Discussion Overview
Please read the following Harvard Business Review (HBR) short article ().
Summary: An important leadership problem is that some employees perform well but are not good “culture fits.” These employees may be called “culture vampires” because they negatively affect company culture (see figure below). The authors of the HBR article suggest that you should fire “culture vampires” because culture is crucial for firm success. The following figure illustrates the HBR authors’ core idea:
Questions & Instructions
- Do you agree that you should fire employees who do not fit the company culture (“culture vampires” and “zombies”)? Explain why.
- Do you see any circumstances under which you would not fire “culture vampires”?
References and Optional readings:
- Sinoway, E. C. 2012, October 15. When to fire a top performer who hurts your company culture. Harvard Business Review.
- Braff D. 2018. Are law firms that place great importance on cultural fit merely perpetuating the status quo? ABA Journal 104(9). Available at:
Examples:
- Do you agree that you should fire employees who do not fit the company culture (“culture vampires” and “zombies”)? Explain why.
For the majority of cases I agree that employees who do not fit the company culture should be fired if they do not correct their behaviors. Zombies should be fired because they do not preform well and are not team players. This means they do not add value to the team and instead remove value via the way they treat others and their lack of strong work product. Vampires should be fired too, even with their strong work product, because their demeanor and lack of team spirit can actually remove existing and future value/success from the team. While a vampire may be individually successful with their final work product, they are unsuccessful at their approach. When a vampire is successful, the collective group suffers and does not meet its full potential.
I do believe, though, that the poor behavior from vampires and zombies should be directly addressed. It is important to give these people a chance to correct their behaviors, notably vampires since they do deliver strong work. If feedback is disregarded and work approaches do not improve, then the vampires and zombies should be fired for the betterment of the team.
2. Do you see any circumstances under which you would not fire “culture vampires”?
I could see an instance where if a specific project was near completion and the vampire was the key enabler to it then I would not fire the vampire. Instead I would focus on providing direct feedback to try to improve their behavior as the project nears the completion. This is just a short term response, though, because if the vampire completed the project and continued the poor behavior then they would need to be fired. Another instance where a vampire may need to stay would be if the role is specific/niche and they were one of few people capable. I still think and instance like this would lead to the vampire being fired, though, in the long term due to the long term negative impacts they may have on the rest of the team by limiting potential success.
