When transfers trigger nasty office fights

Two things are likely to happen when an employee in a supervisory or generally admired position announces retirement. The tone that one of the events will take will depend on whether the exiting officer is a darling of the people or not. So, either tears will flow, or there will be a hushed celebratory mood in the office. Both of these are more or less passing clouds. They eventually dissipate.
The other event has to do with filling the seat that is about to be vacant. Either the transition will be smooth, in which case there will be no issues, or the office could be turned into a mental, psychological, spiritual, emotional and physical battlefield. The latter happens a lot.

When that turns out to be the case, it will be spelling out unhealthy staff competition, which, if not tamed, could evolve into a culture of back stabbing, sabotage, ‘fixing’ and so on. Instead of focusing on work, competing staff will spend a lot of time plotting the downfall of colleagues or defending themselves against the attack. There has to be something wrong with the way the workplace is managed for such a kind of atmosphere to prevail, according to the management and human resource guru we spoke to, to provide direction on the matter.

Peformance key

Mr Simon Muthiora, a director with human resource consultancy. Skills Geographic, begins by discussing three circumstances under which competition for a promotion can get ugly in the office, break up tight bonds between colleagues, and disrupt performance. One of them, he advises, is “where there is no properly designed succession plan in each section, department, or division of the organisation.”
If your office is such that bosses do not have substantive deputies, it is a fertile ground for brutal succession battles. It means that the next seat could be anybody’s. The absence of deputies, notes Muthiora, is particularly common in the private sector. The public sector generally does better in this aspect.

The succession planning in public service is clearly defined at all levels of management. Every boss in public offices had a deputy or assistant, and so for that reason, there is less of unhealthy staff competition in matters related to taking up the next seat. The second recipe for unhealty staff competition is the absence of modern performance management or staff evaluation tools.

Contemporary employee appraisal involves regular discussions and feedback so that they are aware of where they stand in the office in regard to performance. Muthiora’s interpretation of this factor is as follows: “Where employees are not informed of their performance, everybody may feel that he/she fits the next level of opportunities. However, if all staff members are properly informed of their performance and contribution to the general performance, those who are poorly rated will not get tempted to compete.”

Talent management
The third event that could lead to harmful competition among employees in Muthiora’s view, is poor talent management. It happens where there is a tendency to deploy employees in departments they don’t fit with in regard to their competencies and interests. When misplaced workers spot an opportunity in a department or section they consider most relevant to them, they will fight tooth and nail to get the transfer. By survival instincts, friends in the office who stand in the way or throw their hats in the ring could be declared enemy and ferociously fought.

As an administrator, when employees suddenly start sending negative reports about workmates a bit too voluntarily, take it as a possible sign of not so healthy competition, especially if there is a job position that any of them could be interested in. Such employees could be trying to catch your eye. “A smart boss should start smelling management problems,” warns Muthiora. “When he or she starts receiving accusations and counter accusations from his staff.”

Employee turnover

A high employee turnover could be another sign of unhealthy competition. According to Muthiora, “Once employees start fighting amongst themselves, some will feel threatened or unmotivated. They will start looking for exits to more lucrative work environments.”By the time this happens, there will have been reduced teamwork as employees in the competition will have started to view each other as competitors rather than team mates. The common mission of the organisation will easily get lost that way, and events like sabotage and back-stabbing will take form.

Clearly then, advises Muthiora, succession planning is not a matter that should be taken for granted. Establishing one helps to limit destructive competition among employees, and so are the use of interactive staff evaluation tools and placement of employees in jobs they best fit in.