by Nick Jacobs

In an October 1, 2005 article in the Harvard Business Review, "The Passive Aggressive Organization" by Gary L. Neilson, Bruce Pasternack and Karen E Van Nuys, we learn about the characteristics of, you guessed it, passive aggressive organizations. My immediate response to the article was something like this, "Wow, this sounds exactly like a lot of the places where I have worked." (And some of the places where I work now.) For your sake, go online and buy it for $6 because what you'll be reading here is my version of a summary that surely won't do it justice.

When you observe a few of these symptoms in your organization, you surely will know where you are working:

7 Traits of a Highly Passive-Aggressive Organization

1. Senior management leaves unclear lines as to where accountability lies.

2. Employees put forth only enough effort to look compliant.

3. Managers are absolved for almost anything they do.

4. Employees wait interminably for a "project go ahead," and then their actions are accompanied by a sea of second guessing.

5. To learn, to share and to achieve are actions that are not encouraged.

6. There is either too much or too little control at the top.

7. Employees can't understand why their promising projects can't get traction.

The article goes on to say that the lack of confrontation is only a disguise for intransigence. In many companies a failure to align incentives and goals is generally seen as a primary contributor to this culture. It further states that the observer will frequently see agreement without co-operation which leads to the impression of compliance.

It's also clear that leadership is POOR at completing employee evaluations, and, in many companies, the failure to align incentives with goals is rampant.

So, you might ask, how can this culture be fixed?

Leadership must identify, verify and admit that they have a problem, and then work in a dedicated fashion to address each of the symptoms delineated above.

The article recommends bringing in an outsider, the new sheriff in town. It also suggests creating a team of seven up and comers who are assigned the seven most important tasks needed to be accomplished during a turn around. This team must be empowered by the senior leadership members, and be permitted to fly.

It's not easy. It's not necessarily fast, and if it's not addressed, it will take the organization to the brink of failure. So, good luck.