When workplace misconduct allegations are made, it often falls to an investigator to conduct a fair, impartial and independent process to establish what’s happened.

The way an investigation is conducted is critical - not just for the parties involved, but for the wider trust and confidence that people have in an organisational culture that says it’s safe to come forward if you’ve been mistreated.

HR practitioners, Professional Standards Units, Complaints teams and the investigators themselves are at the front-line of integrity and confidence in the process.

When allegations are made against senior executives — the people in charge who you might report to, and who pay your salary — your integrity and the potential for unethical interference comes into particularly sharp focus.

In today’s episode, Chiedza Nziramasanga shares her experiences of Life at the Sharp End of managing misconduct investigations, as both an internal and external investigator.

Would you like to know more?

Visit priceperrott.com for this episode's show notes and subscribe to my Beyond the Bullet Points Substack for additional insights, commentary and related content.

Links

• Subscribe to Chiedza’s Substack - The Investigative Edge at https://substack.com/@chiedzanziramasanga
• Visit Chiedza’s website - https://transformativeinvestigations.com
• Connect with Chiedza on LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/chiedzanziramasanga/

Scapegoating is an equal opportunity form of harmful workplace behaviour, because anyone can find themselves being made the workplace scapegoat. A phenomenon associated with workplace bullying, scapegoating takes place at a systemic level - described by Dr Nathalie Marthinek as akin to an “organisation’s immune response” to challenge, questioning and unwanted cultural change.

Nathalie writes extensively about workplace power dynamics and she’s an expert on how unhealthy behaviours like scapegoating, narcissism, exclusion and female-on-female aggression can infect a workplace culture.

In this episode, Nathalie talks about Life at the Sharp End for people who’ve found themselves subjected to the scapegoating playbook — from the targets harmed by this unpleasant and unkind behaviour, to the bystanders, HR practitioners and investigators swept along as the enablers of harm against the person targeted as the scapegoat.

Would you like to know more?

Visit priceperrott.com for this episode's show notes and subscribe to my Beyond the Bullet Points Substack for additional insights, commentary and related content.

LINKS

• Read Nathalie’s Substack, Hacking narcissism
• Visit Nathalie's website
• Connect with Nathalie on LinkedIn

Tempus Fugit meaning "Time flees". More time than I’d intended has passed since the end of Season One of Life at the Sharp End and that great philosopher, Freddie Mercury, told us that “Time waits for nobody.”

Life at the Sharp End set out to help people who want to be a part of safe, respectful and high-performing workplace cultures.

Whether you’re new to the podcast or a long-time listener, let’s take some time together to reflect on some lessons we've learnt so far for leadership and workplace culture, and look forward to what’s still to come on Life at the Sharp End.

Would you like to know more?

Visit priceperrott.com for this episode's show notes and subscribe to my Beyond the Bullet Points Substack for additional insights, commentary and related content.

LINKS

• Listen to Freddie Mercury’s “Time waits for no-one” on Spotify.
• Catch up on all the full episodes discussed in season one at priceperrott.com/podcast