Making Monsters

Abstract

We reflect on how recent changes in the moral landscape of Western society that prioritize harm avoidance in all its forms have led to the emergence of victimhood culture in some organizations. We explain how this cultural development has been augmented by an expansion of the concept of harm to include psychological and emotional harms that are entirely subjective and therefore impossible to refute. Together, these conditions have affected the dynamics of workplace conflict and how managers adjudicate and resolve them. We argue that when a victimhood culture takes hold in an organization and the avoidance of subjective harm is prioritized, it can lead to the sanctification of victims and dichotomous thinking habits that create two types of metaphorical monsters. We end by offering a recommendation for how managers might avoid the epistemological and ethical bind created by this type of thinking.