June 2006

Media Monitor

“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.” Those words have come to symbolize organizational hypocrisy on a grand scale. But according to Swedish economics professor Nils Brunsson, organizational hypocrisy exists in every organization when decision and actions are inconsistent or conflict with previously stated ideals, values or performance measures. Organizational hypocrisy is not necessarily bad, he admitted, but rather may be the only way that organizations can operate, given the often contradictory demands they face. Internal hypocrisy is how an organization is perceived by its own employees. External hypocrisy involves how credible the public perceives an organization to be in meeting its stated mission. Most organizations operate at a Stage 1 level of mild or healthy hypocrisy in which the gap between the public image and what is actually happening inside its private sphere is narrow. In Stage 2, some event widens that gap enough to start employees questioning the judgment of senior decision-makers (often the start of something more serious). If this moderate hypocrisy becomes institutionalized (Stage 3), then the organization will suffer from a full bout of cognitive dissonance or Dilbertism. The trick is to keep organizational hypocrisy to a minimum by working aggressively to keep the gap between image and reality narrow. Once it begins to grow, it is devilishly hard to control.

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