What Is The Silo Mentality? How Does That Affect Businesses?
As per the Business Dictionary,
“mindset present when certain departments or sectors do not wish to share information with others in the same company. This type of mentality will reduce efficiency in the overall operation, reduce morale, and may contribute to the demise of a productive company culture.”
In simple words, the silo mentality is the reluctance to share any information with the employees belonging to different departments within the same organization. This attitude reduces the efficiency within the organization. And, at worst, it is a big contribution towards damaging corporate culture.
There is a lot more that you would want to know about a silo mentality to make sure it is not practiced in your organization. If it does, you need to find out ways to stop it, as it is definitely not one of the healthiest practices to have within an organization.
Key Takeaways
- A silo mentality is an unwillingness to share any knowledge or information between the employees or among different departments within an organization.
- The silo mentality generally starts because of competition among the senior managers.
- Most of the successful firms all across the world encourage free flow of information.
- Silos may end up resulting in low morale and have a negative impact on workflow. Therefore, it may create an adverse effect on the overall customer experience.
Let Us Understand Silo Mentality
Imagine you finally got a job at a company you have been dreaming about for a long time. Things start pretty nice till you realize the senior management does not share any of the necessary information. You may not have an issue at the initial stages. But in the longer run, it is not only damaging to your work experience but also to the overall work of the organization.
The term silo refers to storage containers for missiles or grains. But now, it refers to separate entities that stockpile all the information and efficiently seal it in. When we come to an organization, silo refers to those business divisions which independently operate. They do not share their information with any other departments, even within the organization.
On the other hand, a silo mentality is a top-down issue that arises because of competition between the senior managers within an organization. The gatekeeping attitude towards information starts with the management and passes down to singular employees. It may also be seen between employees, who may just hold onto the information for their own benefit. It is generally there between those employees who have heavy competition between themselves, like sales and marketing. Departments may have overlapping duties as much, which creates competition among the employees.
However, it is not just a matter of ego. Sometimes, it is the narrow-mindedness of the employees that results in them growing a silo mentality. They get so stuck in their everyday chores that they don’t consider the bigger picture. Or, they do not even consider how important the information they are sitting on maybe to someone else.
Regardless of the reasons, a silo mentality only exists because the senior management allows its existence.
Effects Of Silo Mentality Within An Organization
For any company to be successful or to just seamlessly function, it is important that all of the departments have proper communication with one another. This way, they may be able to pass down expert knowledge and solve any potential conflict.
Having a balance between the requirement to share information while at the same time avoiding overload of information is indeed a challenging task. However, it is necessary.
What Does Working In Silo Mean Internally?
There are a couple of things that may happen when any employee within an organization keeps information to themselves:
- Redundancies and inefficiencies between the departments increase.
- Departments and teams may just start fighting among themselves over ownership and responsibilities.
- Lack of proper accountability due to uncertainty around ownership and responsibility.
- There is a sense of unease within the company culture.
This all would end in just one result: a lack of trust. Departments no longer have trust in each other to complete their tasks or deal with responsibilities. Employee morale takes a back seat. People within the organization start feeling insecure and isolated. No one would want to work in a company where they feel like the seniors do not care about them. The teams, on the other hand, feel like they are undervalued as a whole within the organization.
When the teams stop communicating, feedback circulation stops. All of these result in project stagnation. There is zero learning among the groups within the organization. Hence, they are always at a risk of losing resources and time while repeating the same mistakes.
In the worst-case scenario, even when a problem does arise, there is absolutely no one who takes the initiative to solve it. Because of a lack of trust, no one really considers the others competent enough to make the decision either.
How To Overcome A Silo Mentality Within An Organization?
Fortunately, there are ways through which you may be able to overcome a growing silo mentality within an organization.
Let us have a look at how you may apply in your organization as well.
Nurture A Unified Vision: This will help you build better trust among the teams and guide each of the members within the organization to see the bigger picture.
Use Collaborative Tools: With numerous digital collaboration tools, you may unite all the remote teams. This would foster seamless communication and result in improved productivity.
Improve Socializing: With focus groups and joint meetings everyday, employees would get the opportunity to interact with the members of other teams.
Encourage Remote Work: Remote work offers flexibility. Thus empowering the employees along with your business.
Define Shared Accountabilities: By defining the shared responsibilities, you may actually help pull the team together, not divide them.
Build Cross-functional Teams: Shadowing schemes and training sessions may help improve skills and unity within the organization.
The Bottom Line
Whether you are starting fresh with a business or restructuring, the silo mentality can be a major problem. There is no way that a company may be successful enough if it has employees with a typical silo mentality.
It reduces communication, hence creating a lack of trust, conflict, and overall less productivity within the organization.
Therefore, if you are ever to witness the same in your organization, take corrective measures as soon as possible.
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upasana sarbajna
Upasana is a budding journalist who has a keen interest in writing. She considers writing as therapeutic and is most confident when she writes. She is passionate about music, movies and fashion. She writes in a way that connects with the audience in a personal level. She is optimistic, fun loving and opinionated.
