Thanks at work: does recognising a contribution change cooperation?
Thanking someone may seem a matter of courtesy rather than a managerial communication skill. Yet the useful question is precise: does explicitly recognising a contribution increase willingness to help again?
What the literature establishes
Adam M. Grant and Francesca Gino (2010, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology) show across several experiments that an expression of gratitude can increase subsequent helping behaviour. The mechanism they identify involves, in particular, feeling that one's contribution is valued by others, rather than simply feeling more competent. Their field study with university fundraisers extends this finding beyond a one-off experimental exchange.
From receiving a gesture to building a relationship
Sara B. Algoe, Jonathan Haidt and Shelly L. Gable (2008, Emotion) studied gratitude in gift exchanges within a university sorority. Their observations link gratitude to perceived qualities of the relationship and its subsequent development. They suggest that giving thanks is not simply about settling a debt: gratitude can also help build a relationship.
The premature conclusion
One might conclude that managers should thank people more often to obtain greater effort. These studies establish neither that a mechanically repeated phrase retains its effect nor that thanks compensate for excessive workloads or inadequate material recognition. Recognising a contribution and requesting additional effort remain two distinct acts. (our executive and employee training programmes)
What the evidence does not allow us to generalise
Experimental helping, fundraising and exchanges between students do not reproduce all the constraints of an ongoing hierarchical relationship. The study of everyday relationships cannot, on its own, establish that gratitude caused their development. Nor do these findings determine the best wording in a bilingual team, or whether public thanks are preferable to private thanks.
A practical check in Fribourg
Within SHR's “Communication” programme, an exercise could focus on non-critical requests for help in the agri-food sector, a bilingual industrial company or a university service in Fribourg. Over a period defined in advance, compare usual practice with an individual expression of thanks that identifies the contribution and its usefulness, in the recipient's working language. Then measure the proportion of comparable subsequent requests accepted out of those actually made, distinguishing between teams and languages used. This comparison would provide a local indicator for discussion, not causal proof without random assignment and control for workload. To go further: explore the Communication training in Fribourg in the canton of Fribourg, or browse our executive and employee training programmes in Switzerland.
In pictures: Communication in Fribourg
- communication
- Fribourg
- research
- training fribourg