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Volume 16, Number 11
November 2010

Sharing good news

Charlice Hurst shows that positive interactions between co-workers can lead to unexpected benefits for the company

It may seem like a small thing, but to you it’s important. Your 10 year old daughter, who you thought painfully shy, steals the show in her school play. The next day you tell a co-worker, who shares your excitement and tells you about a local acting program.

This encounter between you and your co-worker may not seem job related, but Ivey Professor Charlice Hurst says it will result in actions that benefit the company. For example, you might go to some trouble to help out another co-worker, defend the company against criticism, or even volunteer for an event to build employee morale.

In her research Hurst studies the career effects of “core self-evaluations,” a measure of how people see their fundamental worth and competence. Core self-evaluations are used by organizations to assess personality traits such as self-confidence, emotional stability, and the belief that an individual is responsible for his or her own outcomes. Research has shown that employees with high core self-evaluations are more motivated and perform better.

Recently Hurst looked at core self-evaluations in the context of social interactions in the workplace. She wanted to know how sharing good news with co-workers affected “organizational citizenship behaviours.” “Researchers often look at people’s overall job satisfaction and the general quality of their relationships with employees and managers, but few have studied how specific interactions on a day to day basis affect people’s work behaviours and attitudes toward their job,” she says. “Employees’ attitudes and behaviours fluctuate over the course of the work week, and the quality of their interactions with coworkers may be one reason why.”

In her study, which involved 130 people in a wide range of careers across the United States, she initially measured participants’ levels of core self-evaluations. She then surveyed them each day to see whether they had shared a good news story with their co-workers. A good news story could be anything from getting a compliment from the boss to going on a great date. She also asked them about the responses of their coworkers and ultimate work outcomes.

Hurst found that good news in itself did not lead to improved job performance, but a positive response from co-workers did. “When you receive an enthusiastic or encouraging response from your co-workers, you will be happier with your job, and this will lead you to act in a way that is beneficial to the organization,” she says.

She also found that this relationship is strongest in those who have low core self-evaluations. “People with high self-confidence are more likely to share a good news story with a co-worker, but when people with low self-confidence share good news and receive a positive response, it boosts their performance more,” she says.

Managers often worry that socializing in the office might lead to lower productivity. But Hurst says it’s important to cultivate a work environment where people have the opportunity to show their personal sides. “We tend to look at conversations among co-workers as wasted time if they’re not task-oriented,” she says, “but time spent in this way can boost people’s happiness with their job, and benefit the organization.”

Another study co-authored by Hurst showed a clear link between core self-evaluations and income levels. People with high core self-evaluations tend to make significantly more money later in their careers than those with low. This applies, though, only to people with socioeconomic advantages early in life. High core self-evaluations make no difference in those from less privileged homes. “You often hear that poor kids need programs to build their self-esteem, but our findings show that’s not really going to help them,” says Hurst. “People who already have advantages use their self-confidence to build on those advantages, but those from underprivileged backgrounds don’t have the resources to leverage.”

Hurst is now working on a study that compares the relationship between core self-evaluations and income in men and women. Men with high core self-evaluations tend to make a lot more money in later life, but women only a small amount more. One of the factors that might explain this outcome is the perception of sexual discrimination. Surprisingly, Hurst found that women with high self-confidence are more likely to have felt discriminated against than women with low self-confidence. Existing research shows that perceptions of sex discrimination tend to reduce motivation, which may affect career choices and have a dampening effect on future income.

Core self-evaluations is a valuable tool for predicting an employee’s future job performance. But for managers, the implications of Hurst’s research go well beyond the employee selection process. “Managers can use this knowledge to help develop the people who work for them, as well as advance their own careers,” says Hurst. “If people are aware that the way they feel about themselves affects important outcomes in their lives, it gives them a greater incentive toward personal development. And knowing the advantages of capitalizing on their advantages and the positive events in their lives may mean they’re less likely to let those opportunities slip by.”

Professor Hurst's Homepage