印象管理的防御性行为

印象管理的防御性行为

Defensive behaviors

Organizational politics includes protection of self-interest as well as promotion. Individuals often engage in reactive and protective defensive behaviors to avoid action, blame, or change.

COMMON VARIETIES OF DEFENSIVE BEHAVIORS

Here discusses common varieties of defensive behaviors, classified by their objectives: avoiding action, avoiding blame and avoiding change.

A VOIDING ACTION

Sometimes the best political strategy is to avoid action. That is, the best action is no action! However, role expectations typically dictate that one at least gives the impression of doing something. Here are 6 popular ways to avoid action:

1. Over-conforming

You strictly interpret your responsibility by saying things like, “the rules clearly state…” or “this is the way we’ve always done it.”

Rigid adherence to rules, policies, and precedents 规则、政策和先例avoids the need to consider the nuances of a particular case. 【rigid: rigorous__ nuance =a subtle or slight degree of difference细微差别】

2. Passing the buck

You transfer responsibility for the execution of a task or decision to someone else.【pass the buck [口]推卸责任, 把为难的事推给别人】

3. Playing dumb

This is a form of strategic helplessness. You avoid an unwanted task by falsely pleading ignorance or inability.

4. Depersonalization

You treat other people as objects or numbers, distancing yourself from problems and avoiding having to consider the idiosyncrasies of particular people or the impact of events on them. Hospital physicians often refer to patients by their room number or

disease in order to avoid becoming too personally involved with them.

5. Stretching and smoothing

Stretching refers to prolonging a task so you appear to be occupied—for example, you turn a two-week task into a four-month job. Smoothing refers to covering up fluctuations in effort or output. Both these practices are designed to make you appear continually busy and productive.

6. Stalling

This footdragging tactic requires you to appear more or less supportive publicly while doing little or nothing privately.

A VOIDING BLAME

What can you do to avoid blame for actual or anticipated negative outcomes? You can try one of the following 6 tactics:

(1) Buffing

This is a nice way to refer to covering your rear. It describes the practice of rigorously documenting activity to project an image of competence and thoroughness. “I can’t provide that information unless I get a formal written requisition正式的书面请求 from you” is an example.

(2) Playing safe不冒险

This encompasses tactics designed to evade situations that may reflect unfavorably on you. It includes taking on only projects with a high probability of success, having risky decisions approved by superiors, qualifying expressions of judgment, and taking neutral positions中立位置 in conflicts. 【】

(3) Justifying

This tactic includes developing explanations that lessen (=decrease) your responsibility for a negative outcome and / or apologizing to demonstrate remorse (=penitence).

(4) Scapegoating 替罪羊

This is the classic effort to place the blame for a negative outcome对负面结果的责备

on external factors that are not entirely blameworthy. “I would have had the paper in on time but my computer went down —and I lost everything—the day before the d eadline.”

(5) Misrepresenting

This tactic involves the manipulation of information by distortion , embellishment , deception (deceive), selective presentation, or obfuscation (obfuscate).

(6) Escalation of commitment

One way to vindicate an initially poor decision and a failing course of action is to escalate support for the decision. By further increasing the commitment of resources to a previous course of action, you indicate that the previous decision was not wrong. When you “throw good money after bad想补偿损失反而损失更多, 连老本都贴上” you demonstrate confidence in past actions and consistency over time.

A VOIDING CHANGE

There are two forms of defensiveness frequently used by people who feel personally threatened by change:

(1) Resisting change

This is a catchall name for a variety of behaviors, including some forms of overconforming, stalling, playing safe, and misrepresenting.

(2) Protecting turf

This is defending your territory from encroachment by others. As one purchasing executive commented, “tell the people in production that it’s our job to talk with vendors, not theirs”

EFFECTS OF DEFENSIVE BEHAVIOR

In the short run, extensive use of defensiveness 防御的广泛应用 may well promote an individual’s self -interest. But in the long run, it more often than not (=frequently, often) becomes liability . This is because defensive behavior 防御性的行为 frequently becomes chronic or even pathological over time.

People who constantly rely on defensiveness find that, eventually, it is the only way

they know how to behave. At that point, they lose the trust and support of 失去…的信任与支持their peers, bosses, subordinates, and clients同辈、上司、下属和客户. In moderation, however, defensive behavior can be an effective device (=means) for surviving and flourishing 生存和繁荣的有效方法 in an organization because it is often deliberately or unwittingly encouraged by management.

In terms of the organization, defensive behavior tends to reduce effectiveness. In the short run, defensiveness delays decisions, increases interpersonal and intergroup tensions, reduces risk taking, makes attributions and evaluations unreliable, and restricts changes efforts. In the long run, defensiveness leads to organizational rigidity and stagnation , detachment from the organization’s environment, and organizational culture that is highly politicized and low employee morale.