Chapter 19 – Organizing – Dealing with Disgruntled Employees
Organizing – Dealing with Disgruntled Employees
The Ultimate Management Challenge
Every manager has faced the challenge of handling disgruntled employees. Perhaps one or two team members express dissatisfaction, or maybe an entire department becomes upset over a policy change. But imagine leading millions of recently liberated slaves through a hostile desert environment with limited resources, no permanent home, and constant threats to survival. This was the unprecedented management challenge that Moses faced in the wilderness.
Moses’s leadership situation offers a profound case study for modern managers. He led former slaves – people accustomed to taking orders rather than showing initiative – while trying to transform them into a self-governing nation capable of conquering and settling their own homeland. His experience provides valuable insights for today’s leaders who must guide organizations through significant changes while managing employee dissatisfaction.
The Pattern of Complaints and Rebellion
The biblical text reveals a consistent pattern of complaints that escalated from basic needs to outright rebellion:
Basic Survival Complaints
When the Israelites first left Egypt, their complaints focused on fundamental survival needs:
“The people grumbled against Moshe and asked, ‘What are we to drink?'” (Exodus 15:24)
“The people of Isra’el said to them, ‘We wish ADONAI had used his own hand to kill us off in Egypt! There we used to sit around the pots with the meat boiling, and we had as much food as we wanted. But you have taken us out into this desert to let this whole assembly starve to death!'” (Exodus 16:3)
These initial complaints were reasonable requests for basic necessities. No manager can expect employees to focus on higher organizational goals when fundamental needs aren’t met. Moses recognized this and sought divine intervention to address these concerns promptly.
Leadership Challenges
As basic needs were addressed, the complaints evolved into more complex challenges to leadership authority:
“When the people saw that Moshe was taking a long time to come down from the mountain, they gathered around Aharon and said to him, ‘Get busy; and make us gods to go ahead of us; because this Moshe, the man that brought us up from the land of Egypt – we don’t know what has become of him.'” (Exodus 32:1)
This incident with the Golden Calf represents a significant leadership crisis. Moses had gone up Mount Sinai for forty days without establishing clear interim leadership or communicating when he would possibly return. In management terms, he created a leadership vacuum.
Outright Rebellion
The complaints eventually culminated in direct challenges to Moses’s authority:
“They assembled themselves against Moshe and Aharon and said to them, ‘You take too much on yourselves! After all, the entire community is holy, every one of them, and ADONAI is among them. So why do you lift yourselves up above ADONAI’s assembly?'” (Numbers 16:3)
Korach’s rebellion exemplifies what happens when disgruntled employees move from complaint to organized opposition. The rebellion wasn’t merely about resources or direction – it was a fundamental challenge to the organizational hierarchy itself.
Employee Empowerment vs. Dependency
During the sin of the Golden Calf, the people sought a replacement not just for their intermediary with God but for their sense of direction and purpose. This incident reveals a critical management challenge: employee dependency. The Israelites, like employees positioned at the bottom of an organizational hierarchy, felt powerless without direct leadership. They didn’t recognize their own capabilities or collective potential.
It took Moses forty years to transform this dependency mindset. His culminating message in Deuteronomy reflects this transformational leadership approach:
“But you have seen with your own eyes all these great deeds of ADONAI. Therefore, you are to keep every mitzvah I am giving you today; so that you will be strong enough to go in and take possession of the land you are crossing over to conquer; and so that you will live long in the land ADONAI swore to give to your ancestors and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.” (Deuteronomy 11:7-9)
This passage represents a model mission statement with three essential components:
- Recognition of shared experience – “You have seen with your own eyes”
- Clear expectations – “Keep every mitzvah”
- Compelling vision – “A land flowing with milk and honey”
Management Application: True empowerment requires creating clarity about organizational values and expectations, connecting daily work to meaningful purpose, developing self-directed teams, and gradually transferring responsibility while maintaining support. The Israelites wandered for forty years partially because they kept seeking external direction rather than developing internal motivation and initiative.
Bypassing the Organizational Structure
After receiving Jethro’s advice to create a delegated management structure (Exodus 18:13-26), Moses established what management scholars recognize as the first documented hierarchical organization. Yet despite this structure, the people continued bringing their complaints directly to Moses:
“The people quarreled with Moshe, demanding, ‘Give us water to drink!'” (Exodus 17:2)
Instead of working through their appointed judges and leaders, the Israelites bypassed the organizational structure, burdening their top leader with operational issues rather than allowing him to focus on strategic direction.
When employees bypass established chains of command, organizations suffer from several problems:
- Senior leaders become distracted by operational issues rather than focusing on the future
- Middle managers feel undermined and lose authority
- Problems aren’t solved at the appropriate level
- Dependence on top leadership are reinforced
Moses might have been more effective had he redirected complaints back to the appropriate level rather than repeatedly appealing to divine intervention for operational issues. Many modern managers similarly maintain “open door policies” that inadvertently undermine their organizational structure and consume leadership time with routine matters.
Reward Systems and Motivation
The Israelites’ journey raises important questions about effective reward systems. The reward structure included the long-term reward of the Promised Land and the short-term reward of daily provisions. Yet despite these rewards, the people frequently expressed dissatisfaction:
“We remember the fish we used to eat in Egypt – it cost us nothing! -and the cucumbers, the melons, the leeks, the onions, the garlic! But now we’re withering away, we have nothing to look at but this man.” (Numbers 11:5-6)
This dissatisfaction reflects several motivational challenges, including uncertainty about reward delivery, lack of perceived value for rewards received without effort, and preference for predictability. The people might have seen the Lord’s threats to destroy them and wondered if the promised rewards would materialize.
Despite repeatedly complaining about water shortages, “at no point is there any mention that they actively went out looking for water, dug wells, or engaged in any other activity that would be considered an effort to resolve the water dilemma” (Exodus 15:24 and 16:2-3). This passive expectation characterizes disengaged employees who identify problems without taking initiative to solve them.
Thus, effective reward systems must be reliable, require appropriate investment from employees, provide certainty about the connection between performance and rewards, and balance short-term recognition with long-term rewards.
Policy Enforcement and Collective Responsibility
The biblical text illustrates important distinctions between intentional and inadvertent policy violations, along with effective enforcement approaches.
In Numbers 15:32-36, a man was found gathering sticks on the Sabbath, violating the commandment to keep it holy. Despite knowing the violation was serious, “the people put the violator in confinement because ‘it had not been clarified what should be done'” (Numbers 15:34). This incident reveals the importance of clear implementation procedures for organizational policies.
Similarly, when a young Israelite was found guilty of blasphemy (Leviticus 24:12-14), the community sought clarification about the appropriate response. In both cases, the enforcement responsibility fell to the community rather than to Moses alone:
“Those who had heard the statement were supposed to rest their hands on his head and the rest of the congregation was supposed to stone him.” (Leviticus 24:14)
In summary, effective policy management requires clear distinction between intentional violations and inadvertent errors, defined procedures for policy enforcement, collective responsibility for maintaining organizational standards, and appropriate level of enforcement based on the severity of the violation.
Leadership Credibility and Its Maintenance
Leaders must continually renew their credibility with followers. Despite witnessing extraordinary events like the ten plagues and the parting of the Reed Sea, the Israelites quickly questioned Moses’s leadership:
“The people grumbled against Moshe and asked, ‘What are we to drink?'” (Exodus 15:24)
This pattern reveals how quickly credibility erodes without consistent reinforcement. Even external observers recognized the significance of what the Israelites had experienced:
“Yitro, the priest of Midian, Moshe’s father-in-law, heard about all that God had done for Moshe and for Isra’el his people, how ADONAI had brought Isra’el out of Egypt.” (Exodus 18:1)
Yet despite these demonstrations of power and protection, the Amalekites attacked Israel (Exodus 17:8), apparently discounting the threat of divine intervention.
Management Application: Leaders maintain credibility through consistent delivery of promised results, transparent communication about challenges and setbacks, acknowledgment of accomplishments to reinforce progress, and external recognition that enhances organizational reputation.
Strategic Planning and Milestone Communication
The Israelites’ journey lacked clear short-term milestones to complement their long-term goal. Without these intermediate objectives, the people often lost sight of their purpose and direction. A more effective approach might have provided a clear roadmap with progressive milestones marking their journey.
The initial limited communication to the Israelites might reflect an intentional approach to avoid overwhelming them with the full scope of the journey ahead. As Rashi notes on Exodus 6:13, Moses and Aaron initially told the slaves only that they would leave Egypt, without mentioning their ultimate destination.
Effective strategic planning requires progressive goals that build on previous accomplishments, appropriate challenge levels based on team capability, clear communication of both long-term vision and short-term objectives, and celebration of milestones to maintain momentum.
Directing Through Leadership Challenges
The Contagion of Failure
Leadership failure can be contagious, affecting everyone in the organization. Moses experienced this firsthand:
- Aaron failed to prevent the Golden Calf incident
- Hur, appointed to assist Aaron, disappears from the narrative (with commentaries suggesting he was killed trying to stop the Golden Calf incident)
- Miriam became critical of Moses and was punished with tzara’at (leprosy)
- Moses himself became so discouraged that he asked the Lord to take his life (Numbers 11:15)
These incidents demonstrate how difficult it can be for a manager to lead through a downward spiral. The supervisorial structure established through Jethro’s advice (Exodus 18:20-22) ultimately failed to manage the people effectively.
Charismatic Leadership vs. Skill-Based Leadership
The Israelites may have perceived Moses as the only leader they could trust. With Moses absent, they sought a new leader rather than relying on the hierarchical structure he had established. This suggests they were attached to Moses personally rather than to the leadership system he had created.
This phenomenon resembles workplaces where employees follow charismatic leaders regardless of their actual competence while ignoring capable but less charismatic managers. Effective organizations need both inspiring leadership and competent management.
Ethical Foundations
The Israelites’ rebellion may have stemmed from insufficient ethical foundations. Having been slaves who followed orders to avoid punishment, they hadn’t developed the capacity for independent ethical decision-making. The model of ethical decision-making involves:
- Moral awareness (recognizing an ethical dilemma)
- Moral judgment (deciding what is right)
- Ethical behavior (doing the right thing)
The Bible doesn’t mention any educational process upon leaving Egypt to build these ethical foundations. Without this preparation, the people lacked guidance when Moses was absent.
Organizations need to develop and disseminate ethical standards throughout their structure. When ethical underpinnings are properly established, employees act appropriately even when managers aren’t present.
Identifying Rebels
Moses’s absence on Mount Sinai may have served to identify potential rebels. Leadership vacuums often reveal those seeking to grab power. When Moses delayed, it created an opening for rebels to assert themselves.
The scope of the rebellion was significant. Exodus 32:3 indicates that “the entire people removed the gold rings” to create the Golden Calf, though only about 2,000 people (less than 0.5% of the population) were ultimately punished. This suggests that a small percentage of committed rebels can influence the entire organization. Managers must identify potential rebels before they can poison the workplace culture and inspire others to rebel as well.
Management by Walking Around
After repeated rebellions, the Lord changed Moses’s management approach: “Pass before the people” (Exodus 17:5). This command instituted what we now call “management by walking around,” making Moses more visible and accessible to address complaints directly.
Dr. Norman Cohen notes that the Hebrew word for “pass” (avar) is also related to transgression and forgiveness. By passing before the people, Moses could better understand their transgressions and demonstrate forgiveness.
Thus, effective managers do more than just walk around—they actively identify problems, acknowledge mistakes (both their own and others’), and create an environment where forgiveness and improvement are possible.
Managing Anger
Moses’s anger at the people’s constant complaints ultimately led to his fatal leadership mistake. When instructed to speak to the rock to provide water, Moses instead struck it twice in anger (Numbers 20:11). This public display of defiance cost him entry to the Promised Land.
Managers must learn to manage their emotions, particularly anger. While feeling angry is natural, allowing anger to influence decision-making undermines leadership credibility and effectiveness.
Blame and Responsibility
When the Israelites built the Golden Calf, the Lord told Moses, “Your people who you brought out of Egypt are rebelling” (Exodus 32:7). This statement assigned responsibility to Moses for the people’s conduct. Similarly, when the generation was prohibited from entering the Promised Land, Moses shared their fate.
As the saying goes, “As the people go, so goes the leader.” Managers are ultimately responsible for their team’s performance and conduct, even when they aren’t directly involved in problematic behaviors. This was seen over and over with the Israelites and how they kept rebelling against both Moses and the Lord.
Hearing Complaints
Moses became increasingly disheartened by the constant complaints, eventually praying for his own death (Numbers 11:11). Other biblical leaders including Elijah, Jonah, and Jeremiah experienced similar despair when faced with the burden of leadership.
This pattern raises questions about leadership fit. Was Moses the right person to lead the people to the Promised Land, or was his skill set better suited for the initial liberation from Egypt? As stated in Ethics of the Fathers, “It is not for you to complete the task, but neither are you free to stand aside from it” (Pirkei Avot 2:16).
Different phases of organizational development may require different leadership skills. The executive who excels at turning around a struggling company may not be the best choice for guiding steady growth once stability is achieved.
Creating Self-Sufficiency
Moses initially did everything for the people, potentially reinforcing their dependency. After the Golden Calf incident, he moved his tent outside the camp (Exodus 33:7), requiring people to make an effort to consult with him rather than having him constantly available.
This approach gradually bore fruit. By Exodus 40:18, when the Tabernacle was erected, the people did most of the work with Moses performing only the final assembly. They had learned to take initiative rather than relying entirely on his leadership.
Leaders must gradually transfer responsibility to their teams, creating appropriate challenges that build capability without overwhelming them. The goal is self-sufficient teams that don’t collapse when leadership is temporarily absent.
Appropriate Consequences
When the Israelites worshipped the Golden Calf, the Lord’s punishment extended to the “third and fourth generations” (Exodus 34:7). While this may seem to punish the innocent, it recognizes the long-term consequences of organizational failures.
Consequences for misconduct should be proportional and targeted to those responsible. Public displays of disapproval (like Moses breaking the tablets) can sometimes be more effective than formal punishment in communicating the seriousness of violations. Punishing future workers or departments might send the wrong message that a leader is vindictive, which helps suggest a proportional response tailored for every situation.
Resource Management
The Hebrew word for war (milchama) shares its root with the word for bread (lechem), suggesting a connection between resource scarcity and conflict. Many rebellions throughout history have begun with resource shortages, particularly food. This can extend to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs and how so many fights are based on the need for safety, which includes a safe workspace.
Ensuring employees have their basic needs met is fundamental to preventing discontent. When resources are scarce, transparent communication about allocation decisions becomes even more critical.
Organizational Ethics and Employee Voice
The Defense Industry Initiative on Business Conduct and Ethics advocates three key practices that were initially missing in Moses’s leadership:
- Adopting a written code of conduct
- Conducting employee orientation and training
- Creating a mechanism for employees to express concerns
After the giving of the Torah at Sinai, the establishment of clear laws, and the creation of a comprehensive organizational structure, the remaining 38 years in the desert were more manageable with fewer revolts.
Every organization will face employee dissatisfaction at some point. Effective managers:
- Identify the underlying causes of discontent
- Distinguish between legitimate grievances and opportunistic complaints
- Address valid concerns while maintaining organizational standards
- Create appropriate channels for employee voice
- Build relationships that can withstand periods of tension
Using military-style suppression to quash workplace discontent may appear effective in the short term but damages long-term relationships. Moses had to find ways to address legitimate concerns while maintaining authority—a delicate balance that all managers must strike.
Small Victories and Personal Connection
After the bitter waters of Marah, the Israelites came to Elim where they found “twelve springs and seventy palm trees” (Exodus 15:27). Commentators note that the twelve springs corresponded to the twelve tribes, allowing each tribe to have its own water source. The seventy trees represented the seventy family members who originally descended to Egypt with Jacob (Laufer, 2006).
This personalized provision illustrates an important management principle: small, personalized victories often resonate more deeply than grand gestures. The people could see themselves specifically addressed in these provisions.
Managers should create opportunities for small, meaningful wins that connect directly to individual or team identity. These personalized successes often build more engagement than sweeping organizational achievements that feel distant from daily work.
Deliverables
Moses’s experience offers profound lessons for modern managers facing employee dissatisfaction:
- Meet basic needs first – Address fundamental concerns before expecting higher performance.
- Provide proper preparation – Equip employees with the skills and ethical foundations needed for new challenges.
- Manage resources strategically – Balance provision with appropriate effort requirements.
- Establish clear communication channels – Create appropriate ways for concerns to be raised and addressed.
- Develop self-sufficient teams – Gradually transfer responsibility while maintaining support.
- Walk among your people – Be visible and accessible rather than remote and unapproachable.
- Manage your emotions – Don’t let frustration with complaints lead to destructive responses.
- Recognize different leadership needs – Different phases of organizational development may require different leadership approaches.
- Create personal connections – Help employees see themselves in the organization’s victories.
- Maintain perspective – Transformation takes time and consistent leadership.
The journey through the desert was intended to be educational and transformative, yet for many Israelites, it became an intolerable burden because they refused to embrace the opportunity. Similarly, organizational change becomes most difficult when employees maintain attitudes of entitlement or resistance.
The manager’s challenge, like Moses’s, is to address legitimate concerns while gradually transforming the underlying attitudes that perpetuate discontent. By balancing compassion with accountability, modern managers can navigate the challenges of employee dissatisfaction while moving their organizations toward greater maturity and effectiveness—just as Moses ultimately transformed a nation of slaves into a people prepared to enter the Promised Land.
Discussion Questions
- If you were exposed to a revolt in the workplace similar to what Moses faced, what would you do and how would you respond?
- Do you feel Moses responded well to the various complaints and rebellions? What could he have done differently?
- Do you think the elders, Aaron, or Hur did enough to try and prevent the Golden Calf uprising? What lessons can middle managers learn from their actions or inaction?
- Do you think the Israelites’ complaints had merit and constituted valid grievances? How can managers distinguish between legitimate complaints and resistance to necessary change?
- How would you design an organizational structure to better address employee concerns while maintaining leadership authority?
- What specific steps could Moses have taken to build greater self-sufficiency among the Israelites earlier in their journey?
