From social animals to information hoarders

Humans are social animals who love to communicate, but you often wouldn’t think so in many organisations. In many cases, communication, especially between teams, is the furthest thing from what actually happens on a day-to-day basis. Instead, employees become information hoarders who actively keep information within their teams and are extremely reluctant to share it. 

Causes

The causes for this can be many, but in most cases can be traced back to the culture of the organisation.  Specifically, the following cultural drivers are amongst a range of possible underlying reasons for this lack of communication

• Remuneration (pay) – If the pay structure of employees or teams does not explicitly encourage cross-functional teamwork there is very little incentive for groups to work together.
• Power structure – If individuals or teams are implicitly rewarded for having specific information no-one else has they are encouraged to gather and hold this information
• Structure – A structure which duplicates functions amongst teams (or does not provide clarity of function)  can create competition and discourage sharing between groups working on like functions
• Confidentiality – An over-reaction to the risk regarding confidential information leaking to the market can create an excessive focus on secrecy
• Systems – A lack of systems that allow teams to easily share info can make it difficult for this information to be disseminated

Consequences

The results of this information hoarding can be extremely detrimental to any organisation. Amongst other consequences, it can create

• Duplication of activity
• A decrease in productivity
• Increased need for explicit management of cross-company work
• A lack of positive recognition
• An increased reliance on outside expertise
• An inability to take advantage of success across the business
• A lack of trust amongst groups

Solving the problem

Given the lack of communication is often driven by underlying cultural causes it can be a very difficult issue to resolve. Addressing the problem can only really take place as part of a broader cultural change program addressing all drivers of culture, both explicit and implicit. This will be the topic of another post in the near future.