The email from the reader was straightforward: ?Your article last week on expressing negative emotions got me thinking. Would you agree that an organization can also express negative emotions ? or can this phenomenon be observed only at the individual level??

In case you didn?t read last week?s column, it recalled briefly George Gurdjieff and Peter Ouspensky?s work and warned about the dangers of expressing openly our negative emotions such as anger, irritation, frustration, impatience, boredom, judgment, anxiety, worry, suspicion, jealousy, self-pity, anger, indignation, hatred, resentment, and of course, fear. I quoted Ouspensky?s famous warning: ?It sounds strange but it is very important to understand that all negative emotions are absolutely useless: they do not serve any useful purposes; they do not make us acquainted with new things or bring us nearer to new things; they do not give us energy; they only waste energy and create unpleasant illusions. They can even destroy physical health.?

The reader?s question is valid: negative emotions can be expressed both at the individual and organisational level. The management literature is full of examples of organisations disintegrating or failing to achieve significant growth because of their culture of anger or fear. I once did some work for a large South African organisation where the negative emotion of fear was as palpable as its stoned walls ? its employees were most reluctant to speak up about the needed changes, improvements, or other important work issues; they would fail to come up regularly with ideas or demonstrate a lack of enthusiasm for the task ahead; they would generate few or no suggestions and in meetings, would never pin down decisively and completely either problems or issues. Whispers would be heard in the corridors and conversations would come to an abrupt halt as the bosses approached. Needless to say, micromanaging and a feeling of disempowerment was the norm.

<B>Strategies </B>

If negative emotions such as fear, anger, communalism, lack of trust, victimisation, apathy and so on, are the norms in your organisation, what can you do? We?ve found the following strategies useful:

● Discover where your difficulties lie. A whole range of negative emotions is possible but generally, most companies suffer from only one or two. The first step therefore is, as always, the accurate identification of where the main difficulty lies. We use both attitude surveys and focus groups in this regard.

● Commit yourself to eradicating negative emotions. As is so often the case, top management has to take a conscious decision that whichever negative emotion is being expressed regularly and frequently, will henceforth not be allowed. Without this firm commitment, nothing meaningful will happen. A useful tip here is to search for, and find, many valid reasons as to why this negative emotion shouldn?t be allowed anymore.

● Check your goals achievement scorecard. Negative emotions at the organisational level often surface because employees feel thwarted in achieving their goals. Ask yourself therefore whether your employees have clear goals and are empowered to achieve them.

● Check your resources. Conflict, friction and the resulting negative emotions are sometimes caused by employees competing for simple resources such as budgets, working space, computers, and so on. A fair and transparent allocation of resources often goes a long way towards alleviating the problem.

● Check communication channels. Closed or rigid communication channels have the unfortunate impact of bottling down things resulting in people ?exploding? in negative emotions. Invest into a professional and independent assessment of how free they are.

● Check trust level. How often do you praise staff, are open about what is taking place and reward loyalty and selflessness? Counsel and coach those who say and do things that might trigger negative feelings or get rid of them outright! Discourage all forms of backstabbing and politicking. When it takes place, have no hesitations in confronting them outright by asking questions such as, ?Was your anger at this morning?s meeting designed to make those present afraid so that you could get your way??

<B>Prof E. Charoux</B> [email protected]