NOTHING brings out the more primitive instincts in relatively sophisticated human beings more quickly than a ''turf war''. If you've been in the workplace longer than a week you've surely witnessed this peculiar form of struggle.
An employee covets another colleague's stationery or computer or sofa or assistant or window or job (it could be anything) and suddenly the two of them are at war, zealously manoeuvring through the organisation, lining up allies, fortifying their positions, so they can protect or seize what they feel they rightly deserve.
As an employer I'm not insensitive to turf wars. They come with the territory.
There will always be some employees who are inordinately ambitious (and perhaps grasping), and are willing to feed this ambition at the expense of others.
But I try to remove myself as far as possible from the struggle, in part because I believe turf wars are more often displays of people's insecurities than anything substantive.
If a person is secure in his job, knows what he's doing, and likes it, the chances are turf is not a life-or-death issue to him - and people tend to leave him alone.
That's an enviable position to be in. The way to get there is to define your turf before it defines you.