🚀 go-pugleaf

----------------------------Original message----------------------------


 In response to Dr. Bushe's posting about fear, I would like to provide my
 opinion. I am no psychologist, so please take the remarks with a grain of
 salt.
 (Except of course if your blood preasure is already high :-) )

 The posting lead me to believe that there was little that managers could do
 about driving out fear, since it was a direct result of workers being at the
 bottom of the hierarchical system.

 Fear may come from the inside out but I think that in many cases there is an
 exterior stimulus that triggers the fear. This stimulus is generally
 a lack of control over our own destiny. If you fear heights, you are
 reacting to the feeling of a lack of control over your balance in a
 specific situation. Similarly workers may feel a lack of control over
 what they will do that day, how their actions will be interpreted, how will
 blame for a mistake be distributed, etc. These situations result in the
 general fear level experienced by the worker.

 In a hierarchical system the managers are generally rewarded for controlling
 situations, thus taking the control away from the worker. If you want to
 change
 the culture of fear, you need to change the culture of management.

 Flattening the organization (reducing the hierarchical structure) is an
 excellent way to begin that change in management culture. It brings the
 managers in closer touch with the workers, which gives them more of an
 opportunity to listen to the workers input. When a worker feels
 they are providing input into a process, they don't feel such a lack of
 control and their fear level will diminish. Another benefit of flatter
 organisations (relative to this discussion), with fewer levels of
 management a persons ego is less likely to grow as they are moved
 through the ranks. I believe that ego is an important factor leading to the
 feeling of need for control.

 You can keep my ego in check by providing critical feedback of my opinion.

 *************************************************************
 Bob Roche