Civility and Respect towards Employees

Civility and Respect towards Employees

Research on Civility by Christine Porath revealed that the 20,000 respondents (employees from all over the world) ranked "respect" as the most important leadership behavior.
However these same 20,000 respondents also report disrespectful and uncivil behavior is increasing each year!
Porath's quite current book in these times of President Trump shows what incivility is costing organizations in an entertaining mix of statistical data and anecdotal evidence about the cost and reward to incivil and civil behavior. While some of the civility strategies discussed in the book could be considered somewhat basic (Say please and thank you, Don't interrupt, Share credit, Ask questions rather than barking orders), a surprising amount of leaders, managers, and organizations don't always practice them 😉.

According to Kristy Rogers, the main reason for this remarkable disconnect” between the importance and current practice of respect is that some managers could be unaware of the difference between "owed respect" and "earned respect":

• OWED RESPECT is given equally to all members of an organization. It includes civility and a culture that each employee is considered inherently valuable.
  A lack of owed respect is typical for following situations/environments: Taylor-like, micromanagement, uncivil, abuse of power, sense that employees are interchangeable.
• EARNED RESPECT recognizes specific individuals who are showing valued qualities or behaviors, or are achieving good results. It distinguishes employees who have exceeded expectations and, particularly in knowledge work settings, affirms that each employee has unique strengths and talents.
  A lack of earned respect is signaled by phenomena like: stealing credit for other peoples’ success, failing to recognize (and reward) individual achievements by employees.

Sources:
Christine Porath, "Mastering Civility: A Manifesto for the Workplace", 2016, Grand Central Publishing
Kristie Rogers, “Do your Employees Feel Respected? Show Workers that they’re Valued, and your Business will Flourish”, HBR Jul-Aug 2018, pp. 62-71

		Comments Sort by date Sort by rating Rating
		2 KOEHL Maryse Professor, France
	Respect in Organizations Interesting this approach of owed respect and earn...

		1 Paramathmuni srinivas Kumar India
	Owed Respect in Recogntion of Potential If one recognizes the potential of each employee (...

		4 Ivan Kohlinsky Management Consultant, United Kingdom
	Don't we Expect This Universally? Isn't it that the respect that we should give and ...

		3 Steven Cooke, Philippines
	What Causes the Lack of Civility/Respect? As noted in the examples for each type, a general ...

		1 Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	Civility and Respect Towards Employees A bit of a chicken and egg problem; is civility an...

		2 Riphagen Financial Consultant, Netherlands
	Respect in Times of Radical Change What if one wants to increase the performance of a...

		1 Emmanuel Rasesia Teacher, Botswana
	Owed Respect versus Earned Respect Thanks for providing the distinction between the t...

		3 Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	Respect Towards Employees is not a Means to an End I believe that respect comes from the inside out -...

		3 Bernhard Keim Business Consultant, Germany
	The Importance of Respect in Organizations and Society If you want to be heard you must pay respect to ot...

		4 Steven Cooke, Philippines
	Sincerity / Respect is not a Method @Graham Williams: That's a VERY pertinent and impo...

		3 Jaap de Jonge Editor, Netherlands
	Is Respect Innate or Acquired? @Steven Cooke: Thanks for your contribution to thi...

		1 Steven Cooke, Philippines
	Acquiring Respectability @Jaap de Jonge: I agree that some people are unfo...

		2 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Recognition Shows Respect How do we show respect towards and employee? Thro...

		1 Bill Boynton Teacher, United States
	New Operating Norm I believe the value of respect is a critical compo...

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Respect is Earned not Owed Replace “respect” with “civility”; the messages ar...

		0 Steven Cooke, Philippines
	Civilization and Honor @Maurice Hogarth: I agree that there is a necessar...

		0 Graham Williams Management Consultant, South Africa
	Civility and Respect Towards Employees Here's an article I've written quite recently and ...

		1 Maurice Hogarth Consultant, United Kingdom
	Respect Dissed @Steven Cooke: Yes. It seems also to be demonstrat...