Is supervision helping or harming your company ?

I finally got around to a research article in my reading pile on the connection between supervisory behaviour and employee gratitude. It is fascinating. Behaviours of work colleagues and that of supervisors in particular, get inferred (by the rest of the employees) upon the company, just as if the company were an individual. More specifically related to gratitude and anger—when supervisors are unsupportive, employees generate anger and hostility toward the company and when supervisors are supportive, employees generate gratitude toward the company. Yes, the company is the ultimate recipient of employee sentiment based on how supervisors act.

So if you want to prevent your employees feeling anger towards your company and instead feeling gratitude toward your company, you must ensure your supervisors are demonstrating supportive behaviours, such as:

• Providing resources to enable people to do their jobs

• Removing barriers that get in the way of work

• Providing their time and expertise to their people

• Lending their social capital and reputation to their people

• Being an effective listener

• Caring genuinely about the people they work with regardless of how anyhow behaves

• Not making excuses—while this is the opposite of how to act, making excuses is one of the most insidious forms of unsupportive behaviour

And if I missed something, please add it in the comments.

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