HUMAN RESOURCES

Working in the
Gray Zone

habit. By tolerating the editors behavior,

the supervisor holds on to a loyal, self-

ees occupational identities. The head of

a fashion house, for instance, may not

motivated, and engaged worker.

Why do otherwise good employees

be a designer and so may underestimate

the designers need to be recognized by

have the urge to break the rules in the rst

place? My study revealed that they need

his peers.
Instead of perceiving gray zones as a

Using company resources to work on

personal projects, especially on company

to enact their occupational identi- ties.

An occupational identity is the self- image

cause for alarm, top executives should

try to understand why they exist. This

time, is a no-no for employees in most

organizations. But supervisors often op-

that a person trained in a specic

vocation develops as a member of that

doesnt necessarily mean wholly accepting or excusing all gray zones cer-

erate in what I call a gray zone, turning a

blind eye to such ofcially forbidden be-

profession. The expected behaviors of

the occupation become deeply embed-

tainly, some are unhealthy, as when an

editor spends most of her work time

havior. They realize that stamping it out

may do more harm than good, because

ded in the individuals identity, which is

quite separate from that persons job

on her novel. Rather, top management

should make the effort to patrol gray

many employees have a deep-seated

need to engage in it.

or title. A job may be just a job; what

really matters is how fellow occupational

zones for serious abuses of time and

resources but with the awareness that,

My three-year study of an aeronautic

manufacturing plant with 4,000 workers

members would assess ones professional standing. The junior editor works

more often than not, gray zones signal a

higher aspiration among employees that

gave me insight into why gray zones

persist in work settings. Employees

on her novel on company time since doing so allows her to be a writer in the

immediate supervisors deem worthy of

pursuit.

produced personal artifacts such as

kitchen utensils, toys for their kids, and

eyes of her literary peers.

Many senior executives have trouble

Paradoxically, gray zones can also

provide a measure of professionalism or

window frames, using company time

and materials. Managers overlooked

understanding the need for an occupational identity (and thus take a dim view

engagement. Though senior executives

might not see gray-zone activity right

all this, because they could count on

people when ofcial work needed to be

of gray zones), perhaps because they

themselves may lack one. As Harvard

away, direct supervisors are quick to

notice it. If your companys supervisors

cranked out.
Consider the similar case of a

Business School professor Rakesh

Khurana has noted, managers often

arent observing it and havent offered

people a chance to openly express their

competent, productive junior editor at

a newspaper who works on her novel

see themselves as pursuing individual

challenges. Especially when they are

identities in authorized work, look for a

possible corresponding drop in em-

at the ofce. Despite company policies

prohibiting this, her boss winks at the

brought into an organization from the

outside, they arent attuned to employ-

ployee professionalism or morale. When

illegal blogging, for instance, disap-

by Michel Anteby

pears at a newspaper, it may be because

people do not feel respected for what
they do or because the paper has already
lost employees with strong occupational
identities.
Its worth thinking about bringing
gray zones out into the open by nding
ofcial ways for employees to engage
their occupational identities. Lets go
back to the case of the editor: Could the
newspaper use her talent as a writer to
mentor a foreign correspondent less procient in English writing skills? Finding a
perfect ofcial match might not always
be possible, but employees will be more
engaged and productive when their true
skills are recognized by their employers.
Michel Anteby (manteby@hbs.edu) is an
assistant professor of organizational behavior at Harvard Business School in Boston. He
is the author of Moral Gray Zones
(forthcoming from Princeton University
Press in June 2008).

20 Harvard Business Review | May 2008 | hbr.org

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