The ego-empathy scissors have opened even wider

Hungry wolves hunt in packs, a hungry man hunts alone. In other words, when life gets tough, we are better off together than alone. Most living creatures are aware of this but humans seem to be an exception. More exactly, the Hungarian employee seems to be an exception. He would rather starve but would not cooperate.

On the basis of the findings of our institute, we can state that as a result of the crisis, 90% of the Hungarian employees have moved towards discord and solitary fight. Instead of closing and reinforcing our lines, we tend to withdraw and go for each other’s neck – significantly reducing our chances for survival. Our lacks of trust, level of tolerance and willingness to cooperate have reached their lowest. The phenomenon is not new but the past few years have drastically speeded up the already very damaging, typically Hungarian trend.

Based on the analysis of a thousand personality profiles it has become very distinct that the ego-empathy scissors further opened last year and the process accelerated in the first quarter of this year.

What does the ego-empathy correlation mean? While our self-esteem, self-confidence, pride, etc. keep increasing, our interest in each other, our level of tolerance and willingness to cooperate decrease drastically. On the whole we understand each other less while we stick to our own point of view in an increasingly stubborn, obstinate fashion. It’s important for us to be right, even if it doesn’t take us anywhere.

Of course there is nothing to be surprised at. Who on earth cares for others when their own living is at stake? Understandably, when in trouble, one only cares about oneself and is not interested in noble, superior aims. But is it really the way it should be?

If we take a closer look at the group dynamics reactions of other nations to crisis situations, we may realize that this is a Hungarian specificity. It seems that we go against such natural laws as the custom of hunting in herds.

Increasing discord has also reached the corporate sphere, causing a great deal of headache to team building professionals. The effectiveness of methods strengthening group cohesion has dropped, thus the result of a “pull together” exercise fades a lot quicker than before. While the majority of companies have halved the number of team building programs (for economic reasons), exactly the opposite would be needed: the flickering flames should be revived almost every month. It’s as if we put on half of our clothes in twice as cold weather.

While the behaviour patterns of a country are difficult to change, in case of a company, at the micro level, we can do miracles. We only have to understand the nature of the phenomena which are going on around us. And ego-empathy scissors do indeed have a very bad nature.