Narrowing the 'Gap' for Stronger Cultures

Understanding power and what it blocks and unlocks in workplace relationships

Jade Garratt

One powerful way to improve a workplace culture and how confident people feel is, as Jade Garratt writes at PsychSafety.com, is making power differentials less extreme.

If you prefer the more technical description, she writes that organizational leadership pursuit should be “reducing power gradients.” Let’s talk about it.

What is the “power gradient?” Its “the gap between those with the most power and those with the least.” It’s also referred to by different names, such as the power differential or the authority gradient.

It’s fair to ask, is this really important in any organization when there is going to be a vast difference in power and success and decency towards people can happen with it?

Yes, it’s necessary, Garratt asserts, because, “When the power gradient is steep, speaking up feels very risky, even impossible. History, academic research and real-world disasters all tell us the same thing: that on the whole, people don’t speak up against steep power gradients, even when lives are at risk.”

That is attention getting.