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Most of us worked in a company, that is, to put it bluntly, full of shit. For those who have endured a number of these environments over the years, the ability to recognize them is almost a sixth sense. But now there’s a useful framework for quantifying office bullshit – one that will help you evaluate the types you are dealing with so you are better equipped to decide whether to stay or GTFO.
What is the organizational bullshit perception scale?
Tracking down office bullshit has always been more of an art than a science. But thanks to a study recently published in the journal Psychological reports, there is now actually a quantifiable scale that can measure whether the bullshit being produced in your office needs a shovel or a bulldozer.
This new way of measuring office bullshit, which they define as “individuals within an organization who make statements without regard to the truth,” is aptly referred to as the organizational bullshit perception scale. (Sounds like the writers themselves aren’t full of bullshit, which is always a promising sign.)
Office bullshit has three different factors
Office bullshit was found to be composed of three different factors: “respect for truth”, “the boss” and “meaningless language”. The first factor, “Regard for Truth”, is about the willingness of management to tolerate communication that disregards facts. The second factor, “the boss”, is about the willingness of managers to tolerate this bullshit, while the third factor, “meaningless language”, is about the prevalence of corporate jargon.
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As study author Caitlin Ferreira, lecturer in marketing at Luleå University of Technology, explained: PsyPost:
Together with my co-authors, we have identified three basic dimensions of OS in the workplace. The first, truthfulness, speaks to the extent to which corporate culture values facts and figures when making decisions. The second dimension, the boss, speaks in favor of maintaining operational OS through hierarchical structures within an organization – suggesting that supervisors can play a key role in spreading OS. The final dimension, OS Language, highlights some of the language typically used by those who maintain OS in the workplace. This is usually an exclusive language like acronyms and jargon that often causes individuals to doubt their own understanding and otherwise prevent others from meaningfully contributing to a conversation or expressing their concerns.
The scale measures office bullshit and employee awareness of it
To test the Organizational Bullshit Perception Scale, the authors developed factors to measure these three categories and then tested them on two separate samples of employees from different industries. Although still in its infancy, the scale shows promise as it can quantify not only bullshit, but the ability of employees to see the situation for what it actually is.
Perhaps spotting a company’s bullshit helps contain it, but even if it doesn’t, understanding the framework can help you better see and better the types of situations you are dealing with to decide whether or not to save your company’s culture. So next time you’re stuck in an endless meeting, listening to your coworkers say meaningless words while your boss nods in agreement. Rest assured that what is happening is indeed nonsense.
