The Bolsheviks fought with the opportunists, this was one of their favorite pastimes. Those who had a chance to study the history of the CPSU clearly understood that they, as well as the Trotskyists, deviators and revisionists, were not good people, but they didn’t always know why. However, teachers usually did not require this.
So what is opportunistic behavior and what is its pernicious nature? It's time to figure it out, and at the same time determine how to deal with it.
Starting from kindergarten, not to mention school years, each person, to one degree or another, becomes an opportunist. This is manifested in the fact that he is trying to portray any situation in which his role is unsightly, in the light most favorable to himself. For example, a first-grader boy, who had a fight with a fellow practitioner at a break, explains his behavior as follows: “He first started, and I just gave change!” At the same time, the bully prudently keeps silent about the previous events and the initial circumstances of the conflict, when he teased his future victim or insulted him differently, provoking and bullying.
In other words, opportunistic behavior consists in one-sided or incomplete provision of information with a purpose that is advantageous for itself. Adults do this much more often than children, sometimes showing miracles of resourcefulness, but the general principle remains the same, kindergarten. It is regrettable, but it is almost impossible to do without this technique.
Most often, an opportunistic strategy is manifested in the behavior of business people. The sale of goods is accompanied by a focus on buyers of its advantages and advantages. It is impossible without this, but, in essence, this is one-sided information. The most sophisticated businessmen even create the appearance of objectivity, pointing out some shortcomings, immediately, however, explaining how they can be leveled during operation.
The seller’s opportunistic behavior was the subject of a funny story about a man who bought an elephant. After listening to eulogies about how funny this animal is, how it entertains children, blowing water jets with its trunk, and all that jazz. Having acquired it, the new owner with horror understood all the destructive consequences of his act. The clumsy and huge elephant trampled everything, ruined the house, crumpled the car ... Upset, the man came to the seller with a complaint and heard advice: "With such a mood as yours, it is difficult to sell an elephant."
But not only opportunistic behavior is manifested during the sale, there are many uses for it in business. Both objective employers and hired specialists distort the realities in a direction that is advantageous for themselves. The former focus on what benefits promise employment in their company, while the latter tend to impress very valuable personnel and super-qualified specialists. Both those and others most often exaggerate a little.
In the process, opportunism is exhibited by employees whose form of payment does not stimulate initiative. The main principle of those who are “sitting on a bare salary” is to create the effect of intense activity by spending a minimum of effort on it. By flaunting a completed assignment, such a “worker” distracts the attention of his superiors from the fact that he lounges most of his working time.
The best way to motivate an employee to work effectively is to properly stimulate his activities materially and morally, to create interest in the end result and to get involved in it. That is what the founders of future industrial and financial giants did, making workers, engineers, clerks shareholders.
In addition, the costs of opportunistic behavior have painful consequences for the idlers themselves. When their worthlessness becomes apparent, they replenish the army of the unemployed.