Should business psycholgy serve business or people?

I believe that businesses should exist ultimately to benefit people. Current thinking focuses on the 'trickle-down' effect of making the biggest profit possible, paying wages and taxes from a (small) slice along the way, so that there is some distribution of wealth into the community. This model would indicate that Business Psychology should concentrate on making the organisation more profitable, and eventually everyone benefits from the increasing success.

Business psychology is a sub-set of human psychology. Business is the name we give to (usually) co-operative human activities, a way of describing how we work together for a particular purpose.

In this sense, business is there to serve people. The notion that people might exist to serve business is bizarre, an example of Stockholm syndrome in practice. Many psychologists simply go along with this mindset and unthinkingly support the application of psychology to unethical ends.

People are often seen as mere 'human resources' to be exploited, consumed and discarded by business. In this cognitive frame large corporations have become psychopathic, preying upon people.

It is time to discard this viewpoint. Psychologists are needed who will contribute to the emancipation of people in the workplace by placing them at the centre of business. We can know a person by the Company they create.

Business is nothing more than a competition, which is repeated and replicated on a larger scale across time and spatial boundaries. In the ‘World of Business’, there are innumerable competitions in various combinations that go to make up trade, but the nature of enterprise in general can be grasped by imagining the competition as being the struggle between two competitors Each one of the pair tries through guile, wit and the use of power, to influence the behaviour of the other. The immediate aim is to somehow throw the competitor off-balance, either in a physical or a psychological sense, or both, and therefore lower the resistance being offered. Business then, becomes the use of power to influence others to bend to our will. Business Psychology therefore, should be there to offer commercial enterprises the knowledge and skills with which to gain these competitive advantages. Business Psychology should not concern itself with or get involved in peripheral issues such as human values, politics or philosophical positions, which for the majority of organisations are employed, at best, as convenient PR wrapping-paper.

"Business then, becomes the use of power to influence others to bend to our will." This nicely articulates the conflict model which is responsible for so many of the failings in business. Such a model does not get the best out of people, simply ensuring that the loudest and most aggressive get to the "top". These loud aggressive people of course set about creating a world in their own image - loud and aggressive, and run by a small clique with similar attitudes. Sounds familiar?

It is extraordinary that while we proclaim the need for democracy and social enlightenment around the world, we are happy to work in corporations which are simply dark dictatorships. Transnational businesses are run by a relatively small group of self-serving people with dubious ethics. These people and their corporations have brought us to where we are today.

Look around! The global economy is in a mess. Most western countries are bankrupt, as are all the major banks and most large corporations. The whole lot is kept afloat by illusion, ignorant politicians and fraudulent practices. As all this crashes down in an orgy of austerity, more and more people will want to know why.

Business psychologists who have blindly supported this rotten system will not be needed. They will go the way of all the naive and misguided accountants and lawyers who have also failed to inform themselves about the real state of affairs; who have hung up their personal values as they enter the office.

However, Business Psychologists who seek to know what is really going on, who question the status quo, who do not get fobbed off with media distractions will be in great demand. A major task for them is to enable the world of business to become a fit and proper place for the enhancement and development of the people who support that world.

I am of the opinion that real business psychologists support the whole 'company Eco system'. That is to say, they support both the employee and the employer in an effort to promote productivity, skill development and positive organisational culture. There is more focus on developing personal, emotional and creative skillsets - a positive move away from the occupational psychology domain which seems dry, old fashioned and mechanistic.

Let the company name be MN.

MN is a Social Media Consultancy.

The co-founders and co-owners are Will .N. and Tom M.

So what. you may say!

The company employs psychologists to develop their people, their culture, to support their families. Such work helps support their business and their customers. They go into corporate clients organisational cultures and are reminded on a daily basis how not to treat their workforce. What they are thankful for is the decisions that were made by their co-founders accidentally in understanding that business psychology serves people first, and business second.

So, what is this company all about?

Well, Tom founded the business based upon his passion to create a democratic organisational culture. ‘The culture needed to demonstrate openness, trust and mutual participation and inclusive’, he says. Tom continues, ‘so building an amazing team and company culture is really important to me'.

The company has about 20 odd employees, and there are no fixed times to clock-in or clock out. Of course, they have agreed times for meetings and the teams meet set deadlines; but outside this remit; the staff can just send an e-mail to say..... ‘they are staying home for the morning, or going out for a jog, or taking the kids to school, or they are likely to come in later in the day’; and nobody minds a bit.

The company has removed the constraints of a hierarchical organisation. On their ‘nice people page’ from their website, the co-founders are randomly mixed in with the photographs of their colleagues. No hierarchy of roles here!

Their descriptions of themselves are very blasé; a somewhat laissez-faire approach ensues. If the workers want to stay the night at MN offices – they can do; every night if they wish; and they jolly well sleep to their hearts desire. In the morning, all their colleagues see them still curled up on the sofa as the new day begins!

The co-founders love the maverick approach, they love the creative styles of their workers, the out-of the box thinkers, and if you have had a bad day; you just put an apple in the 'bad mood' bucket, nicely positioned at the front door. If you have a good day, an apple, this time, goes into the ‘good day’ bucket, and a makeshift chart is put together of the apple bucket system for all to reflect, evaluate and perceive over the months to come.
Their democratic culture, says Will is due to being a social media consultancy. Not true!

Will says, we want to replicate the culture on-line, in our offices etc. What Will is doing is mixing up the digital cultural organisation with the social culture organisation.. Will mistakenly believes that it is one of the same. Hence their use of the tools they use as social media rather than digital media. Hence they describe their company as a social media consultancy rather than a digital media consultancy; and don’t realise that the digital and social link to different mediums of communication!

So the forum question states: - 'Does business psychology serve business or people?
Business Psychology, on the surface, when viewing the ‘name’ appears to serve both business and psychology equally; but in best practice; it is our people that count. Let us return to MN.
What is interesting about MN is their democratic non-hierarchical culture. This has not appeared by chance. It has arisen due to Tom’s beliefs and values. Its successful branding is due to Will. But, their democratic culture has nothing to do with their products and services being in digital media. Yet, what is interesting is that, that is their pitch to corporate bodies. They believe that they can turn organisational cultures to become more trusting, inclusive and democratic by using the latest tools in social media. Not so!

Would the understanding of business psychology help Will and Tom? Absolutely!

Are Will and Tom open to using psychology? Absolutely!

And that is what makes the company a success.

The co-founders understand the power of psychology; and truly appreciate their people.

The selling of social media tools (the business) comes second to that.

But even the co-founders themselves, still don’t realise that their democratic organisational structure was founded upon Tom’s beliefs and values of trust, openness and democracy.. The fact that the product or service is social media is merely incidental.

The business product and service is important, but more so the people and few organisations truly get that. They may say it, but do not demonstrate it, in their day to day conversations.
So, when we view these interpretations as Business Psychologists, we know the true story.

Many businesses are successful by chance.
Many co-founders think they know why; and they don't!

But the bottom line is, as Nigel says, its the people, people, people and the communication that ensues that is key to whether success for a business truly reaches its full potential in the marketplace.

What makes MN successful; is its’ people. How people are treated. How their people are communicated to, respected and valued. The people represents their staff and their families driven by the beliefs and values of Tom and their customers driven by the beliefs and values of Will supported by his marketing background. It is people that can make our businesses thrive or dive in the marketplace.
If we as Business Psychologists don’t realise this fact; then what hope can co-founders like Tom and Will; and other CEO leaders have a hope in hell's chance in recognising that people are their best asset; and us Business Psychologists want the very best out of people to ensure business excellence again, and again, and again!

The secret of MN is simply in the beliefs and values of the co-founders. Tom's support the internal culture, and Will's, with his marketing and branding background supports building up the customer basis. The marketing strategy they cleverly use is to say that the digital media consultancy and its tools supports their internal and external culture. This is not true but many corporate companies are buying it.

We as Business Psychologists understand the importance of business and more so about the psychology of people better than many CEOs out there; and it is essential that we get that message out there on a global and daily basis
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