From the author: The article was published in the magazine "Human Resources and Personnel Service". During the Spanish Civil War, fascist rebels advanced on Madrid in four columns. General Franco's agents were active in the city itself, undermining the enemy army from within. They are called the “fifth column.” The “fifth column” in an organization includes employees who, through their behavior or actions, deliberately cause damage to the interests of their company, thus weakening it from within. These may be officials who promote or encourage professionally weak, unsuitable employees, based not on their individual potential as employees, but on the basis of personal affection for them: more often - informers, flatterers, relatives. This also includes petty thieves, bribe takers, imitators who create the “appearance of productive activity”, but in fact, deal with personal problems, and intriguers who provoke rumors and squabbles in the team, etc. Often we are talking not only about the colossal harm that they cause to the organization, but also about the fact that subsequently it is sometimes difficult, and sometimes simply impossible, for the manager to survive. Often, managers undertake very unique methods of fighting for organizational safety, such as: establishing total surveillance of the organization's employees, general espionage, searching for “enemies”, disloyal persons, elimination of dissatisfied groups, etc. All these measures are designed to neutralize threatening situations, while organizational security primarily implies preventing their occurrence. You can fight in different ways, but nowadays it is hardly reasonable to hope that a traitor will be stopped by the fear of punishment for disloyal actions. Betrayal is a social phenomenon, in order to prevent and defeat, it is necessary to find out the reasons for its occurrence in the organization and determine a clear structure of organizational security, the effectiveness of which depends on such phenomena as: - the image of the organization; - the strategy of the organization; - the content of the organizational culture; - the management system personnel; - optimality of information flows.1. The image of the organization includes symbols, attributes, and the logo of the organization; appearance, uniform of workers; interior design, market reputation, advertising, i.e. forms a holistic image of the organization, evokes a certain attitude from the social environment and forms in employees a sense of identity as employees of the company.2. The activity strategy is determined by the purpose for which the organization operates, focusing on the final result. This includes marketing research of demand/sales, definitions of “niches”, competitors, external forms of interaction with society, etc.3. Organizational culture is the ideology, worldview, values ​​and internal norms of behavior of employees from appearance to the criteria of corporate communication; rituals, traditions of the team, professional code that forms the feeling of “we”, pride, corporate spirit.4. The personnel management system involves professional selection, placement, rotation of personnel, certification and formation of a personnel reserve, training and advanced training of employees; development of motivation and incentives, analysis of labor conditions and remuneration; management style, control features.5. Information flows show the characteristics of formal and informal groups; level of conflict and stability of teams; degree of employee satisfaction with work; optimality of the communication system; management efficiency. The first three components: image, strategy and culture - show the organization’s place in the labor market, hiring principles, stability, social guarantees and employee protection. With a competent approach, they themselves are powerful incentives that encourage a person to work conscientiously and ensure his loyalty to his company. A leader interested in the long-term existence of hisThe organization understands that this requires that employees have relatively high wages, permanent work and the opportunity for self-realization. But even in a clearly organized enterprise structure, the personnel management system and information flows are the most vulnerable link. Back in the 60s, Japanese managers established that the size of a company’s profit, regardless of the profile of its activities, turns out to be a derivative of personnel policy and personnel management. Before entering a job, a person has no relation to the organization (unless he was specifically introduced there), and the feeling of loyalty is formed only by the employer. In modern Russian organizations, where an administrative-command management system with a strict hierarchy and contrasting statuses of workers depending on their official position prevails, there is no well-thought-out system of vertical or horizontal movement, targeted career planning or professional growth - the employee’s involvement and identification with the organization is lost. This creates conditions for the spread of rumors and the formation of intrigues within the company. Negative information flows, in turn, affect the consciousness of workers, change their motivational attitudes, and form groups of angry, intimidated, greedy, i.e. ready for any “business” proposals from outside or simply sabotage out of frustration. According to Parkinson's Law of Vacuum; opposition fills the void created by our failures. This must be remembered by a manager interested in preserving and developing his company. The proposed preventive program for working with the organization’s human resources helps to avoid dangerous situations: EventMethodActions and techniques Personnel auditPersonnel certificationEvaluation of employee performance; psychological characteristics with identification of personality type and motivational attitudes - methods of Leary, Shmishek, Solomin. Collecting a bank of problems Organizing feedback Identification of shortcomings, negative tendencies and dissatisfied employees - interviews, conversations. Analysis of the main components of activity Social and psychological research Study of the socio-psychological climate in teams - Shchedrina's methods , Rukavishnikova.Assessment of formal/informal groupsSociometryDetermination of group cohesion, identification of emotional and business leaders - Seshore's technique.Evaluation of staff loyaltySociological surveyIdentification of disloyal employees - Kharsky questionnaire. The tested program showed that being dissatisfied/disloyal and taking some action are not the same thing. Under equal conditions, people of a certain psychological make-up betray. Who belongs to them can be determined already when hiring personnel, for which a stage-by-stage professional selection is carried out: 1. analysis of previous professional activities; 2. the candidate’s compliance with the requirements of the professional program; 3. features of the candidate’s psychogram. For this, various methods are used: interviews, conversations, questionnaires and psychodiagnostic techniques, in particular, Shmishek, Leary. Our many years of experience in analyzing various disloyal actions of employees revealed that they have traits of a demonstrative, hyperthymic, excitable or stuck type (according to Shmishek), and also egoistic motivational attitudes, i.e. focused on satisfying personally significant goals (according to Leary). The table below presents the signs of “dangerous types” and recommendations for using them to benefit the organization. No. External signs Recommendations for interaction 1. Demonstrative type Talkative, speech is fast, bright, figurative, likes to embellish; gesticulates, expressive face; wears large or flashy jewelry; usually interested in “fashionable” hobbies, writers, etc. Work must be evaluated based on a specific result, systematic control must be carried out, because more often imitate heaving activity. 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