Responses to Deception in the Workplace: Perceptions of Credibility, Power, and Trustworthiness
Deception is a conscious attempt to developing a false impression amongst other communicators in the workplace. According to the article deception is rampant in organizations, with an estimated forty-five percent of workers had reported having deceived. Deception can have an impact on the deceivers’ credibility, power, and trustworthiness. In an organizational context, deception occurs in three forms, i.e., through information alteration, strategic vagueness, and lies. From the article, the author distinguishes these forms using Information Manipulation Theory. The theory validates the following forms of organization deception, withholding, distortion, ambiguity and changing the object. Withholding means omitting some vital information while conveying it. On the other hand, distortion means altering critical information. Ambiguity implies giving out a vague message that can bear an alternate meaning. Lastly, changing the subject involves reversing a topic in the course of a normal conversation.
Organizational deception has also been described as a communicative response to others in the workplace. For instance, the subordinates are more likely to deceive to their superiors when they deduce to have been given unfair performance feedback. This act as a way of restoring relational balance they perceive to have been damaged following the unfair feedback. Another study shows that employees used deceptive communication when addressing organizational peers dating superiors.
Deception is dependent on the characteristic of the workplace context in that; it is more prevalent where individual are competing than where they are working cooperatively. Another factor is role conflict, whereby some individuals find it challenging to balance their roles in life and their workplace. To overcome the strain and appease their workmate, these individual end up using deception. Apparently, the type of organizational deception employed can impact deception acceptability.
The Article articulates that, despite deception being unacceptable, some scholars perceive it as a way of establishing boundaries and managing relationships. This is to say; an employee may decide to deceive his or her superior as a way of sustaining a positive relationship with her coworker. The reverse might also happen where the employee may choose to tell the truth in order to maintain a positive relationship with his or her supervisor. Deception has been associated with damaging workers credibility, power, and trustworthiness. Although there are various ways for dealing with deceivers, sense-making can have a more significant impact as it involves agreeing on something via an interactive event. Following the article, a person who practices deception in the workplace is expected to be frowned upon. Various studies show that this contention is true as both the superior and subordinate believes it to be unacceptable. Apparently, the extent at which both the subordinate and superior objects deception is dependent on employee’s cultural background, type of relationship between the liar and the target, and the intention for deceiving.
In an organization, any form of deception destroys the perception of trustworthiness amid coworkers. Trust is critical when it comes to both interpersonal and coworker relationships. The absence of a close relationship between employee and coworker could result in loss of information which might be of great benefit to their occupation. Normally, employees have a positive perception of a co-staff who is open and sincere than those who cheat. The article points out that in any organizational setting, trustworthiness is connected with staffs who bears knowledge, intellect, and skills. These individuals are also perceived as more powerful credible and trustworthy. These factors add up to a positive image in which every worker would want to be associated with. However, the perceived credibility of a worker diminishes when he or she lies.