When was your last work acknowledgement? When this occurred, what instant emotions did you have? Everybody likes to be appreciated, whether it’s a simple “thank you” or an office party thrown in your favor.
How does appreciation and gratitude in the workplace contribute to beneficial impacts? Deeper digging, what are the appreciation psychological impacts?
Numerous studies have been carried out on the connection between gratitude and commitment to job. Consider this research reported by Harvard Medical School at the University of Pennsylvania by researchers at Wharton School:
Researchers randomly divided university fund-raisers into two groups. One group made phone calls to solicit alumni donations in the same way they always had. The second group assigned to work on a different day received a pep talk from the director of annual giving, who told the fund-raisers she was grateful for their efforts. During the following week, the university employees who heard her message of gratitude made 50% more fund-raising calls than those who did not.
What forces staff to do this? The response may be within the functions of our brain.
An article on Psychology Today discusses which brain regions are influenced by appreciation and gratitude. The hypothalamus, which regulates fundamental body functions such as eating and sleeping, and dopamine, the “neurotransmitter of reward,” are strongly influenced by gratitude emotions.
Alex Korb Ph. D writes, “Gratitude can have such a strong effect on your life as it involves your brain in a virtuous cycle.” In addition, these brain boosts can have important beneficial impacts on the workplace and the work / life balance of the employee. Showing gratitude can enhance the well-being of a person, boost better sleeping practices, boost metabolism and reduce stress. This directly affects the outcomes of the job and the interaction of the employees. You are not only boosting efficiency and commitment with staff recognition, but also the well-being and health of the worker.
It also generates more social and prosocial interaction by demonstrating appreciation or gratitude to co-workers. According to the article on Positive Psychology Program, “Gratitude is one of the hottest subjects in positive emotion studies at present. People who took part in exercises of gratitude discovered themselves more prosocial than others. The Positive Psychology Program describes prosocial as “generally encouraging the well-being of others through altruistic acts.” By putting gratitude into the culture of the business, staff are more prepared to distribute their positive emotions with others, whether it helps with a project or takes time to notice and recognize those who have gone the extra mile.
Finally, as stated earlier, the biggest psychological impact of appreciation and gratitude is happiness and other feelings felt instantly whether we are giving or benefiting from it. Thankfulness produces excellent emotions, happy memories, a stronger self-esteem, a more relaxed and optimistic feeling.
All these feelings create a pay for it and the workplace mentality of “we’re in this together,” which in turn makes your organisation more successful. Moreover, if everyone is involved, the dopamine impact will promote a constant cycle of acceptance. All these feelings, plus many more, are what most employers want to build unity from their employees again.
Now that you have a clearer knowledge of how significant value and gratitude are on a private level and how it affects the workplace directly, develop an appreciation plan that suits the values, mission, culture of your business and, most importantly, something that all staff can engage in and benefit from.
