CHAOTIC VERSUS BALANCED WORK EXPERIENCE
A change from chaotic work experience to a workplace where
the compulsive reliance upon the other two types of defensive group experience
is mediated creates a balanced experience of the workplace. There exists a
greater sense of comfort with the unpredictable aspects of worklife. In this
case a person may emerge who possesses many of the above-mentioned attributes
associated with charismatic leaders. However, this leader does not promote
adoration and strive to acquire excessive control. Followers do not expect their
leader to be entirely responsible for managing the organization. A shared sense
of personal responsibility for managing the organization arises. The negative
side of the three defensive group experiences is as a result minimized while
their inherent strengths are reinforced.
In contrast, a change from balanced work experience to chaos
arises when the organization is placed under excessive stress such as the need
to respond to a business recession or a hostile takeover. The best of
organizational cultures cannot allay anxiety under the worst of conditions.
Increases in organizational stress and the accompanying distressing experience
of anxiety lead to the emergence of confusion and a distrust of management.
Organization members may ask, “How did we get into this situation?” Given
sufficient stress and anxiety, conflicting voices emerge that lead to the
formation of sentience groups formed around the different points of view.
Gradually inter-subgroup conflict breaks out as to which course of action
promises to deliver the organization from its current stressful situation.
Organizational dynamics such as these, if not openly and effectively addressed,
encourage ever greater fragmentation that increases rather than decreases the
stress. Formal leaders, when faced with these circular and reinforcing
organizational dynamics, may become confused, uncertain and ineffective thereby
presenting organization members with the specter of a leadership vacuum. Under
these conditions, chaotic workplace experience emerges as control of the
situation seems to slip away.
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