Foster Better Creative Thinking at Work by Supporting Friendships

Creative thinking in the workforce can be obtained by valuing supportive friendships between colleagues which is the key to unlocking more resourcefulness and innovation.

Nurturing friendship and support by employers amongst co-workers may help unlock creativity as per a study from the University of Bath’s School of Management.

The study reveals care from a co-worker inspires people to be supportive to their partner at home, showing that co-workers have a significant role to play in enabling couples to cope with balancing the demands of work and family life. This spiral of support has to knock on benefits for creative thinking at work.

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‘Creative thinking in the workforce can be obtained by valuing supportive friendships between colleagues which is the key to unlocking more resourcefulness and innovation. ’

“Employees take the support they receive from co-workers home with them, and in a loving relationship they transfer this support to their partner. This might mean they encourage them to open up about stresses, seek to resolve issues, or make improvements to the juggle of work-life arrangements that benefits the family,” said Professor Yasin Rofcanin from the University of Bath’s Future of Work research center.

“The result is that both members of a couple benefit. Spouses pass on support received from co-workers and partners will be more creative at work, in what is termed a ‘gain spiral. So it pays for employers to recognise the value of caring co-workers.”

Over and above work policies, or interventions by supervisors, it is informal support from co-workers that stands out as having the biggest impact on an individual’s ability to manage the work-life balance, spilling over to benefit the partner at home and in turn their creative thinking at work.

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Co-worker support can mean being on hand to listen and talk through life’s issues and challenges as they arise, offering suggestions for problems at home, as well as providing cover for absence if a child is sick, or other caring responsibilities crop up.

The research suggests organizations should give employees more flexibility to manage caring cover with a colleague without intervention from managers.

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The research also alerts employers to the pitfalls of working practice and expectations taking a toll on home life, encouraging employers to be mindful of the detrimental impact on relationships.

“So much research points to the stresses of being in a dual income couple, it’s refreshing to see a win for loving relationships alongside work,” said Rofcanin. “While we’re not suggesting employers should meddle in relationships, they may be able to positively contribute to the quality of relationships at home by putting policies and procedures in place to minimise work-family conflict, such as limiting over time and expectations to respond to emails outside of hours.”

The study, by the Universities of Bath, VU Amsterdam, and IESE Business School, focused on diary entries over five weeks by over 200 full-time, dual-income heterosexual couples in the United States, eighty percent of which had children.

The researchers acknowledge that there could be drawbacks in relying on co-workers for support with work and family matters, with partners at home feeling jealous and upset about the closeness of ‘work spouse’ relationships.

They suggest future research could examine the potential of this relationship dynamic to promote conflict at home.

Source-Newswise