Respect in the Workplace
Similar to one’s personal life, an individual’s work-life exposes them to people with different personalities, dispositions, and temperaments. However, in a work setting, the option to disengage with someone with opposing values and/or opinions may not be available. If it is though, it may have consequences, impacting factors such as job performance, group dynamics, and organizational health as a whole. To ensure that organizations perform to their full potential and grow, navigating interpersonal relationships respectfully and productively is crucial.
Previously, organizations followed a conforming mindset in which they stayed within familiar operating methods. As a result, differences, in general, were largely viewed and reduced to potential sources of conflict and difficulty. However, recently, management has increasingly been coming to realize that when individual differences are encountered in an effective and considerate manner, they can be a source of significant innovation, collaboration, and long-term success. On an internal level, differences collide in daily interactions between people within organizations. Some apparent distinctions between people include age, gender, education, and ethnicity, while the more subtle differences may involve values, attitudes, behaviors, and personality types.
Characteristics of people that are difficult to manage when considered in a work setting include anger, indecisiveness, negativity, complaining, and competitiveness. If not managed sensitively and appropriately, these characteristics lead people to find themselves in tension-filled situations which often lead to conflict. In avoiding conflict, it is important to realize that these behaviors are not personal. In viewing people from this perspective, the chances of retaliation are minimized, allowing for constructive interventions to take place. For example, indecisive individuals tend to procrastinate, avoid making decisions and doubt themselves. Responding from a place of empathy and respect to someone like this would involve clarifying their options to help them make better decisions.
A disrespectful workplace often leads to unnecessary stress, anxiety, depression, lack of motivation, and low self-esteem. While removing conflict-inducing factors may seem like the obvious solution, research shows that this change is short-lived. Focusing on cultivating a more respectful culture, on the other hand, proves to be a more sustainable solution as it enhances how conflicts are handled when they arise. Companies that have medium to high levels of conflict while simultaneously maintaining a high level of interpersonal respect thrive more than those with different respect-conflict combinations. When people are very similar to each other there is room for long-term stagnation. In settings where people feel free to disagree and differ from the majority while knowing that they are still valued and respected, they tend to learn from each other’s differences, thus stimulating a thriving environment.