When Withholding Information Becomes Workplace Control
Information provides more than knowledge. It creates access, influence, visibility, and the ability to make informed decisions.
In a healthy workplace, employees receive the information they need to perform their roles. In a narcissistic workplace dynamic, information may be shared selectively.
One employee receives advance notice. Another is excluded from the meeting. Important context is shared privately with favored team members. Someone is then criticized for failing to act on information they never received.
Any one of these situations could be an oversight. The concern grows when the same person is repeatedly placed at a disadvantage and blamed for the predictable outcome.
Creating Dependency
A leader who controls information can make themselves indispensable.
Employees must constantly return to them for clarification. Team members hesitate to make independent decisions because they are never sure they have the full story.
The leader may then complain that no one takes initiative even though initiative has repeatedly been corrected, undermined, or punished.
Selective access can also divide a team. Employees may compete for proximity to the person who controls the information rather than collaborating with one another.
Protecting Your Work
When communication is inconsistent, ask for important decisions to be documented:
“Could we record the final decision in the shared project file so everyone is working from the same information?”
If you are excluded from a relevant discussion, ask whether any decisions were made that affect your responsibilities.
Organizations can reduce this pattern by using shared systems, written meeting notes, clear ownership, and transparent decision-making processes.
