The Contrarian HR
Corporations Are Full of BS
The Contrarian HR
•February 16, 2026•0 min
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The Contrarian HR•Feb 16, 2026
Why It Matters
Understanding and measuring corporate bullshit is crucial for building transparent, trust‑based workplaces, which directly impact employee engagement and organizational performance. As jargon and empty rhetoric proliferate in modern business, tools like the OBPS give leaders actionable insight to curb harmful communication practices, making the episode especially relevant for HR professionals and managers seeking evidence‑based culture improvement.
Key Takeaways
- •Organizational bullshit measured by OBPS across truth, boss, language.
- •Bullshitting differs from lying: indifference to truth, impression focus.
- •Leaders are primary sources of workplace bullshit, driven by overconfidence.
- •Jargon functions as exclusionary tool, hindering clear communication.
- •High bullshit environments lower satisfaction, increase disengagement, burnout.
Pulse Analysis
The episode dissects the Organizational Bullshit Perception Scale (OBPS), a new instrument that quantifies corporate nonsense instead of merely venting about it. Drawing on Harry Frankfurt’s philosophy, the hosts distinguish bullshitting from lying: bullshitters are indifferent to truth, caring only about impression, whereas liars must know the truth to distort it. The researchers applied this definition to create a three‑factor model—regard for truth, the boss, and bullshit language—allowing organizations to move from anecdotal complaints to data‑driven diagnosis.
The first factor, regard for truth, gauges whether decisions rely on evidence or on hunches and anecdotes. When evidence is ignored, persuasive and evasive bullshitting erode rational decision‑making, turning meetings into contests of charisma. The second factor identifies leaders as the most influential bullshitters; social pressure and overconfidence push CEOs and managers to speak without facts, legitimizing the practice for the whole team. The third factor spotlights bullshit language—excessive buzzwords, acronyms, and opaque visuals—that serves as an exclusionary shield, silencing dissent and consolidating power.
Research links high‑bullshit climates to lower job satisfaction, distrust, and productivity loss, prompting four employee responses: exit, voice, loyalty, or neglect. For leaders, the OBPS offers a diagnostic checklist to curb over‑talking, replace jargon with clear data, and model humility by admitting uncertainty. Employees can use the language factor as a radar, calling out vague acronyms and demanding evidence, thereby reclaiming agency. By treating bullshit as a deliberate choice rather than an accident, organizations can redesign communication practices, improve morale, and ultimately make better decisions. The episode ends with a clear call: demand evidence, not empty buzzwords.
Episode Description
How Scientists Measure Corporate Bullshit
Show Notes
Corporations are Full of BS
How Scientists Measure Corporate Bullshit
By The Contrarian HR – Feb 16, 2026
This podcast discusses the research paper detailing the creation and testing of the Organizational Bullshit Perception Scale (OBPS), a new tool designed to measure how employees perceive dishonesty and hollow communication in their workplaces. The authors define this phenomenon as making claims with no regard for the truth, distinguishing it from lying because the speaker is indifferent to facts rather than actively subverting them.
Through empirical testing, the study identifies three primary factors that constitute these perceptions: an organization's general regard for truth, the specific behaviors of the boss, and the prevalence of bullshit language like jargon or acronyms.
While the scale’s structure faced some challenges in a secondary study due to survey response biases, the primary results suggest that employees are highly sensitive to evidence‑based decision‑making versus empty rhetoric. The researchers conclude that the OBPS offers a practical framework for human‑resource practitioners to diagnose and address communication issues that can damage productivity and trust. Ultimately, the work aims to help leaders identify and reduce the harmful effects of deceptive or meaningless corporate discourse.
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