Quiet quitting has become a growing concern in the past year, as disenfranchised employees tune out of work and do the bare minimum required. Research from North Carolina State University suggests that spending time with colleagues who identify with the company can help reduce this risk.
“We’re not fans of the term ‘quiet quitting,’ since it seems dismissive of employees who are fulfilling their roles in a company,” the researchers explain. “That said, it is clear that companies can benefit significantly when employees go above and beyond what’s required of them. And our study offers insights into what gives employees that sense of purpose and drive that can benefit their employers.”
Rubbing off
The researchers set out to explore how the relationships we have with our colleagues affect how we identify with our organization, and what impact this might have on our levels of engagement.
“Historically, attempts to explore ‘organizational identification’—or the extent to which your organization is part of your identity—have focused on how employees perceive the organization’s reputation and how they view the way they’re treated at work,” the researchers continue. “We really wanted to explore possible social influences.”
They analyzed the social networks of a number of employees to understand the role of each employee, the interactions they had with others, and how they related to the company. For instance, did employees feel valued by the company, did they identify with it, and were colleagues helpful?
“One key finding was that a given employee’s organizational identification was similar to the organizational identification of the people who give that employee advice in the workplace,” the authors continue. “In other words, it appears that the people an employee turns to for help at work have a significant influence on how the employee feels about the company.”
Social networks
The study highlights the importance of companies paying attention to the various ways in which employees interact with each other, not least through the physical layout of workspaces, but also through things like onboarding and mentoring programs.
The results demonstrate that people in broadly similar places in the social network of the organization appear to exhibit similar levels of helpful behavior. This is important as it seemed to be true regardless of whether the employees identified with the organization or not.
“We think this demonstrates that workplace behavior can also be influenced by observing the behavior of peers, regardless of whether they interact directly with those peers,” the researchers explain. “This highlights the importance of establishing those positive social interactions we mentioned earlier—the effects can extend beyond the people directly involved in the interaction.”
The researchers believe that the fuzzier nature of many jobs today leads to a lack of organizational citizenship, which can contribute significantly to instances of quiet quitting. It seems that our connections at work can be a valuable aid against this trend.
“Employers can address this challenge by better understanding the informal social networks that influence the way people feel about their employers,” the researchers conclude. “Studies like this one will help managers do that.”
