Avoiding harm, benefits of interpersonal listening, and social equilibrium adjustment: An applied psychology approach to side effects of organizational interventions
Abstract
Creating positive change in the direction intended is the goal of organizational interventions.
Watts et al. (2021) raise this issue of “side effects,” which include changes that are unintended and often in the opposite direction of the organizational intervention. With our expertise in applied psychology, military psychiatry/neuroscience, organizational behavior, and corporate safety, we argue for three additional factors for consideration: avoiding harm, the benefits of high-quality interpersonal listening, and a discussion of side effects as a natural part of the change process. We offer these as a means of extending the conversation begun by Watts et al.
Sowing the seeds of love: Cultivating perceptions of culture of companionate love through listening and its effects on organizational outcomes
Guy Itzchakov | Sigal Barsade | Arik Cheshin
Organizational Behavior and Social Psychology
Fostering a culture of companionate love in the workplace
offers numerous benefits for employees, yet the
methods for achieving this remain unclear. We propose
that high-quality listening, characterized by undivided
attention, understanding, and a positive and nonjudgmental
intention toward the speaker, could be a
key facilitator. We hypothesized that such listening
could enhance employees' perceptions of companionate
love. Additionally, we hypothesized that an enhanced
perception of companionate love would increase
employees' subjective well-being, resilience, affective
commitment, and willingness to cooperate at work. To
examine these hypotheses, we conducted four studies.
Study 1 was a preregistered and highly-powered field
study (N = 752) involving employees from various
organizations. Study 2 (N = 37), was a longitudinal
research that included a listening training of 16 hours
for teachers in a single school. Study 3 was a quasi-field
experiment within a risk-management company, with
employees receiving 12 hours of listening education
while a waitlist served as a control group (N = 67).
Study 4 was a quasi-experiment that served as a conceptual
replication and extension of Studies 2 and
3. The study involved listening training for employees
in a global communications company, providing
14 hours of online listening training. An active control
group (N = 60) was included. Across all studies, we
found that feeling listened to by colleagues led to
increased perceptions of companionate love in the
organization, which, in turn, increased employees' subjective
well-being, resilience, affective organizational
commitment, and willingness to collaborate. Theoretical
and practical implications are discussed.
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The Moderating Effect of Performance Feedback and the Mediating Effect of Self-Set Goals on the Primed Goal-Performance Relationship
Guy Itzchakov, Gary P. Latham
Goal Setting
The effect of feedback and a self-set goal on the relationship between a goal primed in the subconscious and performance were examined in three laboratory experiments and one field experiment (n = 241, 465, 201, 74 respectively), using normative (bogus) and absolute feedback manipulations, and different performance tasks that were coded for both performance quality (i.e. creativity) and quantity. The hypothesis that providing feedback, a moderator in goal-setting theory, amplifies the causal effect of a primed goal on performance was supported. Specifically, in experiment 1, participants were randomly assigned to a 2 (prime of effective vs. ineffective performance) × 3 (positive, negative, no feedback) factorial design. The primed goal for effective performance led to higher performance than the negative primed goal. In addition, feedback, regardless of its sign, increased both task and creative performance when a primed goal for effective performance was presented but did not do so when the goal primed ineffective performance. This effect was replicated in two subsequent laboratory experiments which employed three primed goal conditions (effective/neutral/ineffective). In experiments 2 and 3, a consciously set goal, with no prompting by an experimenter, mediated the relationship between a primed goal and performance when feedback was provided. Experiment 4 provided a conceptual replication in a work setting, involving employees in a customer service department of a large communication company. Finally, a meta-analysis of these four experiments indicated an average effect size of d = 0.36, 95 percent CI [0.23, 0.49] with no evidence of heterogeneity across the four experiments. These findings suggest that not only are subconscious goals a foundation for the difficulty level of consciously set goals but in addition, subconscious goals and conscious goals work together in affecting performance.
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