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世界动态:办公室闲聊有助于加强领导与员工的关系,但也有弊端

发布时间:2023-05-11 09:15:53 来源:财富中文网

办公室闲聊有助于加强领导与员工的关系,但也有弊端

Paige McGlauflin 2023-05-08 闲聊在我们的生活中扮演着重要的角色,占成年人交流的三分之一。 图片来源:WAVEBREAKMEDIA—GETTY IMAGES

不管是喜欢还是讨厌,闲聊在我们的生活中扮演着重要的角色,占成年人交流的三分之一。闲聊有助于建立融洽的关系,并且能够促使双方进行更深层次的对话。


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尽管闲聊很普遍,但管理研究在很大程度上忽视了其在工作场所的作用。但在2020年发表的一项研究发现,在办公室里闲聊既可以带来积极影响,也能够带来消极影响。一方面,闲聊可以提高员工的幸福感,提升员工的工作场所的公民意识,但它也会分散员工注意力,导致员工无法专注于任务,从而损害生产力。

然而,总的来说,研究人员发现,对所有员工而言,闲聊都能够带来非常积极的影响,无论他们的沟通偏好如何。研究参与者从闲聊中感受到情绪和能量的提升,从而有助于过渡到更严肃的对话,例如面试、绩效评估或者谈判。

对首席执行官来说,与员工闲聊是与其建立友谊的一种特别有效的方式。

巴布森学院(Babson College)的管理学助理教授、该研究的合著者埃米莉·罗萨多-所罗门说:“如果领导者想与下属建立联系,他们就可以考虑与员工进行闲聊。通过闲聊这种潜在的机制,他们甚至能够创造出共享现实的时刻。”

罗格斯大学(Rutgers University)的人力资源管理副教授、该研究的合著者杰西卡·梅特霍特表示,当然,闲聊也会分散员工的注意力。闲聊会让员工不再专注于当前的工作,也很难回到专心完成手头工作的状态,还会造成“时间饥荒”,让员工在一天结束的时候匆忙完成工作。此外,罗萨多-所罗门指出,依赖小时工的行业可能会无意中惩罚那些在公司提高员工生产力的过程中参与闲聊的员工。

并不是每个人都可以从闲聊中获益。研究人员发现,闲聊对非母语人士、神经多样性员工和外籍人士产生了负面影响。

罗萨多-所罗门称:“要么他们不熟悉闲聊的一些社交脚本,要么他们很难读懂人们想要结束闲聊的暗示。这可能会使某些已经代表不足的群体更加边缘化。”

领导者能够制定一些允许社会融合的计划,比如为新员工建立伙伴系统,帮助这些员工从闲聊中获益。罗萨多-所罗门指出:“对领导者来说,重要的是创造一个空间,但也要确保来自不同背景的人,尤其是那些可能很难理解高效闲聊规范的人,都可以获得这种隐性知识。”

闲聊也可能产生隐性偏见,这通常会在晋升和项目分配中显现出来。闲聊能够建立融洽关系,因此,高层更有可能青睐那些更有效地理解相关社会规范的人,因此,这对那些不了解相关规范的人不利。

自从远程工作兴起以来,闲聊在工作场所的作用已经成为人们关注的焦点。领导们正敦促员工重返办公室办公,并大谈特谈在饮水机旁闲聊的好处。

包括摩根大通(JPMorgan)的杰米·戴蒙和亚马逊(Amazon)的安迪·贾西在内的首席执行官们都对办公室偶然相遇带来的创造力和合作给予了高度评价。戴蒙在今年4月中旬发出的一份内部备忘录中写道:“大多数专业人士都是通过学徒模式来学习如何工作的,这在Zoom世界里几乎是不可能复制的。随着时间的推移,这一弊端可能会极大地破坏你想在公司中推广的个性和文化。”

梅特霍特称,在虚拟环境中很难复制闲聊的某些特征,例如自发性。尽管雇主们做出了努力,试图在远程环境中(比如Zoom的欢乐时光)培养这种友谊,但却适得其反。

梅特霍特说:“我们看不到对方的肢体语言,人们的相机都处于关闭状态,我们没有眼神交流,也没有与某个特定的人进行交谈。”她补充道,员工错过了面对面交谈中发生的自然能量传递。

但领导者仍然可以通过办公室的合作日来找到促进面对面闲聊的方法。另一个选择是重新考虑办公空间的布局。罗萨多-所罗门表示,令人惊讶的是,开放式办公室往往不如私人隔间或者普通办公室更有利于闲聊,后者允许员工专注于工作,但也能够到休息室或者厨房进行聚会。领导者还应该起到模范作用,鼓励和参与闲聊来减压和建立联系。但他们应该避免利用闲聊来讨论业绩。

罗萨多-所罗门说:“对领导者而言,重要的是不要过于关注效率,否则会无意中阻碍闲聊在自然而然的情况下展开,但也要起到模范作用,积极在这些公共场所进行闲聊。”

在远程环境中,领导者可以通过Slack或者短信来与下属进行日常对话。这并不一定要是正式会议或者是长时间的谈话,“但动动手指,努力建立联系,表明你在关心下属。”梅特霍特说。领导者还能够在Slack上建立非正式讨论的渠道,在预定的会议之前,花5分钟到10分钟聊天。希望避免这种闲聊的员工可以在预定的会议开始时上线,“反正人们在办公室里也会这么做。”梅特霍特说。

她继续说道:“管理者能够做一些事情来为团队重新创建或者创造新的社交仪式。也许首先要承认没有办法重塑这些自发的、偶然的相遇。但接下来,让我们思考一下,作为远程工作团队,我们可以做哪些事情来创造一种社会仪式。”(财富中文网)

译者:中慧言-王芳

不管是喜欢还是讨厌,闲聊在我们的生活中扮演着重要的角色,占成年人交流的三分之一。闲聊有助于建立融洽的关系,并且能够促使双方进行更深层次的对话。

尽管闲聊很普遍,但管理研究在很大程度上忽视了其在工作场所的作用。但在2020年发表的一项研究发现,在办公室里闲聊既可以带来积极影响,也能够带来消极影响。一方面,闲聊可以提高员工的幸福感,提升员工的工作场所的公民意识,但它也会分散员工注意力,导致员工无法专注于任务,从而损害生产力。

然而,总的来说,研究人员发现,对所有员工而言,闲聊都能够带来非常积极的影响,无论他们的沟通偏好如何。研究参与者从闲聊中感受到情绪和能量的提升,从而有助于过渡到更严肃的对话,例如面试、绩效评估或者谈判。

对首席执行官来说,与员工闲聊是与其建立友谊的一种特别有效的方式。

巴布森学院(Babson College)的管理学助理教授、该研究的合著者埃米莉·罗萨多-所罗门说:“如果领导者想与下属建立联系,他们就可以考虑与员工进行闲聊。通过闲聊这种潜在的机制,他们甚至能够创造出共享现实的时刻。”

罗格斯大学(Rutgers University)的人力资源管理副教授、该研究的合著者杰西卡·梅特霍特表示,当然,闲聊也会分散员工的注意力。闲聊会让员工不再专注于当前的工作,也很难回到专心完成手头工作的状态,还会造成“时间饥荒”,让员工在一天结束的时候匆忙完成工作。此外,罗萨多-所罗门指出,依赖小时工的行业可能会无意中惩罚那些在公司提高员工生产力的过程中参与闲聊的员工。

并不是每个人都可以从闲聊中获益。研究人员发现,闲聊对非母语人士、神经多样性员工和外籍人士产生了负面影响。

罗萨多-所罗门称:“要么他们不熟悉闲聊的一些社交脚本,要么他们很难读懂人们想要结束闲聊的暗示。这可能会使某些已经代表不足的群体更加边缘化。”

领导者能够制定一些允许社会融合的计划,比如为新员工建立伙伴系统,帮助这些员工从闲聊中获益。罗萨多-所罗门指出:“对领导者来说,重要的是创造一个空间,但也要确保来自不同背景的人,尤其是那些可能很难理解高效闲聊规范的人,都可以获得这种隐性知识。”

闲聊也可能产生隐性偏见,这通常会在晋升和项目分配中显现出来。闲聊能够建立融洽关系,因此,高层更有可能青睐那些更有效地理解相关社会规范的人,因此,这对那些不了解相关规范的人不利。

自从远程工作兴起以来,闲聊在工作场所的作用已经成为人们关注的焦点。领导们正敦促员工重返办公室办公,并大谈特谈在饮水机旁闲聊的好处。

包括摩根大通(JPMorgan)的杰米·戴蒙和亚马逊(Amazon)的安迪·贾西在内的首席执行官们都对办公室偶然相遇带来的创造力和合作给予了高度评价。戴蒙在今年4月中旬发出的一份内部备忘录中写道:“大多数专业人士都是通过学徒模式来学习如何工作的,这在Zoom世界里几乎是不可能复制的。随着时间的推移,这一弊端可能会极大地破坏你想在公司中推广的个性和文化。”

梅特霍特称,在虚拟环境中很难复制闲聊的某些特征,例如自发性。尽管雇主们做出了努力,试图在远程环境中(比如Zoom的欢乐时光)培养这种友谊,但却适得其反。

梅特霍特说:“我们看不到对方的肢体语言,人们的相机都处于关闭状态,我们没有眼神交流,也没有与某个特定的人进行交谈。”她补充道,员工错过了面对面交谈中发生的自然能量传递。

但领导者仍然可以通过办公室的合作日来找到促进面对面闲聊的方法。另一个选择是重新考虑办公空间的布局。罗萨多-所罗门表示,令人惊讶的是,开放式办公室往往不如私人隔间或者普通办公室更有利于闲聊,后者允许员工专注于工作,但也能够到休息室或者厨房进行聚会。领导者还应该起到模范作用,鼓励和参与闲聊来减压和建立联系。但他们应该避免利用闲聊来讨论业绩。

罗萨多-所罗门说:“对领导者而言,重要的是不要过于关注效率,否则会无意中阻碍闲聊在自然而然的情况下展开,但也要起到模范作用,积极在这些公共场所进行闲聊。”

在远程环境中,领导者可以通过Slack或者短信来与下属进行日常对话。这并不一定要是正式会议或者是长时间的谈话,“但动动手指,努力建立联系,表明你在关心下属。”梅特霍特说。领导者还能够在Slack上建立非正式讨论的渠道,在预定的会议之前,花5分钟到10分钟聊天。希望避免这种闲聊的员工可以在预定的会议开始时上线,“反正人们在办公室里也会这么做。”梅特霍特说。

她继续说道:“管理者能够做一些事情来为团队重新创建或者创造新的社交仪式。也许首先要承认没有办法重塑这些自发的、偶然的相遇。但接下来,让我们思考一下,作为远程工作团队,我们可以做哪些事情来创造一种社会仪式。”(财富中文网)

译者:中慧言-王芳

Love it or hate it, small talk plays a significant role in our lives, making up a whopping one-third of adult communication. Small talk is also a relationship builder—it helps establish rapport and can expedite deeper conversations between individuals.

Despite its prevalence, management research has largely overlooked small talk’s role in the workplace. But research published in 2020 found that small talk has positive and negative effects in the office. On one hand, it can increase employee well-being and promote workplace citizenship, but it also distracts from completing tasks, hurting productivity.

Overall, however, researchers found small talk overwhelmingly positive for all employees, regardless of their communication preferences. Research participants experienced a mood and energy boost from the ritual, and it helped employees transition into more serious conversations, such as interviews, performance reviews, or negotiations.

For CEOs, engaging in small talk can be a particularly effective way to build camaraderie with employees.

“That is something for leaders to consider if they want to connect with their subordinates. Small talk is potentially a mechanism through which they can create even just moments of a shared reality,” says Emily Rosado-Solomon, an assistant professor of management at Babson College and coauthor of the study.

Of course, small talk can also be distracting for employees, says study coauthor Jessica Methot, an associate professor of human resource management at Rutgers University. Small talk pulls employees away from their work, making it challenging to return to the task at hand and creating a “time famine” in which employees feel rushed to finish their work at the end of the day. Additionally, Rosado-Solomon notes, industries that rely on hourly work can unintentionally penalize employees for engaging in small talk in the company’s drive for employee productivity.

And not everyone benefits from small talk. Researchers found that the ritual negatively impacted non-native language speakers, neurodivergent employees, and expatriates.

“Either they’re not familiar with some of the social scripts of small talk, or they have difficulty reading the cues that people want to wrap up small talk,” says Rosado-Solomon. “That can make certain already underrepresented groups even more marginalized.”

Leaders can help these employees reap the benefits of small talk with programs that allow for social integration, like a buddy system for new hires. “It is important for leaders to create a space but also make sure that people from all backgrounds, especially those who might have more difficulty understanding the norms around productive small talk, get that tacit knowledge,” Rosado-Solomon says.

Small talk may also create implicit bias, which often shows up in promotions and project assignments. Because the practice builds rapport, higher-ups are likelier to favor those more effective at understanding its related social norms, disadvantaging those who do not.

Small talk’s role in the workplace has become more of a focal point since the rise of remote work. Leaders, beckoning employees back into the office, are espousing the virtues of water cooler conversations.

Chief executives, including JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon and Amazon’s Andy Jassy, have spoken highly of the creativity and collaboration that comes with chance encounters in the office. “Most professionals learn thei r job through an apprenticeship model, which is almost impossible to replicate in the Zoom world,” Dimon wrote in an internal memo sent in mid-April. “Over time, this drawback could dramatically undermine the character and culture you want to promote in your company.”

It’s difficult to replicate certain characteristics of small talk, like spontaneity, in a virtual environment, Methot says. Despite employers’ efforts, attempts to foster that fellowship in remote settings, such as Zoom happy hours, have backfired.

“We can’t see each other’s body language, people’s cameras are off, and we’re not making eye contact [or] talking to one particular person,” Methot says. She adds that employees miss out on the natural energy transfer that happens in face-to-face conversations.

But leaders can still find ways to foster small talk in person through collaboration days at the office. Another option is to reconsider the layout of the office space. Surprisingly, open-office plans tend to be less conducive to small talk than private cubicles or offices, which allow employees to focus on work but venture out to lounge spaces or kitchens for gathering, says Rosado-Solomon. Leaders should also be role models by encouraging and engaging in small talk to decompress and connect. But they should refrain from using it to discuss performance.

“It is important for leaders not to be too focused on efficiency that they accidentally discourage organic small talk, but also to actively model small talk in these public spaces,” Rosado-Solomon says.

In remote settings, leaders can implement daily check-ins with subordinates via Slack or text. It doesn’t have to be a formal meeting or lengthy conversation, “but reaching out, that effort to connect, shows someone cares,” Methot says. Leaders can also set up Slack channels for informal discussions and, before scheduled meetings, hold five to 10 minutes to chat. Employees who wish to avoid such small talk could show up when the scheduled meeting starts, “which is what people would do in the office anyway,” Methot says.

“There are things managers can do to recreate or create new social rituals for teams,” she continues. “Maybe first acknowledging there’s no way to rework these spontaneous, casual collisions. But then let’s think of new things we can do as virtual teams to create a social ritual.”

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