c e st u o u s wo r k p lac e
accepting workers whose time and emotional commitments to the organization
do not match their own. In spite of these leaders’ extensive investment
of time and emotional energy in the work setting, they may
work for years before they experience the extreme effects of their own
distress. They are what some have called “stress carriers.” These managers
externalize their distress to others through verbal reprimands, excessive
and unrealistic role expectations, and impulsive and frequently
contradictory task assignments. The stress carriers often bolster their
own self-esteem at the expense of their employees through repeated
variations of the following scenario:
The stress carrier storms into an office where three workers are engaged
in various work assignments, turns to one of the workers and
says, “Jane, I need a summary report on ____________ (stated quickly,
vaguely, and without reference to where the information can be obtained)
for a 2:00 meeting tomorrow afternoon.” The stress carrier
rapidly leaves the office not allowing time for clarification. Jane, finding
no help from her colleagues clarifying what precisely the boss
wants, and unable to get access to him for further instructions, does the
best job she can, summarizing what she guesses he wants. At 1:30 the
following afternoon, the stress carrier rushes into Jane’s office and responds
with outrage that what Jane prepared was not what he wanted
at all, and that he can’t understand why the project didn’t get done as
he’d requested.
Such scenarios serve to build up the self-esteem of the stress carrier,
emotionally devastate the workers playing the scapegoat in the drama,
and reinforce the motto of the authoritarian-moral approach: “If you
want anything done right, you have to do it yourself.”
The stress carrier is typified by the manager who flippantly boasts, “I
don’t get ulcers; I give ulcers.” The authoritarian-moral approach places
impossible burdens on workers and then penalizes them for not being
able to stand up under the weight. Organizations characterized by the
authoritarian-moral approach respond to distressed workers in a punitive
fashion either through disciplinary action or by forcing the victims
out of the organization. As might be expected, this organizational approach
produces an extremely high rate of staff turnover. When such
organizations eventually self-destruct, as most do, and the stress carriers
are later asked why they got out of the business, they most frequently
lament that they just couldn’t find good help.
There are severe disadvantages to the authoritarian-moral approach