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

Professional Closure 73
5.25 Obsession with Secrecy
The rise in anxiety and fear that accompanies scapegoating and the
breakup of formal communication channels breeds a system desperate
for information. And yet secrets abound regarding what is truly going
on in the organization. People in closed systems become obsessed with
secrets. They create them, cherish them, disclose them, and spend enormous
energy discovering them. The system has moved into this stage
when a growing number of conversations between organizational members
at all levels begin with a contract for secrecy—a contract always assumed
to be morally and politically relative. Over time, it seems that
such secrecy pacts have been generated on almost every issue relevant
to what is really going on inside the organization.
The systems preoccupation with internal and external information
control incites a frenzy of intelligence gathering that usually goes by the
name “gossip.” As the credibility of formal information channels declines,
indigenous sources of information can wield enormous informal
power in the organization. While the high priest/priestess of a closed
system wields enormous formal power, a cook, receptionist, or janitor
may wield enormous informal power.
The preoccupation with secrecy is even more apparent in the way the
closed system tries to control the release of information outside the organization.
Consider the closed system’s relationship to the media. The relationship
between closed systems and the press and television often is
marked by extreme ambivalence. The high priests/priestess and other
leaders are both drawn toward and repelled by these media. They glory
in the adulation of manipulated media exposure because it fuels their vision
of a world that will come to recognize their achievements. When
adulation shifts to criticism, the system and its leaders are stung and
further withdraw, having had the hostile intent of the world so clearly
confirmed. Closed systems vacillate between attempting to manipulate
the media and refusing to interact with the media.
5.26 The Organization as Chameleon
One of the earliest signs to outsiders that something is amiss in a closed
system is the accumulation of conflicting reports on the nature of the organization.
Closed systems become chameleonlike in their interactions
with the outside world. They can speak one moment with passion about
the most noble of values, exuding charm as warm as it is superficial,
while simultaneously committing acts of incredible maliciousness or