Want more creativity and inclusivity? Show acts of kindness in the workplace

Want to foster stronger belongingness and creativity in your team or organization? Show more altruism.

In a survey of more than 1500 employees from India, China, Australia, Germany, and the US, it was found when employees observed altruistic behaviours in their managers, such as showing acts of humility, empowering others, prioritizing balance and taking personal risk for the greater good, employees reported being more included in their work teams and more innovative. This included suggesting new ideas and better ways of working, etc. The study also found higher organization citizenship behaviour (OCB) and job satisfaction which lead to employees going the extra mile and beyond immediate role requirements as well as picking up the slack from absent colleagues.

We also know that prosocial behaviour in the workplace is contagious, so that if someone is kind to us we tend to ‘play it forward’ and act more generously. In a new study investing acts of pro-sociality at Coca Cola’s Madrid site, researchers randomly assigned employees into Givers, Receivers, and Controls. Givers practiced 5 acts of kindness for a list of Receivers over 4 weeks. They found that both Givers and Receivers mutually benefited with improvements to well-being in the short term (on weekly measures of competence and autonomy) and in the long term with Receivers became happier after 2 months and Givers became less depressed and more satisfied with their personal and work lives. What was interesting was that Givers’ prosocial acts inspired others to act with 278% more prosocial behaviours than Controls.

Takeaway

Therefore if we can encourage everyday prosocial behaviour not only will it be emotionally reinforcing but contagious and inspire kindness and hedonistic rewards in others. These studies reveal that it is realistic and easy to implement more altruism in the workplace. Despite having to juggle tasks on a busy work day and the small cost of giving and feeling indebted to return the favour, promoting altruism at work doesn’t take a lot of resources and can be simple as bringing someone a drink or emailing a thank-you note. As we know a small act of kindness can lead to unexpected benefits including increased happiness and job satisfaction that ripples throughout the organization.