By Prof. Samuel Lartey
In boardrooms, offices, banks, universities, and government institutions across the world, the most dangerous adversaries rarely announce themselves. They smile warmly, congratulate colleagues, praise supervisors, and appear supportive. Yet beneath the polished appearance often lie envy, hidden agendas, and calculated antagonism.
These individuals appear in many forms. They may be the smiling enemies who quietly undermine colleagues, the snakes in suits who disguise ambition behind politeness, the jealous people with friendly faces who resent others’ success, or the workplace sycophants who flatter leaders while sabotaging peers.
While such behaviour is often dismissed as ordinary office politics, the consequences are far from trivial. Hidden hostility quietly erodes productivity, undermines trust, weakens institutions, and harms employees’ psychological well-being.
In Ghana, where workplace relationships are often shaped by hierarchy, personal networks, and social expectations, these dynamics can be particularly difficult to confront. The result is a silent yet costly organisational challenge that affects both public and private-sector institutions.
Understanding the scale, causes, and consequences of hidden rivalry is therefore essential for building stronger organisations, healthier workplaces, and more effective leadership cultures.
Why Hidden Rivalry Matters
Toxic workplace behaviour is more common than many organisations are willing to admit. A 2023 survey of 466 employers in the United Kingdom found that about 70 per cent of toxic workplace cases remain unresolved, while only 6 per cent of attempts to resolve them are successful.
Although this study focused on the United Kingdom, the patterns strongly mirror experiences across many developing economies, including Ghana.
In Ghanaian workplaces, employees frequently report subtle forms of antagonism that are rarely addressed openly. These may include deliberate information withholding, silent exclusion from important meetings, manipulation of performance reports, or subtle character attacks disguised as professional criticism.
In many organisations, employees who perform exceptionally well or rise quickly often become targets of covert rivalry. For example, in Ghana’s banking and financial services sector, which employs more than 80,000 people and manages assets exceeding GHS 300 billion according to the Bank of Ghana’s 2024 financial stability report, competition for promotions and executive positions can quietly trigger rivalry among colleagues.
Young professionals who return from international universities with new ideas sometimes encounter resistance from colleagues who view them as threats to established hierarchies.
Similarly, in the public sector, promotion systems that rely heavily on seniority rather than measurable performance can create frustration and resentment among ambitious employees. Workplace envy often becomes the emotional fuel behind these behaviours.
A global meta-analysis of workplace research shows that envy strongly correlates with destructive behaviours such as social undermining, workplace incivility, ostracism, and abusive supervision.
When individuals become resentful rather than supportive of their colleagues, the ripple effects spread across entire organisations. Trust declines. Collaboration weakens. Innovation slows. Employee morale deteriorates.
Over time, what began as silent jealousy becomes an invisible force shaping workplace culture.
The Financial Toll of Hidden Conflict
Toxic workplace cultures impose significant economic costs on organisations. A 2023 report by the Society for Human Resource Management found that 32.4 percent of employees who quit their jobs cite negative workplace culture as the main reason for leaving. In the United States alone, this contributes approximately $ 223 billion in turnover costs over a five-year period.
While comprehensive estimates are still being developed in Ghana, available indicators suggest that the financial impact is substantial.
According to the Ghana Statistical Service, employee turnover in several service sectors, including banking, telecommunications, and consulting firms, has increased steadily since 2021 as skilled workers migrate to international opportunities or seek healthier work environments.
Recruiting and training replacements for mid-level professionals can cost between 50 percent and 200 percent of the employee’s annual salary, depending on the industry.
For example, replacing a senior banking officer earning GHS 180,000 annually could cost an organisation between GHS 90,000 and GHS 360,000, including recruitment expenses, onboarding, training, and productivity loss.
In the public sector the costs are less visible but equally damaging. In ministries, departments, and agencies, hidden rivalry often delays decision-making and policy implementation. Files are sometimes deliberately delayed, proposals are quietly blocked, and ideas are discredited because they originate from perceived rivals.
These behaviours may not appear in financial statements, but they slow down national development. The impact on productivity is equally significant.
Research shows that toxic work environments can reduce cognitive performance by between 30 percent and 50 percent. Employees experiencing stress from workplace hostility think less clearly, solve problems more slowly, and make more mistakes.
In Ghana’s rapidly growing digital economy, where productivity and innovation are critical for competitiveness, such inefficiencies can significantly affect organisational performance.
The Human and Emotional Cost
Beyond financial losses, the human cost of hidden hostility is profound. Employees who experience workplace ostracism or subtle antagonism often report higher stress levels, reduced job satisfaction, and emotional exhaustion.
According to the World Health Organisation, workplace-related stress contributes significantly to mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression worldwide. In Ghana, awareness of workplace mental health is increasing, but many organisations still lack formal support systems.
Employees facing covert hostility may hesitate to speak openly because of cultural expectations that discourage confrontation or criticism of superiors. As a result, frustration accumulates silently.
Many professionals eventually disengage emotionally from their work even before they resign physically. In organisations where sycophancy dominates workplace culture, employees also experience confusion and self-doubt. Sycophants often praise leaders excessively while quietly undermining colleagues to gain favour.
Instead of rewarding competence and integrity, such environments reward proximity to power. Talented professionals may feel that merit matters less than political alliances.
Over time, this perception damages institutional credibility and discourages high-performing employees from investing their full potential in their work.
Ghanaian Experiences and Lessons
Ghanaian corporate history offers several examples that highlight the consequences of internal rivalry and organisational politics. During the banking sector reforms between 2017 and 2019, when the Bank of Ghana revoked the licenses of nine banks and consolidated the industry, internal governance failures and weak organisational cultures were widely cited as contributing factors.
Although regulatory compliance issues played the dominant role, analysts also noted that some institutions suffered from internal leadership conflicts, weak accountability systems, and organisational politics that discouraged honest reporting of problems.
In state-owned enterprises, similar patterns have occasionally affected operational efficiency. Internal rivalries between departments, competition for influence among senior managers, and political alignments sometimes weaken institutional cohesion.
In the academic sector, competition for promotions, research funding, and administrative roles occasionally produces tension among faculty members. While healthy competition can stimulate excellence, hidden antagonism undermines collaboration and intellectual growth.
These examples demonstrate that hidden rivalry is not simply a personal issue between individuals. It is an organisational risk that can weaken institutions if left unchecked.
Why These Patterns Persist
Several psychological and organisational forces explain why hidden antagonism continues to thrive in many workplaces. One important factor is social comparison. People naturally evaluate their success relative to others. When individuals feel that their achievements are overshadowed by colleagues, envy may emerge.
In cultures where professional status carries strong social prestige, such comparisons can become intense. Another factor is weak leadership accountability.
When managers reward loyalty or flattery more than competence, employees quickly learn that political behaviour is more valuable than performance. In such environments, sycophants thrive while principled professionals become marginalised. Low emotional intelligence among leaders also plays a role.
Managers who lack empathy and social awareness often fail to detect subtle forms of hostility within their teams. Conflicts remain hidden until they have already damaged relationships and productivity.
Leadership training that emphasises emotional intelligence, ethical decision-making, and conflict management is therefore essential for preventing these problems.
Turning Challenge into Strength
Although hidden rivalry is widespread, organisations can reduce its impact through deliberate leadership and institutional reforms.
- First, organisations must promote transparency in performance evaluation and promotion systems. When employees clearly understand how decisions are made, jealousy and suspicion decline.
- Second, leaders should actively encourage psychological safety. Employees must feel confident that they can raise concerns or report unethical behaviour without fear of retaliation.
- Third, organisations should invest in leadership development programmes that emphasise empathy, conflict resolution, and ethical leadership.
- Fourth, accountability systems must evaluate not only results but also behaviour. Employees who achieve results through sabotage, manipulation, or intimidation should not be rewarded.
- Finally, organisations should promote cultures that celebrate collective success rather than individual rivalry.
Teams that focus on shared achievements tend to build stronger trust and resilience.
Conclusion
Smiling enemies and snakes in suits are not fictional characters. They are real patterns of behaviour that appear in many workplaces worldwide, including in Ghana. Their actions are rarely dramatic. Instead, they operate quietly through hidden antagonism, subtle undermining, and strategic politicking.
When organisations ignore these dynamics, the consequences extend far beyond personal conflict. They include reduced productivity, increased turnover, weakened institutions, damaged reputations, and profound human suffering.
Yet the solution is not pessimism.
With transparent systems, emotionally intelligent leadership, and strong ethical cultures, organisations can transform workplaces from arenas of silent rivalry into environments of trust and collaboration.
The challenge for modern leaders is clear.
They must choose awareness over complacency, integrity over flattery, and collaboration over hidden competition. In doing so, they do not merely improve workplace culture. They build institutions capable of sustaining excellence, innovation, and national development.
Post Views: 24
Discover more from The Business & Financial Times
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
