Peer Pressure

This article outlines various inside and outside influences that organizational leadership has to deal with during decision making. Governmental regulatory agencies have the vested authority to impose sanctions upon non-compliant companies. The dictates of regulatory agencies often create legalistic mazes and bureaucratic rituals that bear little relation to a framework conducive to rational decision making. Deviation from legally codified procedures can subject an organization to a situation where its legitimacy is threatened. Socially conscious groups, from NOW to PETA, have also gained significant constituencies, as well as credibility, for their causes within society as a whole. Many such organizations use more formal methods to give various populations of workers protected legal status. The number of stakeholders relevant to an organization has also increased sharply during the past 50 years. To complicate matters further, different stakeholders are likely to have competing interests. There are cases where organizational leadership proposes actions that are reasonable and necessary for the continuation of the organization, but are resisted very strongly, even by constituencies that might benefit, either immediately or eventually, from their implementation.