A recent article compares studies on groups of monkeys with corporate culture.
The office and the jungle are surprisingly similar," says a report in this week's New Scientist."Both are ruled by stringent hierarchies, they are grounded in the need for co-operation, and complicated by the drive to compete.
"Add in the risk of hostile takeovers, a marketplace of favours and favourites, brazen opportunism and a long-held tradition of brown-nosing, and you can't tell the savannah from a forest of cubicles."
The magazine sets out five "rules of the jungle" that would apply equally in the office.
The rules, paraphrased, are:
1. Don't take credit for work done cooperatively.
2. Stay on your boss's good side.
3. Don't bear grudges.
4. Be a team player.
5. Be a good boss by carefully balancing control, leadership and motivation.
My prediction for 2008 is that someone will write a book called "Monkey Leadership" and it will be all the rage.
