The blame game occurs when a group tries to offload responsibility for a problem. It can be counterproductive and frustrating, and is often motivated by fear of punishment or desire to look good. Open procedures and accountability can help avoid it, as can rewarding responsibility-taking. The blame game is related to some psychiatric conditions and is common in politics.
The term “blame game” is often used to describe a phenomenon that occurs in groups of people when something goes wrong. Basically, all group members try to offload the blame, absolving themselves of responsibility for the problem. The blame game can get quite complex and convoluted, and people who aren’t good at playing the game can find themselves bearing the brunt of ill-will from whatever went wrong.
Besides being frustrating and a waste of time, the blame game can also be very counterproductive. By shifting the focus to who made the mistake that led to the problem, the blame game distracts people from why the problem happened in the first place. As a result, group members may be missing out on valuable learning experience that would have enabled them to prevent such mistakes in the future.
For game blaming to be effective, you need a medium to large group size, and a hierarchy is ideal. For example, a business owner may identify a problem and discuss it with a manager, who points the finger at another manager or staff. When confronted, the person with the finger will pass the blame on to someone lower in rank, or another colleague, and so on, until everyone in the company claims they know nothing about the problem and its cause.
The motivations behind the blame game are natural. Many people want to be liked and accepted, and fear that taking responsibility for an issue will make them dislike them, which could potentially lead to them being fired or otherwise penalized. Most people also want to look good in the eyes of co-workers, so they don’t want to put up with the shame of being responsible for a problem. As a result, people will pass blame rather than address it, which can be especially frustrating for people who aren’t genuinely invested in the problem.
One way to avoid the blame game is to use very open and transparent procedures that can be easily followed and hold people accountable for particular hot spots. For example, at the end of the day, a person might be expected to shut down a business, signing off on a checklist indicating that she has done so. It can also help create an environment where people are rewarded for taking responsibility, even for mistakes, as these mistakes are used to learn, for the benefit of the group as a whole.
Some psychiatric conditions are closely related to the blame game. People with social disorders, for example, may be tempted to blame other people for their failures or struggles with society, and the blame game is particularly closely related to bipolar disorder. People who deal with individuals who have such conditions on a daily basis can be offered training or support to help them deal with the blame game and other issues that can arise when interacting with mentally ill people.
The blame game is also common in politics, a field where people tend to take credit for success while minimizing failure. Politicians tend to relish the opportunity to shift the blame for a catastrophic failure to a rival.
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