How cronyism corrodes workplace relations and trust (24 January 2022)

Summary

This article in the Financial Times by Alicia Clegg discusses how cronyism corrodes workplace relationships and destroys trust. It shows that the issues are common to both public and private sectors and demonstrates the need to seek out and resolve root causes.  

Content

The article includes an example of how cronyism plays out in the healthcare workplace and asks some important questions about how workplace cultures exclude people who don't fit in with an ethos which puts reputation over transparency and learning and create an environment where an approach akin to a 'code of omertà ' exists to silence dissent.

It discusses the impact on individuals and the sense of isolation and hypervigilance that can result from cultures of fear. It includes commentary for Michael Bang Petersen Professor of Political Science at Aarhus University and Blaine Landis on why cronyism comes naturally. It also considers the question of how close regulators are to those they are regulating.

"This piece is important because it gets to some of the root causes as to why many people leave organisations & why retention of staff can be a major problem. This is an issue that is particularly relevant in healthcare, including the NHS in the UK. Cronyism in the workplace is a worldwide cultural and societal problem and in #healthcare it's a #patientsafety issue." - Steve Turner