Employers should nurture friendship and support amongst co-workers to
unlock creativity, shows new research
Co-worker support shared with a partner at home inspires creative
thinking
Date:
February 18, 2022
Source:
University of Bath
Summary:
The new study from the University of Bath's School of Management
reveals care from a co-worker inspires people to be supportive to
their partner at home, showing that co-workers have a significant
role to play in enabling couples to cope with balancing the
demands of work and family life. This spiral of support has knock
on benefits for creative thinking at work.
FULL STORY ========================================================================== Employers who want to see creative thinking in their workforce should
value supportive friendships between colleagues as the key to unlocking
more resourcefulness and innovation.
==========================================================================
The new study from the University of Bath's School of Management reveals
care from a co-worker inspires people to be supportive to their partner at home, showing that co-workers have a significant role to play in enabling couples to cope with balancing the demands of work and family life. This
spiral of support has knock on benefits for creative thinking at work.
"Employees take the support they receive from co-workers home with
them, and in a loving relationship they transfer this support to their
partner. This might mean they encourage them to open up about stresses,
seek to resolve issues, or make improvements to the juggle of work-life arrangements that benefits the family," said Professor Yasin Rofcanin
from the University of Bath's Future of Work research centre.
"The result is that both members of a couple benefit. Spouses pass on
support received from co-workers and partners will be more creative
at work, in what is termed a 'gain spiral. So it pays for employers to recognise the value of caring co-workers." Over and above work policies,
or interventions by supervisors, it is informal support from co-workers
that stands out as having the biggest impact on an individual's ability
to manage the work-life balance, spilling over to benefit the partner
at home and in turn their own creative thinking at work.
Co-worker support can mean being on hand to listen and talk through
life's issues and challenges as they arise, offering suggestions for
problems at home, as well as providing cover for absence if a child is
sick, or other caring responsibilities crop up. The research suggests organisations should give employees more flexibility to manage caring
cover with a colleague without intervention from managers.
The research also alerts employers to the pitfalls of working practice
and expectation taking a toll on home life, encouraging employers to be
mindful of the detrimental impact on relationships.
"So much research points to the stresses of being in a dual income couple,
it's refreshing to see a win for loving relationships alongside work,"
said Rofcanin. "While we're not suggesting employers should meddle in relationships, they may be able to positively contribute to the quality
of relationships at home by putting policies and procedures in place to minimise work-family conflict, such as limiting over time and expectations
to respond to emails outside of hours." The study, by the Universities
of Bath, VU Amsterdam and IESE Business School, focused on diary entries
over five weeks by over 200 full-time, dual income heterosexual couples
in the United States, eighty per cent of which had children.
The researchers acknowledge that there could be drawbacks in relying
on co- workers for support with work and family matters, with partners
at home feeling jealous and upset about the closeness of 'work spouse' relationships. They suggest future research could examine the potential
of this relationship dynamic to promote conflict at home.
special promotion Explore the latest scientific research on sleep and
dreams in this free online course from New Scientist -- Sign_up_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Bath. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.
========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Jakob Stollberger, Mireia Las Heras, Yasin Rofcanin. Sharing
is caring:
The role of compassionate love for sharing coworker work-family
support at home to promote partners' creativity at work.. Journal
of Applied Psychology, 2021; DOI: 10.1037/apl0000985 ==========================================================================
Link to news story:
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220218100646.htm
--- up 10 weeks, 6 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes
* Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)