Too many companies bet on having a cut-throat, high-pressure, take-no-prisoners culture to drive their financial success.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
But a large and growing body of research on positive organizational psychology demonstrates that not only is a cut-throat environment harmful to productivity over time, but that a positive environment will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees, and the bottom line.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Although there\u2019s an assumption that stress and pressure push employees to perform more, better, and faster, what\u00a0cutthroat organizations fail to recognize is the hidden costs incurred.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
First,\u00a0health care expenditures at high-pressure companies are nearly\u00a050%\u00a0greater\u00a0than at other organizations. The American Psychological Association\u00a0estimates\u00a0that more than $500 million is siphoned off from the U.S. economy because of workplace stress, and 550 million workdays are lost each year due to stress on the job. Sixty percent\u00a0to 80% of workplace accidents are attributed to stress, and it\u2019s\u00a0estimated\u00a0that more than 80% of doctor visits are due\u00a0to stress. Workplace stress has been linked to health problems ranging from metabolic syndrome to cardiovascular disease and mortality.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
The stress of belonging to hierarchies itself is linked to disease and death. One study showed that, the lower someone\u2019s rank in a hierarchy, the higher their chances of cardiovascular disease and death from heart attacks. In a\u00a0large-scale study of over 3,000 employees conducted by\u00a0Anna Nyberg at the Karolinska Institute, results showed a strong link between leadership behavior and heart disease in employees. Stress-producing bosses are literally bad for the heart.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n
Second is the cost of disengagement.\u00a0<\/em>While a cut-throat environment and a culture of fear can ensure engagement (and sometimes even excitement) for some time, research suggests that the inevitable stress it creates will likely lead to disengagement over the long term. Engagement in work \u2014 which is associated with feeling valued, secure, supported, and respected \u2014 is generally negatively associated with a high-stress, cut-throat culture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n And disengagement is costly. In studies by the\u00a0Queens School of Business\u00a0and by the\u00a0Gallup Organization, disengaged workers had 37% higher absenteeism, 49% more accidents, and 60% more errors and defects. In organizations with low employee engagement scores, they experienced 18% lower productivity, 16% lower profitability, 37% lower job growth, and 65% lower share price over time. Importantly, businesses with highly engaged employees enjoyed 100% more job applications.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Lack of loyalty is a third cost.\u00a0Research\u00a0shows\u00a0that\u00a0workplace stress\u00a0leads to an increase of almost 50% in voluntary turnover. People go on the\u00a0job market, decline promotions, or resign. And the turnover costs associated with recruiting, training, lowered productivity, lost expertise, and so forth, are significant. The\u00a0Center for American Progress\u00a0estimates\u00a0that replacing a single employee costs approximately 20% of that employee\u2019s salary.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n For these reasons, many companies have established a wide variety\u00a0of\u00a0perks from working from home to office gyms. However, these companies still\u00a0fail to take into account the research.\u00a0A\u00a0Gallup poll\u00a0showed that, even when\u00a0workplaces\u00a0offered benefits such as flextime and work-from-home opportunities,\u00a0engagement predicted wellbeing above and beyond anything else. Employees\u00a0prefer workplace wellbeing to material benefits.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Wellbeing comes from one place, and one place only \u2014 a positive\u00a0culture.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Creating a positive and healthy culture for your team rests on a few major principles. Our own research on the qualities of a positive workplace culture boils down to six essential characteristics:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n As a boss, how can you foster these principles?\u00a0The research points to four steps to try:<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 1. Foster social connections.<\/strong>\u00a0A large number of empirical studies confirm that positive social connections at work produce highly desirable results. For example, people get sick less often, recover twice as fast from surgery, experience less depression, learn faster and remember longer, tolerate pain and discomfort better, display more mental acuity, and perform better on the job. Conversely,\u00a0research\u00a0by Sarah Pressman at the University of California, Irvine, found that the probability of dying early is 20% higher for obese people, 30% higher for excessive drinkers, 50% higher for smokers, but a whopping 70% higher for people with poor social relationships. Toxic, stress-filled workplaces affect social relationships and, consequently, life expectancy.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 2. Show empathy<\/strong>. As a boss, you have a huge impact on how your employees feel. A telling\u00a0brain-imaging study\u00a0found that, when employees recalled a boss that had been unkind or un-empathic, they showed increased activation in areas of\u00a0the brain associated with avoidance and negative emotion while the opposite was true when they recalled an empathic boss. Moreover, Jane Dutton and her colleagues in the CompassionLab at the University of Michigan\u00a0suggest\u00a0that leaders who demonstrate compassion toward employees\u00a0foster individual and collective resilience in challenging times.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 3. Go out of your way to help.<\/strong>\u00a0Ever had a manager or mentor who took a lot of trouble to help you when he or she did not have to? Chances are you have remained loyal to that person to this day.\u00a0\u00a0Jonathan Haidt\u00a0at New York University\u2019s Stern School of Business shows\u00a0in his research\u00a0\u00a0that when leaders are not just fair but self-sacrificing, their employees are actually moved and inspired to become\u00a0more loyal and committed themselves. As a consequence, they are more likely to go out of their way to be helpful and friendly to other employees, thus creating a self-reinforcing cycle. Daan Van Knippenberg of Rotterdam School of Management shows that employees of self-sacrificing leaders are more cooperative because they trust their leaders more. They are also more productive and see their leaders as more effective and charismatic.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n 4. Encourage people to talk to you \u2013 especially about their problems.<\/strong>\u00a0Not surprisingly,\u00a0trusting that the leader\u00a0has your best interests at heart\u00a0improves employee performance.\u00a0Employees feel safe rather than fearful and, as\u00a0research\u00a0by Amy Edmondson of Harvard\u00a0demonstrates\u00a0in her work on psychological safety, a culture of safety i.e. in which leaders are inclusive, humble, and encourage their staff to speak up or ask for help, leads to better learning and performance outcomes. Rather than creating a culture of fear of negative consequences, feeling safe in the workplace helps encourage the spirit of experimentation so critical for innovation. Kamal Birdi of Sheffield University has\u00a0shown\u00a0that empowerment, when coupled with good training and teamwork, leads to superior performance outcomes whereas a range of efficient manufacturing and operations practices do not.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n When you know a leader is committed to operating from a set of values based on interpersonal kindness, he or she sets the tone for the\u00a0entire\u00a0organization. In\u00a0Give and Take<\/em>, Wharton professor Adam Grant demonstrates that leader kindness and generosity are strong predictors of team and organizational effectiveness. Whereas harsh work climates are\u00a0linked to poorer employee health, the opposite is true of positive work climates where employees tend to have lower\u00a0heart rates and blood pressure as well as a stronger\u00a0immune systems. A positive work climate also leads to a positive workplace culture which, again, boosts\u00a0commitment, engagement, and performance. Happier employees make for not only a more congenial workplace but for improved\u00a0customer service. As a consequence, a happy and caring culture at work not only improves employee well-being and productivity but also\u00a0improved client health outcomes and satisfaction.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n In sum, a positive workplace is more\u00a0successful\u00a0over time because it increases positive emotions and well-being. This, in turn, improves people\u2019s relationships with each other\u00a0and amplifies\u00a0their\u00a0abilities and their creativity. It buffers against negative experiences such as stress, thus improving employees\u2019 ability to bounce back from challenges and difficulties while bolstering their health. And, it attracts employees, making them more\u00a0loyal\u00a0to the leader and to the organization as well as bringing out their best strengths.\u00a0When organizations develop positive, virtuous cultures they achieve significantly higher levels of organizational effectiveness \u2014 including financial performance, customer satisfaction, productivity, and employee engagement.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n By Emma Sepp\u00e4l\u00e4\u00a0and\u00a0Kim Cameron<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Too many companies bet on having a cut-throat, high-pressure, take-no-prisoners culture to drive their financial success. But a large and growing body of research on positive organizational psychology demonstrates that not only is a cut-throat environment harmful to productivity over time, but that a positive environment will lead to dramatic benefits for employers, employees, and<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4238,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[310],"tags":[565,532,539,508,512,519,525],"class_list":["post-4157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-whats-trending","tag-bhakti","tag-culture","tag-empathy","tag-leadership","tag-nati","tag-stress","tag-work-place","enable-dropcap","disable-2-columns"],"yoast_head":"\n\r\n