Developing a Model of Organizational Flattery in Government Organizations in Isfahan

Abstract

This study aimed to identify the antecedents, dimensions, strategies, and consequences of organizational flattery and to develop a context-specific model explaining this phenomenon in government organizations in Isfahan. This applied-developmental and descriptive-exploratory study employed a qualitative grounded theory design. The participants were 15 managers, supervisors, and senior experts from government organizations in Isfahan, selected through purposive and snowball sampling. Data were collected through in-depth, semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 45–60 minutes, and sampling continued until theoretical saturation was achieved. The interviews were recorded with participants’ consent, transcribed verbatim, and analyzed through constant comparison. Open, axial, and selective coding procedures were conducted based on the Strauss and Corbin paradigmatic model. The credibility and dependability of the findings were enhanced through repeated code review, continuous comparison of concepts and categories, assessment of conceptual coherence, and intercoder reliability procedures. The analysis generated six major categories. The causal conditions included self-interest and opportunism, limited professional competence and practical skills, and job insecurity. The central phenomenon consisted of ostentatious ingratiation manifested through verbal praise, flattering behavior, impression management, body language, and digital flattery. Contextual conditions comprised a toxic organizational culture and sociohistorical environments supportive of flattery. Intervening conditions included authoritarian and Machiavellian leadership, employees’ need for approval and low self-confidence, weak meritocracy, information opacity, favoritism, and informal power relations. Organizational actors adopted defensive, adaptive-survival, and passive strategies, including hypocrisy, informal networking, image management, strategic silence, and conformity. The major consequences were erosion of social capital and interpersonal trust, reduced motivation and productivity, normalization of unethical conduct, exclusion of competent employees, and deterioration of organizational justice. Organizational flattery is a multilevel phenomenon produced by the interaction of individual vulnerabilities, leadership practices, structural deficiencies, and cultural norms. Its effective management requires transparent promotion criteria, merit-based performance evaluation, ethical and participative leadership, psychological safety, free information flow, anonymous feedback systems, and 360-degree managerial assessment.