To err is human - to forgive is divine. And profitable! - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog

To err is human - to forgive is divine. And profitable! - The Chief Happiness Officer Blog A radio producer felt oppressed because her boss was constantly stealing her food ?- right off her desk. So she made some candy out of EX-Lax, the chocolate flavored laxative, and left it on her desk. As usual, he ate them without permission. When she told this thief what was in the candy, ?he was not happy.??? (Source). What do you do, when youre treated badly or unfairly at work? Do you go along to get along? Get even? Something else? More and more people seek revenge at work when slighted. The number of retaliation charges has nearly doubled over the last eight years and more than 27% of all harassment and discrimination claims currently filed contain a claim for retaliation (source). But while getting even may feel good for a moment, is it really a good idea? From a business perspective, the answer turns out to be no. I was recently at an international conference on positive psychology arranged by the Center for Applied Positive Psychology, and among the many fascinating people I met there was Sarah Warner. Sarah presented a research project that demonstrates that workplaces with a culture of forgiveness had: Lower levels of interpersonal conflict and stress Higher levels of productivity Apparently, revenge creates stress and lowers productivity, whereas a culture of forgiveness makes a company more efficient and more profitable. So forgiveness is good for business. Cool! Ive had a chance to interview Sarah about her fascinating project, and about why companies need to work on their ability to forgive peoples missteps. Sarah, please tell us a little about yourself I am an undergraduate student at Luther College, a university in the United States and I graduate this month! I have conducted research through my university on the topics of workplace forgiveness, interpersonal stress, productivity, and health. I recently presented a poster of my research at the First Applied Positive Psychology Conference, University of Warwick, UK. How did you come to choose workplace forgiveness as a topic for your study? Looking at the other side of the issue was interesting to me. By the other side I mean looking at forgiveness as opposed to revenge, which is emphasized most by many researchers. I wanted my study to be applicable to the real world, which is why I used a real, live workplace for my research. There is a misconception that forgiveness has no place in the business world and I wanted to show that this is far from the truth. What kind of workers participated in the study? The workers who participated in my research were employees at a manufacturing firm. Most of the employees at this workplace were in a factory environment, with the others in an office setting. How exactly does forgiveness affect interpersonal relationships? Interpersonal stress was found to mediate (act as the middleman) in the relationship between forgiveness and health/productivity outcomes. This means that forgiveness is related to health (both physical and mental) and productivity through the variable of interpersonal stress. In fact, the results of my study suggest that up to 40% of the relationship is accounted for by interpersonal stress. Also, forgiveness alone was strongly correlated to health and productivity. Did anything in your results surprise you? The strength of the results was the most surprising aspect of the study. I had predicted that this relationship would exist but the extent to which it exists was surprising. Forgiveness is related to many of the things that organizations are worried about today: Productivity problems, health insurance costs, etc. Organizations should think twice before they write-off forgiveness as having no importance in the workplace. Whats next? What are some of the questions we still need answers to? Because this study was one of the first to examine this relationship, more research would be helpful to confirm its strength. Looking at different types of workplaces and organizations in other countries would also be a great next step. The interesting question, especially in the business world, is how forgiveness can save an organization money (through increasing productivity, decreasing healthcare costs, etc.). When the discussion turns to saving money, organizations start to listen a bit more. Have you ever sought revenge on someone? Or are you the forgiving type? :o) Well, that is a fair question! I have to say that I am generally the forgiving type. Like most people, I have held grudges in the past against people who have hurt me. While it is hard at times, I try not to do to this anymore. It seems that when a person holds a grudge, it really ends up hurting them the most, not the person they are holding the grudge against. I believe this to be true, which is part of the reason I am so interested in this field of research. A great big thank you to Sarah. If you have any questions for her, write a comment, and shes promised to answer. Thanks for visiting my blog. If you're new here, you should check out this list of my 10 most popular articles. And if you want more great tips and ideas you should check out our newsletter about happiness at work. It's great and it's free :-)Share this:LinkedInFacebookTwitterRedditPinterest Related