iDIGITALL

I received the following email in my inbox this morning. It’s an interesting article, so I copy-pasted it here, as is, with no alterations.

Fear can stunt your career and personal development

By Anderea Morara

Where things are uncertain, employees may be fearful about a number of things. Some will be worried about losing jobs, getting demoted, not being promoted or simply not getting along with colleagues.

One of the most common manifestations of fear is people’s reluctance to voice their opinion on anything.

They just want to conform to whatever the “official” opinion is. This kind of behaviour is usually the norm in authoritarian or dictatorial states and organisations. However, democratisation is now permeating both Government and non-state organisations and becoming standard practice, and thus there are hardly any substantive autocratic managements.

In a scenario where one cannot voice their opinion; employees are averse to making any move on their own. In other words, employees will not take initiative. They will hang around like zombies until someone in authority tells them what to do, and even how to do it.

The other characteristic of people in this kind of situation is their fear to disagree with anything that they are asked to do by their superiors – even when it is abhorrent to their values and morals. They can even commit crime at the behest of management.

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