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Workplace Bullying in American Organizations
For nearly two decades now, management experts, scholars, practitioners, and authors of popular business books have urged American employers to treat their employees with respect, engage in open dialogue, eliminate fear, and encourage employee input and feedback. At the same time, employers have also been encouraged to lead their organizations toward the creation of a fair and respectful culture—one that includes fairness, civility, and dignity for the employees who work there through effective leadership, employment policies, benefit programs, internal communication, and the like (Daniel & Metcalf, 2001; Daniel, 2003a, Daniel, 2003b; Daniel, 2006; Daniel, 2009b; Deming, 1982, 2000; Drucker, 1992; Goldsmith et al., 2003; Hartling & Sparks, 2002; Hornstein, 1996,…
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Dialogue and Ecological Engineering
The ways in which we envision or understand systems determine much about the ways in which we attempt to affect them. The industrial era created a concept of organizations which mirrored the machines on which it was built. An efficient organization was to run like “ a well-oiled machine.” A clear division of labor improved efficiency and productivity. Frederick Taylor’s program of Scientific Management further optimized each task through isolation and measurement. In work with human organizations and institutions, it appeared that this debate might have been resolved with the shift from a mechanistic to an organismic metaphor view. In reality it only seems to have created additional confusion. Very…
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HR Investigations described
We provide investigative services related to alleged workplace misconduct with a primary focus on sexual harassment, ethical or policy violations, and workplace bullying.
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HR Consulting described
We provide general consulting to senior leaders and/or HR practitioners who would like to confidentially discuss highly sensitive employee or policy situations. This includes the coaching, support, and development of HR professionals in the organization, as well as development of the HR function itself.
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Executive Coaching described
We help organizations to develop and make the most of their talent. To this end, our work centers around three key groups: (1) senior executives who need to improve their managerial or interpersonal skills, or have been identified as creating negative workplace environments, (2) new executives or managers who have recently been promoted into their roles, and (3) executives or managers who want to become more effective leaders.
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Our Values
Our Values Through our work as both scholars and practitioners, we have come to the opinion that an almost obsessive focus on getting the culture right is the single best strategy to set an organization up for long-term success. For us, a positive and healthy workplace climate includes the following: A work environment that is respectful, flexible, fair, and inclusive; Capable leaders who inspire trust and who are uncompromisingly ethical; Supportive management who continuously coach and develop employees; Opportunities for employees to do work that feels meaningful; Frequent, transparent, and honest communication; Recognition and appreciation for good work; Opportunities for employees to grow and develop; and Accountability for adhering to…
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Executive Sexual Advances
A senior executive of a regional firm viewed the small workforce as his own personal dating pool. Female employees felt uncomfortable accepting his requests for dinner dates, but were also conflicted about making him mad (which might impact their employment). Following an interConnectionsLLC investigation and after reviewing our recommendation, the executive was removed by the firm’s board of directions. After he was terminated, the females who had been subject to this harassment for many years sent us a dozen yellow roses in appreciation of our investigative efforts.
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Bad Behavior from Senior Exec
A senior executive often complimented female employees at work, making provocative comments that made them feel uncomfortable. He also was an equal opportunity “yeller”, frequently expressing expletives to both male and female employees. InterConnectionsLLC consultants were called in to investigate the facts and to determine if a hostile work environment was being created as a result of these frequent comments and also to determine how the organization could best move forward. The individual was subsequently removed from his position.
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Two Execs Learn to Get Along
Two senior executives of a large corporation, both valuable employees, were creating significant workplace stress and conflict for employees in their respective groups. The company engaged Interconnections LLC to work with them both individually and in sessions together. They engaged in pre-reading assignments for their individual monthly session about relevant cases and topics. Then each month we had a separate joint session. The role of interconnections LLC was to help facilitate their conversations and to help them understand better where the other was coming from. Over a period of six months, their understanding of each other increased and their workplace interactions improved. The result was that no one was terminated…
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Young single mom illegally searched
A young single mom worked for a fast food restaurant. An unidentified person made a prank call to the manager on-call at the site pretending to be a police officer. The caller told him that one of his employees was stealing money from the cash register and that he needed to search her before she left the premises. He complied, conducting an egregious strip search of the employee in the bathroom stall of the restaurant. A lawsuit was filed against both the company and the manager. InterconnectionsLLC provided expert testimony about the egregiousness of the conduct and made recommendations about how the company should remedy the matter. The former employee…