Gratitude and its relevance in Organizations

In the recent times, psychological researches have shown that individuals who emphasis on the things in their lives for which they are thankful most certainly experience positivity and enjoy a better well-being. Individuals who experience gratitude are likely to feel more empathetic and prosocial. Moreover, thanking our backers, or benefactors could positively reinforce their behavior, thereby creating a positive loop that elicit a positive behavior from them too.

Applying this to an organizational setup could play out in a similar way. Display of gratitude and the sense of feeling grateful are found to have significant benefits for employees and organizations. Expressing gratitude could make employees feel more valued and reassures them that their work and effort are critical to the larger organizational goals. This could motivate employees to contribute and go the extra mile for the organization and for the people they like.

The organizations and its leaders play an important role in promoting an environment that elicit feelings of gratitude among their employees. Leaders and organizations will need to build a culture of reiterating and reassuring employees of why working with the organization is attractive and special, which in turn could help employees appreciate and be grateful of their current job and is expected to improve employee feeling of embeddedness to the organization.

Researches have also found that employees feel grateful when they believe organization they work for value their well-being and contributions. Similarly, employees prefer working for leaders who support their holistic well-being, contribute to their development and treat them with dignity and respect. ?

For organizations and leaders, creating an environment that nurture genuine expression of gratitude and celebrate outstanding contributions, and milestones is pivotal for a highly motivated, and engaged workforce. Leadership authenticity, sincerity and consistency in thanking employees is an important management practice and a great tool to promote organizational effectiveness.

Happy Thanksgiving! ??????