# The Positive-Negative Culture Dilemma By:: [[Brian Heath]] 2023-10-07 Many organizations have employee cultures with negative sentiments. They are pessimistic, skeptical, and borderline nihilistic. Think of engaging with any bureaucratic organization. Is the employee behind the window or on the phone happy to help, or does one feel like their existence is inconveniencing them? This is a tell-tale sign of a negative culture viewed as a plague by modern business schools and management textbooks. A positive culture is believed to generate significantly better outcomes for the organization. While the contemporary American culture calls for everyone to be friendly and positive, it remains to be seen if this results in more profits and organizational outcomes. Within the pop-culture business space, organizations viewed as "positive" are cherry-picked and highlighted as examples of what a positive sentiment culture can do for an organization. But, as with nearly everything in business, scientific rigor and experiments in business are a myth. They don't exist outside of cherry-picked case studies packaged nicely to support the author's desired narrative and interpretation. At least in America, positivity and optimism reign supreme as the ideal - even if everyone is miserable and suffering. Just look at social media posts if one disagrees. Success can exist in many forms, regardless of culture, and there is a reason that defensive pessimism is a valid and successful coping mechanism. Consider there are two organizations in parallel universes. Everything is the same, except one organization leans negative and the other leans positive. One day, the same threat emerges, potentially destroying the organizations and everyone in it. Is it better to be irrationally optimistic that one will overcome the battle? Or is it better to be irrationally pessimistic that the end is near? Arguments can be made either way. Now, add a layer of management that prevents information about the coming threat from being known by the employees. This is standard practice today - employees, like peasants before them, cannot be trusted with information. Is a negative or positive culture better? The positive culture only further hides the threat, but rumors of the threat spread like wildfire in a negative culture. Is it ethical to hide the threat? Perhaps only in business. But, above all things, the positive and negative culture has nothing to do with how people respond to the threat. This is what determines the outcome of the organization. Threats always exist - being positive or negative about it doesn't matter. How one responds matters, and one's belief about truth is how one responds. Few people and even fewer organizations understand this—those who do understand the real meaning of solidarity. #### Related Items [[Culture]] [[Business]] [[Beliefs]] [[Solidarity]] [[Ethics]] [[Science]]