The Strange Reason Your Boss Keeps Looping In New People Without Saying Why

When undergoing periods of transition within organizations, employees become aware of the emergence of certain peculiarities within the company communication. This includes the sudden appearance of a person's name on an email list, meeting invitation, or discussion thread for no apparent reason. This peculiarity creates confusion since it interferes with the natural process of workplace communication. However, it should be noted that such an addition is hardly ever made by mistake.

The reason for this has been found in the process of organizational transition, which can often go unnoticed due to the subtlety of certain processes involved.

The pattern behind the unexplained inclusions

Several studies reveal that the inclusion of people within communication channels is a well-known practice in times of organizational change, where the leadership of the organization tries to disseminate information through a bigger group to avoid any form of resistance from a smaller group.

This is stated by Springer in an article explaining how, during organizational transitions, leaders try to deliberately include people for the distribution of information and power.

The above-mentioned article further explains that this inclusion helps organizations get more participants in the conversation and, thus, makes the participants feel a part of something larger while at the same time helping to avoid any sort of informal power among a group of people.

This can be helpful in organizational transitions; however, not all employees are informed about it.

How leaders use communication to manage change

Communication styles utilized by managers during change management tend to be superficially simple but actually have a hidden agenda behind them. So, adding more colleagues to emails or meetings is a subtle message that also allows a shift in internal influence to take place.

In accordance with Springer's study, such a tactic is used by leaders in order to maintain the power balance within the organizational structure.

It can be referred to as soft control since it involves the redistribution of influence and participation of employees in decision-making processes, although without an overt explanation of what exactly is expected from them in such cases. Employees' role in discussions thus becomes unclear to them.

Why employees feel confused or uneasy

From an employee's point of view, being put in such conversations without having any context can make one wonder if there is some element of fairness in these actions, since it is not very clear why some people get picked, and others don't.

The paper published in BMC Public Health indicates that unclear communication in organizational change makes employees feel uncertain and distrusting.

According to the research, people become more concerned about communication patterns during organizational change and consider it a form of discrimination and favoritism.

The psychological impact of shifting influence

When employees feel the transfer of influence has occurred without effective communication, stress may arise and affect employees' job satisfaction as they may start to doubt their status in the organization. As per the findings from PubMed, organizational changes involving unclear roles and distribution of power may lead to stress and lack of engagement among workers.

The reason for stress may be the concern that workers may not get what they expect due to fear of exclusion from some processes or replacement. Lack of clarity about decision-making procedures may also contribute to such an emotional state among workers.

Communication as a tool for power and trust

Communication is essential to handle the way employees think about organizational changes, although expanding groups of people who have access to information will help spread information.

As explained in the study by Springer, it is necessary for the communication process to be transparent to avoid the strategy going wrong, since miscommunication can only make employees resist more.

The study carried out by BMC Public Health also states that when employees feel enlightened and involved, they will trust their leaders and will stay engaged as the changes take place; otherwise, all efforts will only make them think of secretiveness.

A small change that reveals a bigger shift

The emergence of new names within the context of workplace communication might appear insignificant, but this usually indicates that something bigger is going on, especially with regard to the management of power and influence within the organization.

Though the intention behind this is to provide stability, for the employee, it is interpreted from the point of uncertainty.

The ability to understand this phenomenon can enable one to comprehend what is happening around them, but it also underscores the need for good communication practices during transition periods, since this might have consequences on employees' attitudes towards work.