6. How can co-operation become productive?

Anyone who observes human activity soon comes to the conclusion that there is often no constructive cooperation, despite all the intentions and incentives from management. In organizations, and on all other levels of human activity, that is a painful reason for inefficiency. There is often opposition or a mild form of mutual tolerance between management and employees between leaders and others. Can this be avoided?

The insights from the Transactional Analysis ( 1) (2) (3) can help us to gain insight into causes, and especially solutions. The condition is that we give this model a contemporary interpretation.

Human behavior is largely determined by learned behavioral patterns. Education is a breeding ground that gives an inevitable impulse to both positive and negative patterns. In dealing with others, we have learned in this way that there are three fundamentally different ways.

Subordination: I am the lesser, so I have to adapt to the possibilities, try to survive, put the burdens and responsibility on others, and find the most comfortable way of life for myself. Berne called this "child behavior" because children develop it in the first phase of their lives as a reaction to their helplessness and dependence, but also as an adaptation to the (necessary) steering behavior of their parents.

Upper settlement: I place myself above the others, want to determine the situation and therefore also determine other people according to my wishes, want to get control, and so start steering. Berne called this “parenting behavior”, because the child copied this way of acting from his parents.

Co-ordination: I am equal with the others, and we seek together, based on agreements, how we can live together, work together, achieve a goal. There is no use for power over each other, no competition between people. Berne called this the "adult" behavior.

There are understandable reasons for a leader to confuse his role with parenting behavior. However, the consequences are disastrous. The well-known principle "behavior provokes behavior" will ensure that unproductive reactions arise in others: opposition (parent behavior evokes parent behavior), or survival behavior (parent behavior encourages child behavior). The interactions between these patterns of behavior create a negative spiral in organizations, with more and more steering leadership, and more and more opposition and dependence. This unproductive way of working overshadows all other measures to develop productivity and motivation in people.

A good understanding of these mechanisms can form the basis for good cooperation, both horizontally and vertically. The practical rules for avoiding these disruptive relationship patterns should be included in the organizational culture (see more on this on a different page) (4).

(1)    E. Berne, Don't be annoyed, Bert Bakker, The Hague, 1964)

(2)    Harris T., I'm OK, you're OK, Ambo, Bilthoven, 1973

(3)    Stewart I., Joines V., TA today. A new introduction to transactional analysis, Russel Press, Nottingham, 1987

(4) My more extensive description of the mechanism of Transactional Analysis, including advices dealing with it,  is available.

(5) The way to introduce explicit wanted behavior in organizational cultures, is described in a separate contribution

Hugo Der KInderen