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It has been the strategy of many employers and management of some companies, to drive fear into their employees. Strategies such as dismissal, suspension, and passing on of promotion are meted out to some outspoken employees.
Often, these punishments are carried out to discipline, chide and as it’s termed to show employees “where-the-power-lies’.
Though they are sometimes used for a noble cause, the end results such as low productivity, pretentious behaviors, as well as an increase employee turnover rate are distasteful for any company.
These strategies are as old as the word business, but the million-dollar-worth question is this: Are these strategies tenable at this time in the life of our world?
These are some of the possible effects of striking fear in employees.
#1: Pretentious Behaviors:
It’s required of employees to give off their best, and to be at their best in the performance of their daily activities. Selfless actions, however little, are carried out to improve the competitive edge of the company, and to drive profit. And the achievement of these things is contingent on a good and congenial environment in the workplace.
However, when employers succeed in driving fear into employees, the environment become contaminated leading to actions taken to please them. What happens is that employees are able to work effectively when under observation by the employer, only to reduce their efforts when they are not being observed.
The repetitive nature of this pretentious behavior will have damaging consequences on the productive of the organization.
#2: Low Productivity:
No organization wants to lose out in the competitive market. Every employer, as well as management of businesses, desires to be one of and/or among the top performing companies in the industry.
And to guarantee the attainment of this goal means that the organization would have to compete on all fronts including boosting its productivity level to match up with that of industry players.
Research works have proven that employees are able to work better and/or are at their peak performance when their working environment is supportive and is in harmony with their energy level.
The atmosphere at the workplace should make room for mutual respect, management’s openness to feedback without retribution, bottom-up approach to decision-making, and an atmosphere where one’s strength is maximized and weaknesses minimized.
However, in organizations where fear is preached and acted upon, the only avenue opened for the employee is shoddy work, or at least resign and look elsewhere for another opportunity.
#3: High Employee Turnover Rate:
Truth is: If you make fear one of your company’s strategies to contain, sometimes the excesses of your employees, you will as well need to get ready to replace your workers at the end of every month. It is a simple as that.
Working environment needs to be friendly but serious enough to get work done within a specific time.
You will as well need to put your human resource manager on alert to be ready to respond in a swift manner the sudden disappearance of your employees.
Consequently, this means that the organization would have to be training new workers every time it replaces an old worker. This will, in turn, slow its growth and dwindle its profit. It also steals the organization’s time for strategizing, and for projecting.
Whilst other serious companies are equipping their employees to deliver the goods, your organization is busy putting fear in the employees. Perhaps, because some of them appear smarter than you are.
The current status of our world calls for changes in the ways businesses go about doing things. And this means that employers would have to embrace their employees for who they are with the hope of making them better to work together.
The ‘dog-barking’ managerial style of some bosses is outmoded in our world of work. At least, the success of hitherto non-performing companies reminds us that fear has, today, given way for cooperation, and mutual respect.
Some employers have now opened up and have developed a new attitude towards employee feedback. They have shown this commitment in their managerial decisions and conversations with employees.
They now recognize that the two Es [employer, employee] both exist for one another.