David J Paul Project Management Professional, Management Professor, Author and Small Business Manager
Kaplan and Norton (1996) in their Balanced Score Card ™ identify motivated, prepared and engaged employees as the foundational element for improved processes, customer satisfaction, and superior profits. While there is a world-wide movement toward adopting the Balanced Score Card™ Management System with its strategic emphasis on motivated and prepared people, current research in organizational development and organizational behavior falls short of explaining the “how and why” motivated and engaged employees get that way. Today’s mindful managers are convinced, however, that engaged employees are more productive, take fewer sick days, have greater intentions to stay on the job, seek cost-effective improvements in business processes and generally are stronger innovators. We recommend a strategic, systematic approach to establishing a caring environment at work. Since good managers create their firm’s competitive strategy systematically, those same managers should also create their firm’s ‘caring’ strategy with the same systematic care, one step at a time. The central element of that Caring Strategy is to establish a culture of high Mutual Regard at work.
Regard goes beyond respect at work. Regard connects you with the lives of others in a positive, affirming way. One dictionary definition of Regard is that, “It is respect plus affection.” No wonder that Regard is more than 10 times more highly correlated to engagement at work than respect. Of the Three R’s of Caring (Respect, Regard, and Reward), Regard is correlated at r-squared = .8, Respect is correlated at r-squared = .18, and Reward is correlated to engagement at r=squared = -0.08. Psychologists tell us that believing in something strongly predicts how you behave at work. So, if you have strongly held attitudes or beliefs about work, respect, caring,or engagement, you are more likely to care for others and to have that caring produce engagement and motivation at work.
Fasolo (1995) finds that emotional attachment to the organization is a more proximal predictor of employee performance than Perceived Organizational Support (POS). In other words, what you believe and who you are attached to is MORE important to engagement than if you believe the organization supports you.
My research showed that most caring transactions came not from the supervisor or the company, but from the cadre of folks that you work with, the ones you are emotionally attached to. Caring for others in the workplace, being a friendly face in the crowd of colleagues means a lot. Show that you care.
Being Regardful at work means you will ask your colleagues about their children. Ask, “How’s it going”, and wait for the answer. Ask a follow up question, show that you’re concerned about them as a human being, not just as a worker. Find more hints in my book, “Dare to Care; How high Mutual Regard improves Productivity at work” http://www.davidjpaul.com.
The Cameron Group, Inc. 