HR should not manage what employees do but who they are
According to recent research from London Business School managers can impact the behaviour of their employees simply through subtle changes in wording. The study concluded that to manage with most impact, managers should invite employees to be a certain kind of person rather than encourage them to perform a certain kind of behaviour.
Gabrielle Adams, Assistant Professor of Organisational Behaviour at London Business School, working in conjunction with Stanford University and University of California, carried out a series of experiments focusing on the power of linguistic variation. In these, each participant was given the chance to claim money they were not entitled to at the researchers’ expense. Some were given instructions not to cheat with implications for the actor's identity if they were to do so – ‘Please don't be a cheater’, whilst others were simply instructed not to perform the action – ‘Please don't cheat’.
The findings revealed that those in the ‘cheating’ condition claimed a significantly greater amount of money than their counterparts in the ‘cheater’ condition, who showed no evidence of having cheated at all. Dr Adams explained that the likelihood of people cheating is less when such a subtle change in phrasing labels the behaviour as inconsistent with people’s basic desire to see themselves as good and honest.
Paul Arkwright
Publisher
