Kiptoo oversees procurement at a tech parts distributor in Parklands, Nairobi, where he also manages three field teams. His mornings begin with him giving terse direct orders and afternoons conclude with curt instructive emails.
Employees shun the weekly team meeting because interruptions splinter each idea before it can formulate legs and flourish. New staff gossip about impending job transfers to other locations spreads, senior analysts wait until risk is too high before they act on switching suppliers or curtailing credit to purchasers, and supply issues build up since no one has the guts to speak up about small mistakes sooner.
Clients notice the tension and provide their concerns through feedback all while hedging orders with other distributors in case Kiptoo’s collapses.
Numbers start to slide and the organisation’s top talent bolts for the door while the mediocre staff remain unable to secure other jobs elsewhere.
Management researcher Kristie Rogers shows how to avoid Kiptoo’s fate and gives a compelling map of what employees desire and what most workplaces fail to provide.
She and a different researcher, Blake Ashforth, both derive that employees crave respect in their jobs and the two come up with two different pathways.
Generalised respect within organisations shows that every individual in the group counts and matters. While distinct particularised respect conveys that each team member holds a distinct and special contribution that merits respect.
The model illustrates how both streams contribute to someone’s need for belonging and status and hence generates the ever-illusive organisational behaviour concept of organisation-based self-esteem along with workplace identification and psychological safety.
While the concept of workplace respect is not new to Business Daily readers and organisational leaders, an unfortunate, yet persistent gap persists between the amount and type of respect craved in the workplace versus how executives provide that respect.
Further, what might be surprising to leaders is that most employees value being respected even higher than income, promotions, and leisure time.
Managers who can close the gap and provide the respect desired can realise and champion immense team performance improvements.
Kristie Rogers and Blake Ashforth also conceptualise communication and clarify language that tends to confuse teams. First, respect is defined as perceived worth that one group or team member accords to another and extends the concept by distinguishing respect given to all from additional layers of respect earned on account of virtues, conduct, and achievements.
The research conjectures that both styles are connected to concrete workplace outcomes through belonging and status channels.
In every communication that leaders say, write, or demonstrate they should send both types of respect signals and not just focus on one type, like how most managers erroneously do it.
Teams flourish when they have members who feel valued as belonging to the team and then seen and recognised as themselves.
Researchers Niels Lynöe, Maja Wessel, Daniel Olsson, Kristina Alexanderson, and Gert Helgesson provide team-based evidence outside corporate corridors to confirm the psychology of respect in achieving goals.
Looking at thousands of long-term ill patients, the study tracked how respect during encounters with external figures influenced their confidence to return to work.
When interactions left people feeling heard and believed, nearly half ill patients reported that they saw a more plausible improved pathway back to a working life.
However, when encounters were infected with the external person showing doubt or disrespect, then more than half reported diminished energy or decreased desire to re-enter the workforce.
What the study shows is that respect increases someone’s energy to re-engage while being wronged depletes and drains it. The trend was even stronger for people who faced mental health challenges.
Recovery and productivity-minded leaders should make each encounter a chance to sow respect and therefore return to maximum individual contributions.
Meanwhile, one can view the effects of respect over time. Using longitudinal research on companies also suggests retention benefits.
In as much, social scientist Thomas followed young graduates for 18 months and found that increase in perceived felt respect led to increase in appreciation and gratitude toward their employer.
Respect served like a domino effect whereby it led to feelings of gratitude which led to strengthened feelings of team embeddedness which then led to lower staff turnover.
So, respect is not merely a value or a mantra chanted in meetings, but actually carries real and measurable benefits to organisations. So, how can leaders here in Kenya improve how they show respect to their staff?
The research shows that managers can showcase more of the individual contributions toward team successes, praise more, recognise wins, raise hopes for career development, expand growth opportunities, open up participation in decisions, and give corrective feedback constructively.
Build cultures that honour all individuals with respect and also stretch for excellence. Respect for everyone can manifest in fair scheduling, prompt meeting protocols, clear safety procedures, and addressing issues and concerns promptly and on schedule.
Differential respect might manifest in public recognition by name during meetings, stretch assignments to match one's strengths, and thoughtful referrals that generate offsite opportunities.
End meetings with special appreciation commensurate with results. Feature a regularly changing spotlight on the ways that a colleague's judgment or perseverance benefited the team’s goals.
Above all, avoid being arrogant and talking down to colleagues and subordinates. A culture of respect does not occur by accident. Respect comes about from conscious leadership choices.
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