More than Work: Arrogance prevents companies from listening to employees

Tim McGwire is a past president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors and former editor of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He writes about workplace issues.

E-mail writers are constantly telling me that even though their workplaces are bleak and their bosses refuse to listen to sincere, well-intentioned feedback and advice, they are too frightened to rock the sinking corporate boat. They say nothing and do nothing.

Fortunately, Cynthia Cooper of WorldCom, Coleen Rowley of the FBI and Sherron Watkins of Enron were not afraid to rock the boat. For their "whistle blowing," Time magazine made them the Persons of the Year in 2002.

The Time award is a wonderful tribute to workplace courage, and it would be nice if that recognition emboldened American workers. I'm afraid American workers are still too frightened, too reluctant and too intimidated to even speak their minds, much less be whistleblowers. Because of the sheer negative power of bosses, too few people in the workplace are comfortable with the concept that spirituality-of-work scholars call "prophetic work."

The concept simply means speaking out for what the worker believes is right. The ancient religious prophets spoke out against the kings, the rich, the powerful, and they spoke to protect the poor, the lame and the sick. They spoke for truth.

One scholar, Matthew Fox, said every profession requires prophets. He said, "The prophet, by definition, interferes ... and one significant place for our interference is where we work and earn a living."

As with all work and spirituality issues, the responsibility for the reluctance of American workers to be prophets, to speak their mind about wrongdoing, bad customer service or the abuse of privileges by other employees, rests with both bosses and workers.

Bosses who run workplaces where employees are scared to challenge the status quo cannot say they bring their ethics and spirituality to work. Your arrogance overwhelms your values if you can't listen to and carefully consider the input of your staff.

The headlines tell us some executives believed they could loot their own companies because nobody would have the courage to blow the whistle. Why are employees silent when they see bad management, illegalities or employee abuse?

Fear of reprisal is the most obvious reason. A lack of personal courage to stand up for ethics and values is clearly a culprit. Some of it goes back to elementary school, when we were taught not to be tattletales.

Some of it is fed by the "mind-your-own-business" mentality of our culture. When I was 17 and itching to get in trouble in a small town, the whole community was ready and willing to tell my parents. Today, parents are liable to tell those well-intentioned caretakers to take a hike. The same thing happens in the workplace. Helpful input is often resented.

Being a workplace prophet is tough work. For now, the key to being an effective and appropriate voice for change is to always make sure you are serving the interests of the company and not your own self-interest. The interests of the company, however, are not always served by its leaders.

That is when the courage of the whistleblower is crucial to the company.

Tip for your search

Write down the top 10 problems your company faces. Study those problems and sort out your self-interest from the company's interest. Are they still the company's top 10 problems? If they are, start thinking about how you can help the company fix them.