Day: September 8, 2015

Findings of a study published in the journal Science indicate that the uncertain economy is contributing to a certain amount of worker paranoia. As layoffs continue and unemployment rises, uncertainty about their future may have workers imagining conspiracies behind every closed door meeting and company announcement. Lack of control over how the recession will affect their employment and finances has people looking for patterns where none exist. In an effort to exert control over the unmanageable and unpredictable, the Science study found that people will create meaningful relationships between events where none exist.

In an online article on ThomasNet Industrial Market Trends, David Butcher explained, “… the desire to combat uncertainty and maintain control through structure can sometimes be so all consuming that people trick themselves into seeing and believing things that simply do not exist.”

Exploring the psychological phenomenon called “pattern perception,” researchers conducted a series of experiments to explore the effect lack of control has on human behavior. The study was conducted by Jennifer Whitson, assistant professor at the McCombs School of Business at the University of Texas in Austin, and Adam Galinsky, Morris and Alice Kaplan Professor of Ethics and Decision in Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University in Chicago.

In the experiments, study participants were divided into two groups. One group received information that made them feel they had control over their actions in the test scenarios. Information provided to the other group was manipulated to make them feel uncertain and powerless about their ability to affect test outcomes. In the absence of control, a preponderance of study participants attempted to create order where none existed, imagining connections, relationships or cause and effect where none was intended. The tests produced some interesting results that may help business owners understand not only the psychological effects the recession is having on their employees but changes in customer perception and behavior.

• Nearly half of those in the powerless group found discernible images in sheets of random dots that formed no images.
• Those who felt powerless overemphasized negative information in determining investment risk.
• In reading a story of a person passed over for promotion, the powerless blamed office conspiracies between co-workers or secret meetings between co-workers and the boss.

“The less control people have over their lives, the more likely they are to try and regain control through mental gymnastics,” Galinsky said. “Feelings of control are so important to people that a lack of control is inherently threatening. While some misperceptions can be bad or lead one astray, they’re extremely common and most likely satisfy a deep and enduring psychological need.”

Friday: Preventing worker paranoia

In times of economic uncertainty like today when people feel they have less control over their jobs, their income and their lives, it is common for people to engage in a psychological phenomenon called pattern perception (see our June 10 post). Uncertainty about the future generates feelings of unease that can cause considerable stress, leading the mind to search for patterns in events where no patterns exist. It’s a phenomenon that has people seeing conspiracies in government actions and finding hidden, unintended meanings in business announcements. It’s the phenomenon that causes people to think the worst when managers meet behind closed doors or co-workers start whispering. Illusory pattern perception feeds company gossip mills to negative effect, sowing seeds of dissatisfaction. The result can cause paranoia that negatively impacts worker efficiency, decreasing product quality and slowing production.

How do companies keep paranoia from spreading through their workforce? Human resources experts say open, honest and frequent communication is the key to reassuring nervous employees. Companies must be proactive in addressing not only internal gossip but external rumors. A brief news article or minor drop in a company’s stock can generate fear far out-of-proportion to the actual event. If faulty information is not corrected immediately, it has the potential to mushroom into panic that can cripple your workforce — and even worry investors and stockholders. Addressing issues as they occur via email, memoranda and company newsletter is important; but don’t ignore the value of the personal touch.

Nothing alleviates fear like the ability to address it head on. Open meetings allow managers to directly address worker fears, project calm and provide accurate information. Q&A sessions can provide workers with the opportunity to voice their concerns and ask for the specific information they need to feel confident about their position in the company. Allowing give-and-take sessions between management and workers provides managers with valuable information about worker concerns and the current psychological state of their workforce. For workers, such sessions meet two psychologically critical needs:

• They allow workers a direct avenue to management, making them feel empowered and more in control of their destinies.
• They serve to invest workers in company processes, increasing feelings of control by promoting a “we’re all in this together” sense of community.

Communication with its workforce should always be high on a company’s agenda; but in these uncertain economic times, effective communication with your employees can have a significant impact on both worker and production efficiency and quality.