Testing for Victimhood in Organizations for Culture Optimization.

The Victimhood Test.

Sometimes while doing a diagnosis of culture, it is important to examine whether the people in that culture feel like they have been victimized at any point by their leadership.

This is the Victimhood Test. It is a two step test. It is first a subjective test and then an objective test. For the sake of this article, we are going to concentrate on the subjective part of it.

The goal is to first assess how people feel and not whether or not they are right to feel the way they do.

The victimhood test is not always necessary. It may only be necessary when one feels that the culture is very dysfunctional.

Victims are usually not capable of high performance especially where they feel that nothing can be done.

Generally where there are victims working, performance may suffer greatly and be attributed to other factors that may be having no effect on performance.

How to Test for Victimhood.

This exercise should be done by a consultant for the obvious reason of lack of attachment to the outcome. The responses should also be anonymous to avoid more victimization.

When assessing a culture for victimhood, ask the following questions:

? Do you feel like you are a victim at your workplace?

? Do you feel like you will always be a victim at your workplace or can something be done about it?

? Do you feel like you can do something about being a victim at your workplace?

? Do you feel like you can work with other team members to do something about being a victim.

? Do you feel that only something from outside can intervene on your behalf?

The first question tests for the presence of victimhood. It is important to get a picture of the magnitude of victimhood in the organization.

The second question examines whether people feel like this is a temporary situation or a permanent one.

Where people feel like it a permanent situation, it shows that there is a big problem with the culture.

The people do not trust their leaders to bring about change. It also shows that the mistrust has been going on for quite some time.

The third question tests for helplessness of the individuals in their victimhood. Do they think that they can do something about their situation?

The fourth question tests for their belief in social support at the workplace. While they might have felt helpless initially in their victimhood, now they get to assess whether enlisting the help of others is an option they can take.

The fifth question is a very interesting one. It paints a picture of how gloomy the situation is.

In the event that people are waiting for rescuers from outside the organization, then the culture is full of mistrust and hopelessness.

Call to Action.

It is not possible to achieve much when you are working with victims. As mentioned earlier, where victimhood reigns, performance suffers.

The important thing to remember is that every victim has a persecutor and a rescuer.

Somebody or something is responsible for the persecution or pain the victim is experiencing. Somebody or something is also expected to rescue the victim.

Organizations should empower people to believe that they have the agency to come out of victimhood. They should be empowered not feel helpless in the face of it.

It is best if leaders also create a culture of trust where people can believe that their leaders would rescue them from any forms of persecution.

It is also best if social support in an organization is made so robust that it can be trusted to reduce victimhood if not eliminate it entirely.