Does Teamwork = Conformity?

At a large international financial services company, the CEO and upper management routinely ask underlings how things are going. Everybody says GREAT, because they don’t want to get raked over the coals as a complainer or whiner, as they’ve heard happen to many others before. In meetings, leaders suggest ideas and everyone says GREAT IDEA. Then, after the meeting, the employees congregate and complain about the ideas, about the out-of-touch managers. This is typical of the unintended, far-reaching effects of fear-based management styles.