Harvard’s Amy Edmondson has highlighted the importance of emotional and psychological safety at work throughout her career, both in terms of the performance of individuals and the wider organization.  Despite such a high profile cheerleader however, speaking up at work can be incredibly stressful, especially if you’re going against what your boss or the wider organization believes.

It seems wholly intuitive that the reaction of our boss in such circumstances goes a long towards determining our willingness to speak up, but if further evidence were needed, a recent study from Rice University provides it.  The research reveals how the language leaders use when workers come to them with gripes or ideas for improvement go a long way towards encouraging or dissuading others from following suit.

Speaking up

Indeed, the study suggests that even if the employees ideas are not implemented, if they’re handled in the right way, it won’t dissuade them from offering fresh ideas in future.

“Given that many employee ideas for change cannot be endorsed, our results highlight the practical importance of providing sensitive explanations for why employee suggestions cannot be embraced,” the researchers say. “Specifically, it is critically important for leaders to exhibit sensitivity in their communication with employees.”

The study consisted of two surveys, the first of which asked a few hundred volunteers to describe a time when they had given their boss a suggestion that was subsequently rejected.  They also provided information about the manner of the rejection, how it made them feel and whether they spoke up again in future.

This was followed by a second batch of surveys, where a fresh batch of 223 volunteers completed two surveys before participating in an experimental scenario where they were interns at a marketing firm and asked to provide suggestions for marketing collateral.  They received one of four responses to their suggestion, with all four rejecting their suggestion in some way, but with varying degrees of sensitivity and explanations offered.  The volunteers were then given a second chance to offer an opinion.

Supporting staff

Whilst things such as servant leadership have grown in popularity in recent years, the researchers believe there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure managers have the training to handle rejection more successfully.

It’s an area they hope to return to in future research, which they believe will provide a better framework for doing just that.

“It would be useful for organizations to offer training and development for leaders on how to let employees down gently while encouraging them to speak up in the future,” they explain. “As demonstrated in our study, explanation sensitivity led to employees opening up again. In addition, it may be valuable to help employees understand that extenuating circumstances sometimes prevent implementation of potentially good ideas. It also would be useful to provide justification for why complete explanations cannot be revealed for strategic or confidentiality reasons. If such explanations are delivered in a sensitive manner, this should maintain the type of leader-employer relationship that encourages employees to speak up in the future.”