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top   »  business   »  organizational culture   »  office politics   »  setting up to fail

What is Setting Up To Fail?

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Setting up to fail is a malicious political strategy that gives a team or individual a mission, project or task that is deliberately designed to fail. In most cases, the doomed assignment is an order of magnitude too much work relative to the resources or capabilities available. The following are hypothetical examples.
A government gives an investigating committee an overly bureaucratic structure in the hopes that it will not discover the truth.
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A manager who feels threatened by a talented younger employee gives them a politically charged mission that they know is well beyond the employee's capabilities.
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A project manager feels a project is doomed. They assign an individual impossible tasks to use them as a scapegoat for the anticipated failure.
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An executive short sells her own company and develops a corporate strategy that's sure to fail in bankruptcy.
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A large company offers a smaller competitor a lucrative partnership and then sabotages it. The smaller company doesn't have the resources to survive the fallout.
Overview: Setting Up To Fail
Type
Strategy
Office Politics
Definition
An unethical strategy that assigns an organization, team or individual a mission or task that is purposely designed to fail.
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