Occupational justice within organisational improvement. That was the gist of my professional work for nearly 20 years before I was employed as a pastor in the church.
A good deal of the time I exhorted a mantra—report all incidents; we cannot reduce risk and eliminate hazards unless all injuries, damage, near-misses and potential incidents are reported, so appropriate investigations can be made, and improvement plans developed and implemented.
I was serious and always believed with all my heart that the organisations I worked for cared enough to constantly improve the working environment for workers.
What I found is what every person finds in the course of human culture.
Care little about what is reported, and people stop reporting. The organisation doesn’t seem to care, so employees simply toe that line. It’s a dynamic of culture that works in business, in families, in churches, everywhere there are people being led.
Organisations that don’t care about the safety and wellbeing of employees can aptly be described as narcissistic organisations, given that more focus is put on selfish factors, like economic performance alone.
High reliability organisations (HROs), on the other hand, are famous for their triple bottom line focus—they add environmental and social performance indicators to their economic indicators to form a more rounded, far less narcissistic approach to performance success. HROs organise their business with foci in areas that provide for and advance employee, community and society wellbeing.
HROs see themselves as having a responsibility to care.
Organisations—all organisations—workplaces, schools, churches, NGOs, Governments, etc—have a responsibility to care. But far too many organisations, given the numbers of the abused, do not care, even if they say they do.
Care is about action, not words. Care is about the perceptions of those cared for, not about any well-intentioned vision statement that is never reflected in reality.
Care is about a culture of caring to the degree that management systems are in place to serve the people. (Narcissistic systems are ones where people serve the system.) The best organisations understand that the best results come when their people are happy, and when people are happy, they feel empowered to make processes efficient.
It’s no different in families and churches.
Just like (other) organisations, families and churches can and do either fail to care, say they care when they clearly don’t, or put their time, effort and money where their mouths are, convincing those who belong within the family or church that they do in fact care. Imagine the family or church that doesn’t even bother with words but is intrinsically caring by their actions. Not “do as I say,” but “see by our example.” No fancy words and fanfare, just actions that are full of integrity.
Entities that are narcissistic are self-serving, quite obviously, but it’s entities that say they aren’t but who in fact are that are the biggest concern. This is where churches fit in, because they are, by nature, social enterprises. So, in fact, are families.
Think of the family that presents as picture perfect, yet behind closed doors all sorts of assaults and atrocities take place. Narcissism presents such a proud image of, “Just look at us!” The narcissistic husband and father knows how to appear so charming, witty and attractive. He knows when to turn it on for the crowd. But get him where he’s the king, and things go his way or else. The members of the family are pawns, and they each have their role to play.
The church leader who leads a ‘very special’ church or ministry is in the same game. Perhaps this church is the envy of those around them, but they don’t know what insiders know. For his people, it’s perform or else. But there’s the appearance, and the words to match, that the ministry is all for the people. And such a leader seems completely content living in that dichotomy. They. Don’t. Care.
Getting back to the earlier theme of reporting so issues can be addressed. In narcissistic families and churches, like in all narcissistic organisations, the truth is driven underground, and a false ‘very incredible’ reality is peddled.
In churches or families that are not narcissistic, reports of hazards and risks, and actual incidents are made, because those organisations value the truth, and they’re not afraid of the cost of improvement or the perception they’re not perfect. But in narcissistic families and churches there is no capacity to safely report any such hazard, risk or injury. Reporting behaviour is frowned upon and always will be.
So, that’s how we can know whether we’re in a narcissistic system or not.
If our concerns are welcome and taken seriously, and changes are made, the system is not narcissistic. But if our reports are unwelcome, hushed up, and we’re silenced and get into trouble, then we are in a narcissistic system.
Now, if the system we’re in—whether it’s a workplace, family or church—says they value knowing our concerns so they can be addressed, but they show ambivalence and never get around to actually dealing with the concerns, what kind of system would that indicate? What if the system seems to appreciate what we say, but says “you can’t say or do anything because someone will get into trouble or won’t look good”? What kind of system would that indicate?
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