7 Examples of Mushroom Management

John Spacey, April 21, 2020

Mushroom management is a style or method of management that involves keeping employees in the dark and controlling them with negative tactics. This is an analogy to mushroom farming whereby the crop is kept in a dark place and regularly topped with manure. The following are illustrative examples of practices that can be considered mushroom management.

Narcissistic Leadership

A willingness to sacrifice the goals of an organization for personal gain and an unwillingness to accept blame for anything.

Sidelining Talent

Sidelining team members because the manager feels threatened by their talent and potential.

Set Up To Fail

Giving team members action items, goals and projects that are likely to fail as a means of maintaining control.

Management by Absence

Managers who are completely aloof such that they fail to give their teams what to need or to protect them in anyway.

Management by Crisis

Managers who don't manage anything until a problem happens at which point they swoop in to discipline everyone and act the hero.

Need to Know

Using secrecy as a tool of control.

Blame Shifting

A failure to take accountability for failures characterized by blaming low level employees. For example, blaming human error for a problem where the true root cause is latent human error such as broken processes.

Overview: Mushroom Management
Type	Negative Culture
Definition	A style or method of management characterized by secrecy and negative methods of control.
Related Concepts	Negative Culture » Sidelining » Set Up To Fail » Root Cause » Latent Human Error »