Introduction
In this series of articles “organisation” is a generic term meaning any group of people who work together towards a common goal, for example, small clubs, businesses, and nations. This article describes several dark strategies that are used to maintain the hierarchy in an organisation. If they are used, then:
- they tend to go hand in hand with authoritarian and highly stratified organisations rather than more egalitarian and democratic ones;
- they are indicators of dark personality traits in the organisation’s leadership; and
- they are significant contributors to the formation of a toxic culture with little regard for the wellbeing of sub-ordinate members, stakeholders, the broader community, or the natural environment.
Coercion
Coercion lies on a scale. In most organisations there is an understanding that if one does not carry out one’s role or function, then one will be dismissed or excluded. This is a part of the normal human socialisation process, and a part of the social contract that one enters into when joining an organisation.
However, more extreme forms of coercion are often used in highly authoritarian organisations, in those that are highly stratified, or in those with a toxic culture. This involves the use of resources controlled by leaders to deny the satisfaction of sub-ordinates’, stakeholders’, or competitors’ needs. It can also involve the use of those resources to threaten or impose harmful contra-satisfiers. Thus, coercion can vary on a scale from minor implied threats to imprisonment or torture. As a rule, the more extreme the coercion, then the more authoritarian and stratified the organisation, the darker the personality traits of the leadership, the more toxic the organisation’s culture, and the less regard it has for the wellbeing of the broader community or natural environment.
However, coercion is inefficient. It involves an expenditure of resources that might otherwise be employed to benefit the organisation. Thus, coercion is normally progressive, escalating, for example, from minor implied threats to more severe action, until compliance is achieved.
Fortunately, the more extreme forms of coercion are now illegal in Western democracies. Nevertheless, it continues up to the point of legality and social acceptability. It remains possible for leaders to optimise the benefits for themselves or their organisation by engaging in a form of brinkmanship. The more stratified an organisation, the less benefit the lower strata gain by comparison with the higher ones. Thus, the less likely the lower strata are to give their voluntary support. Brinkmanship involves concentrating benefits in the higher strata to a point where voluntary cooperation begins to break down, and may need to be replaced by illegal coercion, but no further. Coercion can then, for example, include making an example of some individuals as an implied threat to others. Were stratification to be taken further, then negative competition between the strata would ensue, beginning with non-compliance, through legal and political challenge, and ultimately, in less stable nations, to violence.
Behaviour Shaping
This involves controlling the behaviour of sub-ordinates through operant conditioning, i.e., rewarding the desired behaviours and punishing the undesired ones. A particularly unpleasant example was, and in some places still is, the promise by the Christian church of heavenly reward for good behaviour and the threat of hell for bad. Whilst being a very effective means of control for many centuries, this has caused considerable distress and anxiety among believers.
Bullying
This is a combination of coercion and credible deniability. Members of the lower strata are coerced into complying with the wishes of members of the higher strata in a way which can be denied by the latter. “It was just a joke”.
Divide and Rule
This is a strategy allegedly used by the British in India and hinted at in an earlier article entitled “How hierarchies form”. Where two or more individuals or groups are perceived as a threat to the power of a higher stratum, the latter will encourage the former to compete negatively with one another, thereby diminishing their resources, and thus, the threat that they may pose.
Removal from Power
Where the power of an individual or group appears to be a threat to a higher stratum, the latter will remove the power of the former. A range of techniques exist, assassination, character assassination, imprisonment on false charges, dismissal, etc. Fortunately, the more extreme techniques are now illegal in Western democracies. However, they continue to be used by dictatorships.
Rational-Understanding.com 