Making Friends, Disarming Challengers: Deference in the Workplace

Although organizational hierarchies are often viewed from the assumption that people seek upward mobility and compete with one another, new research indicates there is more action going on between peers than might be imagined. Highly-competitive organizational cultures do exist, but even within those, "lateral deference" takes place. Management Professor John Sumanth of SMU Cox and co-authors reveal a new twist on communications in the workplace, where protecting and saving one's status is more prevalent than jockeying for position.