• Employers should nurture friendship and

    From ScienceDaily@1:317/3 to All on Fri Feb 18 21:30:46 2022
    Employers should nurture friendship and support amongst co-workers to
    unlock creativity, shows new research
    Co-worker support shared with a partner at home inspires creative
    thinking

    Date:
    February 18, 2022
    Source:
    University of Bath
    Summary:
    The new study from the University of Bath's School of Management
    reveals care from a co-worker inspires people to be supportive to
    their partner at home, showing that co-workers have a significant
    role to play in enabling couples to cope with balancing the
    demands of work and family life. This spiral of support has knock
    on benefits for creative thinking at work.



    FULL STORY ========================================================================== Employers who want to see creative thinking in their workforce should
    value supportive friendships between colleagues as the key to unlocking
    more resourcefulness and innovation.


    ==========================================================================
    The new study from the University of Bath's School of Management reveals
    care from a co-worker inspires people to be supportive to their partner at home, showing that co-workers have a significant role to play in enabling couples to cope with balancing the demands of work and family life. This
    spiral of support has knock on benefits for creative thinking at work.

    "Employees take the support they receive from co-workers home with
    them, and in a loving relationship they transfer this support to their
    partner. This might mean they encourage them to open up about stresses,
    seek to resolve issues, or make improvements to the juggle of work-life arrangements that benefits the family," said Professor Yasin Rofcanin
    from the University of Bath's Future of Work research centre.

    "The result is that both members of a couple benefit. Spouses pass on
    support received from co-workers and partners will be more creative
    at work, in what is termed a 'gain spiral. So it pays for employers to recognise the value of caring co-workers." Over and above work policies,
    or interventions by supervisors, it is informal support from co-workers
    that stands out as having the biggest impact on an individual's ability
    to manage the work-life balance, spilling over to benefit the partner
    at home and in turn their own creative thinking at work.

    Co-worker support can mean being on hand to listen and talk through
    life's issues and challenges as they arise, offering suggestions for
    problems at home, as well as providing cover for absence if a child is
    sick, or other caring responsibilities crop up. The research suggests organisations should give employees more flexibility to manage caring
    cover with a colleague without intervention from managers.

    The research also alerts employers to the pitfalls of working practice
    and expectation taking a toll on home life, encouraging employers to be
    mindful of the detrimental impact on relationships.

    "So much research points to the stresses of being in a dual income couple,
    it's refreshing to see a win for loving relationships alongside work,"
    said Rofcanin. "While we're not suggesting employers should meddle in relationships, they may be able to positively contribute to the quality
    of relationships at home by putting policies and procedures in place to minimise work-family conflict, such as limiting over time and expectations
    to respond to emails outside of hours." The study, by the Universities
    of Bath, VU Amsterdam and IESE Business School, focused on diary entries
    over five weeks by over 200 full-time, dual income heterosexual couples
    in the United States, eighty per cent of which had children.

    The researchers acknowledge that there could be drawbacks in relying
    on co- workers for support with work and family matters, with partners
    at home feeling jealous and upset about the closeness of 'work spouse' relationships. They suggest future research could examine the potential
    of this relationship dynamic to promote conflict at home.

    special promotion Explore the latest scientific research on sleep and
    dreams in this free online course from New Scientist -- Sign_up_now_>>> ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by University_of_Bath. Note: Content
    may be edited for style and length.


    ========================================================================== Journal Reference:
    1. Jakob Stollberger, Mireia Las Heras, Yasin Rofcanin. Sharing
    is caring:
    The role of compassionate love for sharing coworker work-family
    support at home to promote partners' creativity at work.. Journal
    of Applied Psychology, 2021; DOI: 10.1037/apl0000985 ==========================================================================

    Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/02/220218100646.htm

    --- up 10 weeks, 6 days, 7 hours, 13 minutes
    * Origin: -=> Castle Rock BBS <=- Now Husky HPT Powered! (1:317/3)