What To Do When Employees Want Nonprofit Managers To Fail?

What happens when nonprofit managers are doing everything right, but employees are purposefully or unintentionally sabotaging them? Saboteur nonprofit employees may seem like a counterintuitive concept. First, nonprofits exist to advance the public good so the general public does not expect this type of behavior to exist in the Third Sector. Second, managers are typically held responsible when things go wrong with employees. They are viewed as inept leaders without the needed emotional intelligence to engage employees. However, there are times when a nonprofit manager or executive does everything right, but the employees have set them up to fail.

Although it is the case that employees in nonprofits are driven by a strong personal ethos, as with any other field, you will occasionally encounter individuals who will behave unethically at work. Employee sabotage can occur when employees hold preconceived biases against their managers or are driven by particular agendas biased by their previous experiences. Thus, they create situations for their bosses that no reasonable person could succeed in without firing staff.

Reasons Employees Sabotage Managers and Their Consequences

According to Jean-François Manzoni and Jean-Louis Barsoux, in their article published in the MIT Sloan Management Review called, “Are Your Subordinates Setting You Up to Fail?”, this can occur when the new boss comes into the job pre-labeled by the employees due to negative experiences with previous supervisors, loyalty to the previous supervisor, or team preconceptions regarding the new manager’s work style. 

Naturally, when this happens, it is very easy for subordinates to misinterpret the actions of their nonprofit managers or executives and attribute them to incompetence. Employees also begin to see false or exaggerated patterns of behavior that confirm their biases. As a result, the normal actions of management are interpreted as negative. Suppositions about intentions are also gradually remembered as facts instead of hunches. It is here where one employee can negatively influence an entire team. As she or he begins to seek affirmation of her or his perceptions, divisions are fostered between the staff that is perceived to be part of the “in-group” with the boss and the “out-group”. This creates an environment where employees engage in active or passive provocation that creates an unhealthy organizational environment. 

Under these conditions, even when one employee has a positive experience with a supervisor, if a situation is perceived as unfair towards another employee, empathy for a colleague can lead to feelings of distrust and resistance to a supervisor’s suggestion. 

Nonprofit Managers Must Remain Neutral and Objective

Since managers are human, it is very easy to have an emotional reaction to unfair portrayals. It is also natural for that manager or executive to become concerned that she or he will be held accountable by the board for work that is not being carried out appropriately by resistant staff members. Manzoni and Barsouxf note that if at this point, managers react by either retreating or increasing their monitoring, this can affirm the negative cognitive bias against them. Thus, it’s essential to be very strategic in how to manage this very tricky situation. 

In the for-profit world, it is a given that there will be a move toward terminating these employees as quickly as possible. However, as Malloy and Agarwal note in their journal article, “Factors Influencing Ethical Climate In a Nonprofit Organisation: An Empirical Investigation”, nonprofit organization employees have different ethical expectations than in other sectors. Nonprofit employees expect a culture of caring. Thus, actions that demonstrate support for personal growth, well-being, and social responsibility are valued as essential at all times. As a result, in the absence of an illegal or unethical act, most managers in nonprofits choose to go beyond creating clear standards of expectation with these “problem” employees. Instead, they try mentorship first instead of terminating resistant employees.

Preemptive Steps to Avoid Termination

The following steps can help place the manager or executive in a winning situation: 

1. Assess the environment before beginning a new placement and keep a finger on the pulse of the organizational culture^[1]to ensure you understand the expectations and concerns of employees;
2. Act quickly to correct issues; ^[2]
3. Your actions and decisions should be transparent and engage employees to ensure you maintain a culture perceived as ethical by employees;
4. Get to know the employees on the team^[3]to understand their needs, interests, and values;
5. Remain neutral and objective to ensure that you foster a culture of caring and do not make rash decisions based on emotions; and 
6. Behave honestly, supportively, and fairly.

_{^[1]Manzoni, J.-F., & Barsoux, J.-L. (2008). Are your subordinates setting you up to fail? MIT Sloan Management Review, 50(4), 43–51. Retrieved from https://athena.rider.edu:2589/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edszbw&AN=EDSZBW61035857X&site=eds-live&scope=site
^[2]Manzoni and Barsoux, 2008
^[3]Manzoni and Barsoux, 2008}

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