University students studying philosophy or political science regularly read the works of one of the most famous ancient Greek philosophers. Around 2,400 years ago, Plato became absolutely fascinated by a particular problem that we still face in our workplaces today that involves when too much power ends up in the hands of the wrong person.
He was part of the great trio of the most prolific Greek philosophers. He studied under Socrates and then later actually taught Aristotle. He founded the famed Academy in Athens which became one of the earliest great centres of higher learning in the Western world. His writings were so impactful that they shaped ethics, leadership, philosophy, and even politics for thousands of years.
While we organisational behaviour researchers often strive to read, implement, and create the latest cutting-edge studies that can better guide business and management professionals, it is sometimes useful to go back in time and visit some of the classics that were way ahead of their time.
In and around 380 BCE, Plato wrote his most famous and influential work called The Republic. Most of the book revolves around the concepts of justice and what makes a society and individuals good. But in Book VIII, he turned his attention to something much darker. He describes in vivid detail how a tyrant gains power, then consolidates power, and then how eventually the dictator becomes trapped by the very same system of fear that they created.
Most people read Book VIII of The Republic with an eye toward political philosophy. One can see online content creators use it to analyse current political shenanigans like Lucas Bean utilising it to widely criticise US President Trump. But we can absolutely turn this ancient piece of pivotal literature into a cautionary tale and advice about our own modern workplaces.
Nearly all of us who have held any type of job across several organisations have eventually encountered a workplace dictator. Such managers do not necessarily shout and scream or even openly think of themselves as authoritarian. Instead, they can at first seem merely highly confident, decisive, and quite charming. The rubber meets the road in the real test that comes when someone beneath them in the entity’s organisation structure hierarchy decides to disagree with them, becomes successful, knows more than they do, or receives praise that the tyrant manager believes should have gone to them.
So, Plato’s first observation about dictators sounds extremely familiar in the modern context. Once the tyrant gets ensconced in power, Plato writes that the tormenter then beings identifying those who are brave, wise, or as Plato also called them, ‘great-souled’. The oppressor must then become their enemy and keep plotting against them until they have purged the whole organisation of all its people of worth. A perfect modern example of a tyrant, though fictional, is Jude Law’s character in the television series The Young Pope.
Think about the worst manager you have ever encountered. Who tends to leave the company first either by force or by choice? It is not the incompetent staff who depart quickly but rather the highly skilled effective worker who bolts for the door by recognising that the new tyrant situation will not work out in the long-term. The ones who get pushed out are because they pose a threat, while the ones who leave by choice are because they exercised their networks and social capital and got out in time.
Researcher Roy Lubit has found something surprisingly close to Plato’s ancient observations. The study examines destructively narcissistic managers and found that their drive for power, outward confidence, and ruthlessness can help them rise in organisations. But eventually, the workplace tyrant boss’s tendency to devalue others and focus on themselves can damage organisational performance and over time drive away some of the firm’s most talented employees.
Secondly, Plato explains that once independent capable people disappear, then the tyrant needs to bring in replacements. He describes followers flocking around the tyrant while the dictator more and more becomes dependent on the sycophants all while the better people hate and avoid him at all costs. We see something similar happening politically in Washington D.C. right now. The more objectionable the tyrant’s behaviour becomes, Plato argues, the more they require their loyal followers to be around them. So, dictatorships, whether in politics or in our workplaces, become self-reinforcing.
Third, Plato describes the disturbing reality that people eventually discover that the person they had originally empowered to protect them has instead become the source of much of their oppression. He continues to describe this transition as moving from hope to servitude. The modern workplace version of these political realities occurs when a senior manager may appoint a forceful manager because a particular department needs discipline. While results may improve at first and decisions happen quickly because nobody wastes time debating and the most difficult employees get removed, eventually the definition of ‘difficult employee’ changes from being poor performers to instead those who disagree with the boss. Eventually it comes to mean anybody who is capable of disagreeing with the tyrant. Then organisational performance starts to drop precipitously.
Have you encountered workplace tyrants? How did you respond?
We will continue with this theme in next week’s Business Talk in the Business Daily to unpack steps about how Plato and modern research recommend removing a tyrannical dictator.