DECIDING HOW TO SURVIVE IN A TOXIC CULTURE
A media house is an organization that deals with giving the public latest and breaking news, entertainment, etc. Working in such an organization requires great experience, depending on the position. It has several departments that aid in running the organization. Human resource is one of the crucial departments in the organization. The department is responsible for hiring, promoting, and firing workers in the organization, maintaining a safe environment, training leaders, and many other functions. Other departments include the finance department, production department, and creative department. For the organization to run effectively, all departments must work together and achieve the set goals. The departments have heads who supervise and approve work that is done by employees working under the departments. The organization is not exceptional when it comes to challenges. The leaders in power have laid measures that help to minimize the factors affecting the organization. Every worker in the workplace must adhere to policies. Employees should follow the chain of command and commit themselves deeply on their duties. Discipline is the key to survival in the company, and it has helped me to work in the organization for five years without getting in trouble with my head. I work in the human resource department, and my duty is scrutinizing employees who are fit for promotion. Some of the challenges hinder the organization a great deal. The challenges make the working environment of the organization to be toxic and its necessary for an employee, I included, to decide how to survive in such a situation. They include communication problems, violation of the organization policies, racism, and physical and emotional health effects. Therefore, there are several ways to follow that will help the organization survive with the challenges above.
Communicate with other employees with a channel that provides room for future reference, has immediate feedback, fast and secure. According to Radovic Markovic & Salamzadeh (2018), “Communication is an essential part of any company” (p.13). Communication has a great impact on the success or failure of a company. Poor communication brings about a misunderstanding between staff and management of the organization, making it impossible for employees to know the organization’s rules and regulations, making them less effective at the workplace (Radovic Markovic & Salamzadeh, 2018, p. 19). Workers in a particular department communicate face to face while between departments telephone is used. Memos are also used, but few workers embrace it. In some instances, all workers do not receive essential information when needed, thus becoming hard to implement some issues. Even with the available mediums of passing information, communication is a great challenge in the organization. Most workers give excuses that they were never told about a particular issue that affects the organization’s operations. When you communicate with a person face to face, no records are kept, and in case of anything, the party receiving the information will claim that he/she didn’t receive it. The management of the organization has made little effort to solve the communication problem, making one prefer what will suit him/her. Even with the challenge, a person can survive in the environment by choosing a means of communication that keeps a record of the message. Emails happen to be one of the best to use since even if a person deletes the chat, the sender will still have a copy of the information. According to Vdovin (2020), “Messages that have been sent and received can be stored and searched through safely and easily.” An email enables one to share the same information with tens of people in the organization. Emails will work effectively for workers who have offices with computers. The use of text messages will aid in passing information among workers, and its one of the quickest channel to use. Most people are glued to their phones, and they will eventually read the message once it pops up on their phones. Text messages and emails enable one to access information that was earlier sent, but direct phone calls don’t provide a room for future reference. Therefore, with the use of emails and text messages, it will be more comfortable and stress-free to communicate with other employees and break the chain, which makes communication a great threat to the organization’s success.
To Report any situation where individuals fail to adhere to the organization’s policies and warn the juniors against breaking the policies. The act of following policies helps to protect the organization (Leonard, 2018). When recruiting a new employee, he/she should agree to follow the organization’s policies by signing the formal documents containing the policies. Other policies are not drafted, but an employee learns them while working in the organization. It has become a norm where individuals break the policies and work in the organization with their policies. What makes the situation worse, few individuals make an effort to report to the relevant body on the violation of policies. It doesn’t require a particular skill to survive in the organization. Still, the taking of necessary action will ensure a person’s responsibilities are not affected by the violation of policies. According to Leonard (2018), “Obeying rules and regulations in the workplace creates an environment where employees feel safe and comfortable to do their job effectively.” Some of the steps to take are to report any incident that directly affects you and ensure that it is resolved. It is wise to warn and teach junior staff members the importance of following the organization’s policies. It is hard to assume an incidence that violates the organization’s policies but advisable to try and teach the person responsible for the importance of following the policies. I will ensure that any person or work related to my office should adhere to the company’s rules and regulations. It will also be wise to report some incidences to an external body that will ensure the organization’s management works on them entirely. Thus, it will help break the chain of not following policies and ensure that as a worker, I have a humble time carrying out my duties.
To maintain my path, minimize attention, and use other techniques to associate with narcissistic and toxic leaders. Such leaders they all think about themselves. For one to avoid trouble, it is best to maintain my goals and keep my expectations realistic. They always want attention from any person around them (Doty & Fenlason, 2013, p. 56). If a person gives them full attention, he/she will fail to focus on his priorities. It is wise to balance between moving forward and handling my leader’s need for attention. Since they feel insecure, you may get in trouble with the leader when you are an obstacle on their path. The best way to survive with such leaders is to maintain your path entirely. Ensure that any work they assign should be ready even before the deadline and minimize any form of socializing with them that will affect the relationship in between. Narcissistic leaders may devalue a person’s opinion and believe that feedback is grounded on jealousy. They do not open up, and listening to feedback has never been their plan. It is their nature to blame other people for their failures (Rosenthal & Pittinsky, 2006, p. 619). It is appropriate to try avoiding confrontations, and it is necessary to say an issue, frame the issue at hand that will make the leader think that they still have the upper hand. Hence, avoiding getting in trouble with such leaders will help one survive in the organization’s toxic environment.
To treat people from different races equally, especially blacks. Racism has been on the rise in the organization due to the country’s political culture. According to Fernandes & Alsaeed (2014), “Racism is a serious problem, and it continues to exist” (p. 57). The whites do not appreciate African efforts in the organization. People consider them as thieves and trouble makers in the organization. Blacks in the organization become less motivated to carry out duties in the organization and some tender in their resignation letters. The environment doesn’t favor them but criticizes the color of their skin. Due to racism, it is difficult for an African American to get a promotion or high administrative roles (Fernandes & Alsaeed, 2014, p. 63). Some leaders try to make an effort to get rid of the rotten culture and embrace Africans while considering that they are equal to whites. Being a team leader and a dedicated worker in the organization, I prefer to treat all people equally regardless of race. Socializing with blacks enables them to feel loved and cared for. Practicing justice in times of trouble where an African is involved will motivate them to work comfortably in the organization. Campaigning against racism in the organization will raise awareness that black lives matter, and it’s not their choice to born blacks. As such, one will be on good terms with everyone in the organization and operate without getting in trouble with anyone in terms of skin color.
To control the factors that cause physical and emotional health effects. Saeed et al. (2015) states, “Workplaces health is as important as research and development, investment technology and customer relationship” (p. 476). A person’s health is significant because it makes it possible to execute programs and duties comfortably in the organization. Most workers complain that their health status is at stake as they are affected both physically and emotionally. For example, two employees may argue about an issue, and they may end up abusing one another in the argument. If they fight and harm one another, the incidence will affect their mental health. According to Saeed et al. (2015), “Mental health directly affects the work behavior negatively, and in the result, it affects the employees’ performance and the performance of the organization” (p. 480). It will extend further to affect other employees directly and feel not secure while working in the organization. Maintaining a healthy environment in my workplace is vital. Being an employee in the organization is necessary to avoid acts that will tend to affect my health or that of my juniors. It is essential to have several programs for physical and psychological wellbeing.
In a nutshell, all the factors affect both workers and clients of the organization. The challenges result in poor service delivery, which creates a bad public image of the company. It is hard to work in a toxic environment since it is not friendly and possesses great pressure on a person. If one doesn’t feel secure, then it will not be possible to concentrate on work. There are several ways to survive in the toxic environment, but they won’t last for long since other challenges will arise from the currents ones. It is strenuous to learn how to survive at the same time maintaining relationships with other employees. Searching for a new organization with well-laid measures and good leadership will be the best thing to do.
References
Doty, J., & Fenlason, J. (2013). Narcissism and Toxic Leaders. Military Review, 55-60. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/1e7d/3934c80db49f8288af2be792cd2c0580545a.pdf
Fernandes, L., & Alsaeed, N. H. (2014). African Americans and Workplace Discrimination. European Journal of English Language and Literature Studies, 2(2), 56-76. http://www.eajournals.org/wp-content/uploads/African-Americans-and-Workplace-Discrimination.pdf
Leonard, K. (2018, October 19). The importance of obeying the rules and regulations in the workplace. Small Business – Chron.com. Retrieved July 2, 2020, from https://smallbusiness.chron.com/importance-obeying-rules-regulations-workplace-18690.html
Radovic Markovic, M., & Salamzadeh, A. (2018). The Importance of Communication in Business Management. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/328630849_The_Importance_of_Communication_in_Business_Management
Rosenthal, S., & Pittinsky, T. (2006). Narcissistic Leadership. The Leadership Quarterly, 17, 617-633. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2006.10.005
Saeed, A., Zehou, S., & Hussain, N. (2015). Employees Health: Work Behavior and Organizational Performance. International Journal of Education and Research, 3(1), 475-484. https://www.ijern.com/journal/2015/January-2015/39.pdf
Vdovin, A. (2020, February 18). The advantages and disadvantages of email for communications in a company. DeskAlerts: Alerting Software – Send your message to PCs, phones, tablets, etc. https://www.alert-software.com/blog/the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-email