Heather Höpfl rejects the "masculine" dominant organisational culture where vision and strategy of organisations are a kind of supernatural description far removed from the "bodies who work in and for them.” Anyone who dares to question the vision and strategy is seen as disruptive. Emotions of people and the need for care in organisations are stripped down and limited to simple management issues and rules. Höpfl calls this "the dehumanisation of organisations"

1. The dehumanisation of organisations
And the maternal organisation as alternative
Original publication in Dutch language on ManagementSite
Author: Leon Dohmen, Chairman of the interest group Research and Education ICT for the Royal
Dutch association of information professionals
Whether the case is exaggerated or not by Dutch politicians and media: an important lesson of the
so-called Bulgarian fraud (1) in the Netherlands was that the fight against childcare allowance
fraud required a tougher approach. As a result, this fight against fraud, carried out by the Dutch
tax authorities, degenerated into an uncompromising, money-driven manhunt.
Every minimal suspicion of fraud was punished with immediate repayment, including a penalty.
Many suspicions turned out to be unjustified. The hard, rules and financial parameter-driven
approach got completely out of hand and created a monstrous system that pulverized people. Many
thousands of Dutch parents have been brought into great financial trouble. And all this even though
a government agency should make duty of care the central starting point for its services.
The ruthless and humiliating fraud hunt led to a parliamentary interrogation in November 2020.
Former Secretary of State Wiebes said that he did not know that civil servants had difficulty
working out the rules for childcare allowance. He interpreted a note pointing out the hard workings
of the rules 'as a warning that the Allowances Department may have been too soft'. (2) The Director
of the Allowances Department felt powerless and was moved to tears.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte spoke of 'a government that has crushed people instead of
protecting them'. (3) The interrogations showed that strict compliance with hard laws and
regulations was more important than listening to the many signals that were given, that things went
very wrong with the fight against fraud. And that this hard approach got a lot of people into trouble.
The professor of organisational psychology Heather Höpfl (4), who passed away in 2014, calls
such an organisational phenomenon the 'masculine' guided organisation with an obsessive
attention to (financial) indicators and rules. This organisation ignores the purely human need for
care (for each other). Indicators determine very sterile and ruthless what is good: "Good divorced
from goodness.”
Höpfl rejects the "masculine" dominant organisational culture where vision and strategy of
organisations are a kind of supernatural description far removed from the "bodies who work in and
for them.” Anyone who dares to question the vision and strategy is seen as disruptive. Emotions
of people and the need for care in organisations are stripped down and limited to simple
management issues and rules. Höpfl calls this "the dehumanisation of organisations" (5).
Höpfl makes an ardent plea for the 'maternal' organisation. The maternal organisation is not so
much about gender but more about feminine, socially oriented, characteristics. The maternal

2. organisation refers to virtues and links concepts such as goodness, honesty, integrity, and morality
to them. She explicitly links the term 'administration' to 'ministration' (assistance, help).
Höpfl uses a strong philosophical approach in her analyses. There is more practical and scientific
evidence that pleads in favour of the 'maternal' organisation. For example, organisations do not
perform better in innovation through competition (6). Employers who offer flex workers
development opportunities and challenges and who ensure the inclusion of flex workers in the
corporate culture are more innovative than employers who do not (7). In addition to craftsmanship,
a safe and reliable work environment is also important to achieve speed in projects (8).
The maternal organisation, good and goodness: the future new features of the Dutch tax
authorities?
Notes
(1) Bulgarenfraude - Wikipedia
(2) Toeslagenaffaire: Wiebes zegt niets te weten van 'buikpijn' bij topambtenaren | RTL Nieuws
(3) Dit weten we nu door de verhoren over de toeslagenaffaire | RTL Nieuws
(4) Höpfl, H. (2003). Good Order: On the Administration of Goodness. Tamara: Journal of Critical Postmodern
Organization Science, 2 (3), 28-35. Good Order: On the Administration of Goodness | Hopfl | Tamara: Journal for
Critical Organization Inquiry
(5) Höpfl, H. and Kostera, M (2004). Interpreting the maternal organisation. Routledge Studies in Human Resource
Development.
(6) Zobel, A.-K. (2013, December). Open Innovation: A Dynamic Capabilities Perspective. Microsoft Word -
Diss_Druck_16_10_LandscapeTest.docx (maastrichtuniversity.nl)
(7) Sterke toename flexwerk (cbs.nl)
(8) Exponentiële projecten | Jaargangen | Holland Management Review - HMR