Corporate Turf Wars

Do you let ego and basic survival instincts dictate your workplace behavior? Are co-workers playing destructive power games that undermine your efforts? Being territorial isn't always all bad, but if taken too far, it can work against you in today's collaborative team environment.

The caveman's to-do list: Spear a fish for dinner, hide surplus roots and berries, stick skulls on poles around perimeter of home to ward off enemy. The controller's to-do list: Make a pitch for a corner office, join a new cross-functional team, re-evaluate budget numbers per marketing's request for additional staff. The two agendas may seem dissimilar but they really aren't — both are about survival and territory.

What's mine? What's yours? What belongs to both of us? When the loot at stake was a huge slab of meat, or shelter from a blizzard or life itself (behold the attacking marauder), the actions were clear: Grab your weapons, beat your chest and do whatever necessary to protect your turf. Today, corporate warriors are unlikely to battle over a porterhouse steak, but more "civilized" loot is now on the table — promotions, budgets, raises and bonuses, decision-making power, talented staff members, corporate perks.

Annette Simmons, a behavioral science consultant and president of Group Process Consulting in Greensboro, N.C., states, "We are territorial because territory helps us survive. But self-image got mixed in with the survival programming. The emotional equipment designed to protect us from lions, tigers and bears and to help us find food, sex and shelter keeps running even when the lions are in cages and our stomachs are full. We are being run by out-of-date programming that operated for thousands of years to perpetuate the survival of the species."

Controllers Play Games?

Ken Matthews, CFO of Chatham Steel Corp. in Savannah, Ga., says, "We are at the apex of the places where you can play games, and we can be very territorial. Our job title is to control and we are controlling stuff all the time. It can be appropriate behavior because our job is to protect the company, but the behavior may be inappropriate when we are controlling out of our own egos. You can take a controller's job and define and manage a lot of territory with it, but doing so can be a big waste of time and energy."

Some territorial behavior (also known as competition) is necessary and healthy. It can spark creativity, reward those who have duly earned rewards and motivate people to perform at optimal levels. Territorial behavior, however, becomes destructive when it damages a company's or employee's performance or reputation, when it becomes truly greedy and vindictive, and when it casts an oppressive shadow on employee morale and commitment.

A lot of the time it's impossible to tell the difference between good and bad territoriality. Both can look the same, claims Matthews, but the underlying motivation is the determining factor. Simmons adds that people seem to have a "common wisdom" about manipulative, harmful action. In other words, co-workers know it when they see it.