I’m sure we all know someone at work who is not shy in bigging up their abilities, but the reality often falls some way short of their braggadocio. Research from the University of Birmingham dubs such individuals as “organizational charlatans”, and the researchers explore how these people are perceived by their colleagues and how HR departments can manage them.

The researchers explain that HR often lack the tools or the wherewithal to effectively manage such individuals, which given that most of us can probably recall encountering one in our organizations, is far from ideal.

“Despite us all knowing someone who fits the bill, often HR departments aren’t equipped to deal with these people,” the researchers explain. “This is especially the case in the public sector, where key performance indicators and targets can be less stringent than in corporate settings.”

Getting to the heart

There are obvious issues when people over-hype their abilities and accomplishments as it can easily divert from the fact that they’re not anywhere near as good at their job as they suggest. This can make it challenging for colleagues to raise concerns or for managers to see the true performance of people.

The researchers spoke to a number of public sector employees, with a mixture of managers and non-managers, to understand their personal experience of “charlatans”. They discussed both how these people engaged in the workplace itself and also in appraisals and job interviews.

The results show that charlatans typically display their grandiose thinking either by claiming credit for other people’s work, by excessively delegating to subordinates, or by shifting the blame for failures onto other people.

“These false performers know that they are out of their depth at work and so will use a variety of tactics to hide this fact,” the researchers explain. “Taking credit for work that they didn’t do, hyping themselves up to management, and being performative at work can all help to divert attention away from the fact they can’t do their job. Because of this it can hard for people to raise concerns, or for mangers to see the truth of the matter.”

Erosion of morale

Participants reported feeling a strong sense of reluctance to report the charlatans to their managers, but their presence and behaviors eroded their motivation and wellbeing nonetheless, especially if they ended up getting promoted at their expense.

At the heart of the issue is effective performance management. The first step to overcome it is to get better at spotting any gaps between what people say they can and are doing, and what they actually do.  The researchers believe that training can be used to help managers do this both during the interview and recruitment process and also when people are hired and on the job.

For instance, a 360-degree appraisal system can be hugely effective as it brings in the opinions of those working with an individual rather than relying solely on the claims of the individual themselves.

Smoke and mirrors

Even with this, however, the researchers say that managers should be aware that many charlatans will deliberately try to muddy the waters, especially in processes that might uncover their true talents.

“Job interviews are the first chance that many of us have to make a good first impression on a potential employer, so talking about our strengths is to be expected,” they explain. “But for some, it goes much further than that. And our research suggests that once a false performer is in post, there is little that can be done to try and fix the problem.”

Suffice it to say, it’s nothing if not a delicate issue, just as any matter surrounding someone’s performance is, but it’s perhaps more so as there is an air of duplicity involved that needs to be handled sensitively. Despite this, however, the cost of not doing anything is likely to be much greater as it will impact the wider team and result in declining morale, performance, and even a spout of departures from the team.

“False performance behavior could even become contagious among the workforce,” the researchers conclude. “It is important that managers and HR teams have methods in place to deal with incompetent people pretending to be otherwise, often at the expense of others.”