As Machiavelli famously said, proposing change is a risky endeavor, as you’re only likely to garner lukewarm support from those who could benefit from your proposal, but strong opposition from those who might lose out.  Research from the Université de Montréal shows that we assess how we think our ideas will be responded to when judging whether to speak up for this very reason.

The researchers build on past work that highlights how people are more willing to propose improvements if they believe their workplace has high levels of integrity.  If there is any sign that proposing improvements might be punished or frowned upon and people rapidly clam up.

Mixed messaging

While this appears straightforward, the reality is that different people within the organization can send both positive and negative signals regarding improvement behaviors.  The researchers, therefore, wanted to explore how people react when receiving cues from people at different levels of the organization, with particular attention given to the role of one’s direct supervisor.

The study found that the way managers behave has a clear impact on the willingness of employees to propose or implement improvement behaviors.  What’s more, this appears to become a vicious cycle as managers then engage in ever more dysfunctional leadership, which in turn makes it even less likely that people will offer suggestions.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, therefore, managers can have a significant impact because of the culture and environment they help to establish.  As such, the authors urge senior managers to ensure that managers display more organizational integrity and work to ensure that a culture is created whereby ideas and improvements are welcomed rather than discouraged.

The negative impact was significantly higher when employees were getting negative cues from their managers but positive cues from their direct supervisors regarding the importance of job improvement.  The authors believe this is likely to be because employees respond to this mixed messaging by looking for cues elsewhere.

The findings underline the impact managers behaviors have not only in their immediate vicinity but throughout the organization, especially if they are amplified by supervisors lower down the organization.  To avoid this, the authors urge organizations that wish to encourage improvement behaviors to regularly take the temperature of the workplace to ensure that no incoherencies exist between what managers and supervisors do and say.