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Keeping an organizational secret can affect employees in two key ways. On the one hand, it can negatively impact well-being. Employees often feel cut off from others and feel unable to share important aspects of their work life, leading to increased stress and diminished daily satisfaction. On the other, secret-keeping can elevate well-being by instilling a sense of status and purpose. To mitigate the negative impacts of organizational secrecy and harness its potential benefits, managers and organizations can adopt several key strategies: leaning into the shared experience of secret-keeping to create bonds between employees; reframe secrecy to emphasize its positive meaning; justify the need for secrecy via clear and transparent communication; and support employee well-being, particularly around stress and loneliness.
In many workplaces, secrecy is a daily necessity, from national security agencies to technology firms, law practices to healthcare institutions. The sustainability of these entities often hinges on the ability to keep sensitive information from prying eyes. Failure to do so can be extremely costly. For example, intellectual property theft — including theft of trade secrets — costs U.S. businesses between $225 billion and $600 billion annually.
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