Employees Engagement During Organisational Change

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

This dissertation is a response to the recent call by the scholars (Lewis et al, 2012) for a more sustainable engagement by building strategies that consider the well-being of employees. This dissertation focuses on the empathetic quality of a manager and its implications on the employees. In order to obtain primary data on how empathy influences employees in real life, a case study is carried. The research explores a small brand agency in Bath, THEHOUSE, which recently completed a major organisational transformation, and interviews one manager, six current employees and one employee who left organisation due to the change. The case study finds that empathic managerial approach in THEHOUSE has a reciprocal effect on the employees and leads to the empathy being returned in the negative times. Reflecting on the responses of the interviewees, this reciprocal effect seems to relate to more positive attitudes, high trust culture and engagement based on affection. The findings of the case study are not representative, but they relate to a few key issues of larger structures: the gap between rhetoric and reality of organisations, sustainable engagement and the role of front line manager in these concerns. This study is an exploration of how empathic quality of a manager reduces several barriers to achieving sustainable engagement.

CONTENTS

No one cares how much you know, until they know how much you care

Theodore Roosevelt

INTRODUCTION

Change has become the only constant in organisational life and the success of it is increasingly assigned to people who drive it. ‘Engagement’ has become a target of scholars and HRM professionals, and it reflects in the façade of many organisations. Despite the increasing interest in this emotional state of employees, research finds that organizations still find it hard to consider employees’ emotions due to the prioritization of other factors during change (Whittington, Mayer and Smith, 2002). Therefore, responding to the recent call by scholars for a more considerate approach towards employees (Lewis et al, 2012), this dissertation aims to explore how empathetic quality of manager relates to the issues of engagement raised in the literature. In order to achieve this, the academic debates will be linked with the findings of the case study. This section will outline the structure of the project.

Firstly, the literature review will present the importance of engaged workforce for successful change that have now become so regular, and, paradoxically, the fragility of employees’ engagement during change. Further to this, it will be explored how scholars question the definition and the models of ‘engagement’ which aim to intensify the emotional state of employees without considering the emotional well-being. The debate on the sustainability of engagement will be presented in the light of the clash between organisations’ rhetoric and reality, sometimes called policy-practice gap. The literature review will link policy practice gap to the importance of front line managers in shaping employees attitudes and reducing this gap. In addition, the literature on member-leader exchange and its impact on employees’ engagement will be presented, bringing into light the research on emotional intelligence and empathy as managers’ quality in influencing the member-leader relationship and engagement. The final part of the literature review will draw on the previous claims of the academics linking empathy as managers’ quality and its possible impact on the engagement to organisational change.

In order to see how all the previously mentioned themes link to the notion of empathy, the research will study a case – a ten-members-organisation which went through the change recently. The method will be justified and limitations will be presented.

Finally, it will be reflected on the findings of a case to develop a discussion. The findings and discussion chapter will firstly outline the observations of the interviews and claim high levels of managerial empathy in the case organisation. It will further reflect on the responses to present that empathetic approach in THEHOUSE has a reciprocal effect on the employees and was returned by them in the negative times. On the contrary, the causality of mutual empathy will be critically assessed. Further to this, it will be presented how the responses of the interviewees allowed to link the empathetic managerial approach in THEHOUSE with more positive attitudes at work, high levels of trust and engagement based on affection.

The observations of THEHOUSE will be discussed in the light of the debates outlined in the literature review. It will be explored how affectionate rather transactional behaviour, urged by Lewis et al (2012) is more sustainable and how the gap between organisation rhetoric and reality prevents the sustainability of engagement.

In addition, the findings will be critically weighed by presenting other factors that influenced employees’ engagement with the organisational transformation. Such observation will be linked with the difference between empathy and expressed empathy, which academics relate to the external pressures that influence managers. The differentiation between empathy and expressed empathy will be presented as an emphasis on the importance of supporting and encouraging front line managers’ ability and opportunity to express empathy.

Reflecting on the findings and the literature, it will be discussed how empathic quality of manager links with sustainable engagement based on affection which could potentially relate to the success of organisational change, since ‘a force induced by a friend may be accepted in such a way that acts more like an own force’ (Coch and French, 1948:529).

LITERATURE REVIEW

This chapter will overview several interlinking issues in Human Resource Management relating to organisational change, sustainable employees’ engagement, policy-practice gap, the importance of leader-member relationship, and the role of leader in shaping employees attitudes. By exploring these themes, it will be proposed that a study of leader’s empathy in more depth could contribute to understanding the connection between the mentioned issues. Firstly, it will be outlined the emerging focus by academics and professionals on engagement at work with a particular emphasis on its importance for a successful organisational change implementation. It will be discovered how through the notion of ‘engagement’, professionals moved from considering employees as resistors to potential supporters. The chapter will further question why despite the apparent benefits of engaged workforce, the engagement strategies still provide limited benefits. The debate around the lack of engagement will be presented by building on a fundamental critique of the definition and measurement of ‘engagement’. This debate reflects the clash between employee- and management-centred approaches, and the urge for more considerate approach towards employees. This urge will be explored through the issue of policy-practice gap, which is claimed to be the result of the previously mentioned clash and affected by front line manager and the attitudes of employees. Therefore, by linking some of the current Human Resource Management issues, this chapter will suggest the importance of studying the qualities of the front line manager in more depth. In particular, the literature review will shape the understanding of how a particular leader’s quality – empathy, influences employees’ attitudes, their engagement and impacts organisational change.

Engagement during organisational change

In the last two decades, employees’ engagement has been given a great attention by academics and HRM professionals in the search for a more satisfying and productive work (Bakker et al, 2011; Bledow et al, 2011; Fisher et al, 2010; Kahn, 1990; Little and Little, 2006; Saks, 2006; Schaufeli and Salanova, 2011). Defined by Bakker et al (2008) engagement reflects high levels of energy and involvement in work process and is measured by extra-role behaviours and commitment (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004). There is a vast list of outcomes of engaged workforce proposed in the literature such as increased advocacy of organisation and organisational performance, greater innovation and better understanding of customers’ needs (MacLeod and Clarke, 2009).

However, during the times of constantly changing work environment, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (Lewis et al, 2012) warns that increasing levels and pace of change make employees’ engagement very fragile. Paradoxically, people engagement is also claimed to be a driver for successful change implementation (Atkinson, 2005; Dvir et al, 2004; Herscovitch and Meyer, 2002). As Atkinson (2005) puts it, change can be successful only if those who take part in it want to drive it. Author proposes that even without a negative intent people are resisting changes due to the internal forces, motivations, doubts and anxieties. There is a vast literature exploring the possible causes of resistance to change, such as fear for uncertainty, parochial self-interest or low trust in the success (Bedeian, 1980). Research by Dahl (2011) provides evidence that organizational change correlates to negative stress of the employees. He claims that despite an excessive focus by academics, consultants and managers on the management of change, organisations still are not able to regulate the change course completely. Employees are unlikely to explicitly discuss their motivations for resistance but will appear to be approving, making it extremely difficult to successfully create new culture from the existing organisation (Atkinson, 2005). On the other hand, it seems that given the right environment employees are willing to support organisational change (Wanberg and Banas, 2000; Herold et al, 2007). Sonenshein and Dholakia (2012) explore why some individuals are engaged with and contribute to the change, while others - resist. The authors propose that meaning making process plays a crucial role in making employees understand the change and find benefits in it, therefore allowing organisation to overcome resistance. Following the work of Bartunek et al (2006), Sonenshein and Dholakia (2012) argue that the potential contribution of employees to strategic change is overlooked and with the presence of open communications flow, employees are likely to become supporters who are emotionally engaged with rather than resisting a change. Committed to the organisational change workforce will share the vision (Dvir et al, 2004) which relates to a unitary force of supportive behaviours (Herscovitch and Meyer, 2002). Without the support of the employees, a successful change is hardly possible (Saldana, 2008; Atkinson, 2005).

Unsustainable engagement

Thus, if the benefits of engaged workforce are so apparent, especially in the times when the change is ever more prevalent, why organisations still fail to successfully implement engagement strategies? MacLeod and Clarke, the authors of CIPD’s research on Engagament (2012), claim that only 25 % of organisations that implement engagement strategies see employees as the key drivers for organisational development and this is where the failure of the other 75 % lies. The majority of the organisations do not fully acknowledge its workforce as a key resource for the successful development; therefore the engagement strategies in such organisations have limited benefits (Clements, 2010). Robertson and Cooper (2010) propose that the possible explanation for the failure of engagement models is the poor design of engagement characterisation which does not consider the emotions of the employees in the first place. They argue that measuring engagement by commitment and extra-role behaviours (Schaufeli and Bakker, 2004) is not sustainable, as commitment and extra effort can also derive from obligation rather than internal desire. Perceived engagement is not necessarily a reflection of how employees feel (Lewis et al, 2012) and it seems that emotions and the well-being of employees are barely included in the agenda of the top management and such approach spreads down and reflects on the middle management (Purcell et al, 2009). Even though emotions have become a common topic in management studies, ironically, the emotions of ‘everyday’ are understood least well (Fineman, 2005). Gourlay et al (2012) urges to differentiate emotional and transactional engagement – the first is based on intrinsic desire, and the latter – on necessity. Similarly, Herscovitch and Meyer (2002) make distinction between affective and normative commitment and also argue that transactional sense of obligation cannot deliver long term benefit for organisations. It gives a valid reason for the CIPD (Lewis et al, 2012) to urge business and HRM professionals to combine engagement models with the consideration of the psychological well-being of employees in order to achieve the sustainable engagement of the workforce. As Robertson and Birch (2010) suggest, merely targeting commitment and discretionary effort without including the well-being of the employees in the agenda will not be efficient in delivering better performance in the long term. In contrast, employees’ engagement is strongly interlinked with supportive leadership (Xu and Thomas, 2010) and the psychological comfort (Fairhurst and O’Connor, 2010). Fairhurst and O’Connor find that overusing employees’ engagement is likely to negatively impact employees in the long run. Following their study, CIPD researchers (Lewis et al, 2012) called professionals to develop a more sympathetic approach towards the engagement of employees. However, CIPD is not the first to raise the issue of the inappropriate focus of engagement models caused by the clash between management-centred and employee-centred approaches. Conway and Monks (2008) argue that fundamental elements of employment relationships are often overlooked when more sophisticated approaches are empowered to increase performance. Therefore, in order to truly affect employees, the practices have to be focused towards the workforce rather than the management (Conway and Monks, 2008).

Rhetoric VS Reality

The emerging need for a more employee-centred approach strongly links with the urge by scholars to explore the issue of Policy-Practice gap – the failure of sophisticated HRM practices to deliver better performance (Purcell et al, 2009). Truss et al (1997) proposed that organisations using both tight control to manage the workforce and soft HRM rhetoric are facing tensions between the HRM façade and the reality of workforce experience. The authors claim that some organisations empower soft rhetoric to hide the opposite interests of employer and employees and turn them into ‘willing slaves’. However, as Gill and Meyer (2011) argues, employees easily notice this policy-practice gap and therefore HRM is not able to hide employee reality to produce better performance. Indeed, Hope-Hailey et al (2005) explore the implications of a mismatch between rhetoric HRM policies and employee experience and finds that the policy-practice gap impacts unsustainable organisations’ performance. However, even if the policies are genuine and organisation believes in the value of engagement, there are a number of unclear factors in the ‘black box’ [1] that might influence policies delivering unintended results. As Purcell and Hutchinson (2007) claim, the performance of the employees is strongly influenced by their attitudes towards organisation and its HRM policies. The authors emphasise the importance of front-line manager in delivering these policies and shaping the attitudes of the employees.

Leader-Member Exchange

The importance of the employee relationship with the leader is not a new subject as it was introduced in the early developments of HRM. A social relationship in which individuals give favour with expectation to receive favour in return - social exchange (Blau, 1964; Drukman, 1998) gave a start for the leader-member exchange theory (LMX). LMX theory proposes that the relationship between member and leader will depend on their offerings and responses (Graen and Scandura, 1987) and a high quality LMX will be likely to positively impact further interaction (Erdogan and Liden, 2002). High quality LMX is claimed to reduce the levels of stress at work (Erdogan and Liden, 2002), positively influence employees’ satisfaction, commitment, ‘extra’ behaviours and perceptions of leader effectiveness (Lowe et al, 1996; Gerstner and Day, 1997; Settoon et al, 1996).

Empathy

In order to create a high quality exchange, it is argued that the relationship must be based on trust, interpersonal affect and respect (Settoon et al, 1996). Trust is a key element of supervisor-employee relationship and it consists of three components, one of which is benevolence – ‘the extent to which a party is believed to want to do good for the trusting

party, aside from an egocentric profit motive’ (Schoorman et al, 2007: 345). The first comprehensive study identifying specific leader behaviours that have direct impact on high quality LMX was carrier by O’Donnel and Taber (2012). The authors reviewed the previous research on LMX, surveyed 239 employees and found that the key predictors of high quality relationship were supporting, delegating and leading by example, ‘supporting’ having the most significance. They define this leader behaviour as ‘acting considerate, showing sympathy and support when someone is upset or anxious, and providing encouragement and support when there is a difficult, stressful task’ (O’Donnel and Taber, 2012: 147). Indeed, even four decades ago supportive behaviour was recognized as a key factor for high quality LMX (Graen and Cashman, 1975). Some scholars emphasise the importance of empathy, a key quality of emotional intelligence (Law et al, 2004), as a vital force of supportive behaviours and positive inter-personal relationships (George, 2000). Mahsud et al (2009: 563) define leader’s empathy as ‘the ability to recognize and understand the emotions and feelings of others <…> concern for the welfare of subordinates and willingness to protect, help, develop and empower them’. The authors argue that empathy directly impacts the quality of LMX. Even more, some suggest that empathetic ability is crucial to leading self-managed teams (Wolff, Pescosolido and Druskat, 2002) and has a high linkage with effective leadership (Kellet, Humprhey and Sleeth (2002). Gardner and Stough (2002) carried research with 110 senior level managers and found a strong correlation between emotional intelligence, such as understanding other’s emotions, and transformational leadership. Another research by Barbuto and Bugenhagen (2009) explored the relationships between 80 leaders and 388 directly supervised employees and found that emotional intelligence has a strong link to the quality of LMX. The vast research provides enough evidence of the importance of empathy as leaders quality, which creates positive moods of employee and therefore influence the positive perceptions and attitudes at work (George, 2000).

The impact of managerial empathy on organisational change

The importance of leader’s empathy is particularly relevant to the previously outlined debate on HRM policy-practice gap which is claimed to be influenced by two key factors – front line management and employees’ attitudes (Purcell et al, 2009). Significantly correlating with high quality LMX (Mahsud et al, 2009) and positive employees’ attitudes (George, 2000) front line manager’s empathy might be a key quality of a leader in reducing the policy-practice gap, building sustainable engagement and therefore overcoming deconstructive behaviours towards organisational change. HRM policies targeting engagement could be failing due to the lack of the emotional intelligence of the line managers which impacts the attitudes of employees towards these policies. As CIPD research funded by UK government claims that the barrier to engagement is ‘top team not wanting to hear how people really feel or make changes in the way they work’ (Mackleod and Clarke, 2009: 136). Even more, empathetic interactions at work build continuing reciprocal interdependence which Saks (2006) claims to be the key antecedent for a long term engagement. This sustainability of people’s interest is particularly crucial in order to keep engagement levels steady during the constantly changing work environment. For example, McKinsey report on change management (Keller and Aiken, 2000) proposes social exchange can be more valuable to employees than market exchange during the organisational change – employees might be more willing to return extra effort based on social reciprocity rather than material value offered. Other change management consultants (for example Saldana, 2008) also suggest that during organisational change, people mostly want empathic approach towards them and being kept informed, and because a successful change requires employees’ support, organisations must respond to these wants of the workforce. Indeed, Mayer et al (2002) emphasise that emotional intelligence skills are particularly important for managing negative events and rebuilding positive atmosphere. One of such negative events is organisational change which increases the levels of stress among employees (Dahl, 2011). As George (2002) argues – positive moods influence positive perceptions and attitudes; therefore, the ability to assess how others feel, respond and alter these negative feelings, is likely to assist in overcoming resistance to change. To overcome deconstructive behaviours towards organisational change, positive emotions at work serve in shifting cynicism to engagement with organisational change (Avey et al, 2008). As Coch and French described back in the 1948 (p.529): ‘A force induced by a friend may be accepted in such a way that I acts more like an own force. An effective force induced by an enemy may be resisted and rejected so that the person complies unwillingly and shows signs of conflict and tension’.

Therefore, the previously outlined debates and research on the impact of engagement to organisational change, the importance of LMX to employees’ engagement and the role of empathy as a leader’s quality in shaping employees attitudes provide enough evidence to believe that empathy increases employees’ engagement and therefore positively affects organisational change.

METHODOLOGY

The key aim of the research was to explore the impact of managerial empathy on employees’ engagement during organizational change. In particular, the research focused on how expressed empathy influences sustainable commitment based on affect rather than transaction. Due to the lack of coherent agreement on the issue in the literature, the research aimed to get primary data and explore a case in a real life scenario. This chapter will outline the qualitative method used to obtain data, the limitations of it, ethical concerns, as well as the philosophical stand of the researcher. It will also briefly outline the factual information about the case study and present how the data was analysed.

Research method

To achieve the goals, the research adopted case study approach which is used to illuminate the gaps of general by looking at the particular (Denscombe, 2010). Importantly, as the research topic concerned relationships within social setting as well as the emotions of individuals, it was important to explore such environment in depth in order to understand its complexities. Thus, ‘holistic’ approach of case studies is more appropriate than dealing with ‘isolated facts’ (Denscombe, 2010). In order to explore the importance of empathy to organizational change in the reality, it was crucial to look at the case which had already happened. As Yin (2009) emphasises, the case is a ‘natural occurrence’, which exists prior to the research, and continues to exist after. Indeed, for the research purpose, it was vital to explore a case which was not staged and work relationships have developed naturally.

Selection of the case

The key criteria for selecting an organisation were:

A recent organizational change which now has been completed

Small organization – up to 15 employees

Based in Bath

The research aim was to look at the implications of managerial empathy to employees’ engagement with organizational change. Therefore, the key criterion for selecting the organization was a business transformation which by the time of the research had been completed. Moreover, as argued previously, a research on the importance of empathy requires a very holistic approach in order to understand the complexity of the social interactions. An in-depth research was preferred to the higher number of the participants. Thus, due to the undergraduate research constraints on time and limited resources, it was decided that the participating organization should be based in Bath and consist of up to 15 employees. This allowed the researcher to focus on the circumstances and perceptions of each participant, rather than explore the facts briefly.

Several companies in Bath were considered and THEHOUSE, a brand agency, was the first to respond to the invitation to the email. In this case, the provider of the data (the owner and manager of THEHOUSE) held an interest in learning from the findings. During the first meeting with the director of the company, he claimed that his main curiosity is a potential improvement of the leadership style. Thus, the research explored the issues academically, and provided the findings which allowed the participating organization to learn. Therefore, in this sense, the research adopted an aspect from the Action Research approach, the findings of which are directly fed back into practice. Combining two different approaches to the research provided a practical, problem driven perspective on the research (Denscombe, 2010).

Research method: interviews

Due to the nature of the research, which explores the opinions and experiences of the employees, it was crucial to gain in-depth responses, rather than facts reported briefly (Denscombe, 2010). Thus, one to one interviewing was adopted as the most appropriate method, which therefore urged for a thorough preparation in order to collect tangible data.

As Denscombe (2010) warns, easy at the first sight, the interviewing method is difficult to carry and can fail the research in case it is not planned well and the interviewer lacks sensitivity during the interview.

Interviews differ from ordinary conversations as they involve the balance of both prior understanding and the openness to the new information (Silverman, 1985). Indeed, in order not to waste time during the interviews, the researcher carried a research on the factual information available online or during the first meeting with a manager. Even more, reading the blogs online (short professional entries) of the interviewees in some cases allowed the researcher to ask more personalized questions, therefore creating a more relaxed atmosphere.

In addition to preparation and systematic planning, interviewer’s sensitivity is a crucial factor for the quality of the interview. Research showed that the perception of the person interviewing will affect respondents’ willingness to enclose information (Denscombe, 2010: 178). Although academic literature on interviews emphasise age, gender, ethnic origin as factors influencing responses, in this particular research the key concern was the ability of the researcher to create a comfortable atmosphere where relationships and emotions could be discussed. This was achieved by the researcher getting involved in a true dialog and responding with emotion, rather than just firing questions at the interviewees. It is worth mentioning, that the interviewees seemed to be tense and official prior to the interviews, but setting an informal tone and framing the interview as a discussion relaxed the atmosphere. See table 1 for other techniques adopted to soothe the atmosphere. It seemed that the interviewees felt relaxed during the interviews despite their time pressures. During the post interviews de-brief with the manager, he claimed that the employees were positive about the interviews and one employee compared it with a counselling session. As Denscombe (2010: 193) concludes, the interviews can be very therapeutical if carried appropriately, as the interviewee is there to listen without being critical and judgemental.

In addition to the importance of relaxed the atmosphere, it was crucial to balance it with the goals of the research and obtain tangible data from the interviews as a whole rather than separate responses. In order to keep the track during the sessions, the interviews were semi structured by differentiating three themes: empathy, engagement and organizational change (for example, see Error: Reference source not found). The interviews would usually take 1 – 1.5 hours. At the beginning of the interviews, the respondents were introduced to the structure, thus both informing them about the course of the interview, as well as allowing them to link their experiences to these topics from the very start. The semi structured interviews’ framework allowed the respondents to focus on the issues that they felt most emotional about. Further to this, the flexible structure of the interviews allowed the researcher to discuss issues mentioned by one employee with following interviewee, therefore obtaining knowledge about the shared problems.

Even more, the researcher’s presence when the questions are answered allows increase validity: the interviewer acquired the skill of briefing the points of interviewees in order to prevent misinterpretations. However, it is claimed that interviews can disadvantage the research in terms of reliability: data is unique, therefore consistency and objectivity is hard to achieve (Denscombe, 2010). On the other hand, the emotions of individuals is a subjective matter (REFERENCE), therefore the researcher was interested in individual perceptions, rather than objective statements. Moreover, the researcher acknowledges how location could have altered the validity of the research. For example, the circumstances lead to one employee being interviewed at home of the participant. The environment created much more relaxed atmosphere where the research was seen less an intervention, therefore the interviewee could have been much more open about the feelings, rather the ones who were interviewed in the office. Similarly, ‘the interviewer’s effect’ (Bryman, 2008) can alter the responses. The researcher acknowledges the minor factors such as personality or environment that shape the meanings of the interviewees at the moment of the research.

Despite the drawbacks of the method chosen, exploring the case by interviewing the sample allowed the researched to gather in-depth responses about a real life case, which could not be elaborated as much if other method was used.

Profile of THEHOUSE

THEHOUSE is a small brand management agency based in Bath. The organisation consists of 10 members, two of which are the co-founders and directors: Graham Massey and Steve Fuller. Graham takes role of managing the financial and people side of the business, while Steve is responsible for leading the creative aspects of the service. Due to the limited resources, the case study explored the empathetic ability of Graham and did not focus on the influence of the presence of Steve on the employees. It is one of the limitations which will be mentioned in the limitations section.

THEHOUSE went through a major business transformation which took two years to implement. Previously, THEHOUSE had been engaged with the advertising services. The change was implemented because of the emotional uneasiness by Graham and Steven about the ethics of the services they provide.

Slowly shifting the business towards the branding services, THEHOUSE also changed the culture and the values of the company. This strongly reflects in the fact that now the company does not pitch for the clients but firstly evaluate the ethics of the clients.

Two employees left the organisation due to the change. The researcher had an opportunity to interview only one of them, which produced another limitation of the method, as not the full image of the reasons to leave was captured.

There were 5 employees who joined either during the change or after. The researcher interviewed:

Graham Massey – Co-founder and Director

Jayne Mansfield - Brand Director

Sam Dyer - Senior Designer

Veronica Hannon – Public Relations Director

Sammy Burt - Account Manager

Lisa Carter - Account Manager

Sophie Mann – Intern

Charlotte Pratt – Ex-employee

Even though not everyone fully outlived the change, it was also important to interview the new members of the team to explore how managerial empathy influences the quality of relationships between Graham and the employees, their engagement and willingness to support the manager during negative times.

Ethical concerns

Sayer (2011) says that to treat someone in a dignified way is to treat them in a way which discreetly acknowledges their vulnerability without taking advantage of it. Despite the hierarchical inequality, all participants were treated with dignity and the researcher appreciated the impact the revelation of their responses could have on the relationships at work. However, the anonymity was not given, since in a small team associations can be easily made and respondents can be easily identified. Yet, the researcher made effort to ask questions which would explore the emotions of the interviewees rather than put them in a position of blamers. As Scheffler (2003:191) concludes: ‘equality is not a distributive ideal… It is, instead, a moral ideal governing the relations in which people stand to one another.’

Philosophical approach

The nature of the research aims to explore individual and subjective perceptions and this urges for a short discussion about the philosophical approach adopted. Since the research is exploring the perceived relationships, the interpretivist philosophical approach lies at the core of the research. Evolving from the ideas of Weber (1974:88), interpretivism focus on the understanding (‘verstehen’) of social action in order to reveal the causes. This approach requires the social scientist to respect the differences between people and grasp the subjective meaning of social action (Bryman, 2008: 30).

Limitations

There were several limitations of the method adopted. Firstly, as mentioned previously, the research did not focus on the second director of the company Steve and his influence on the relationships at work. Secondly, the presence of the researcher could have altered the responses of the participants and lead to the ‘observer effect’. Even though the researcher was sensitive with the interviewees’ responses, the fact that the respondents are ‘under the microscope’ can both lead to presenting one’s self better, or fearing of enclosing information that might influence others’ perception about them in future (Bryman, 2008). Furthermore, the researcher did not have an access to interviewing the second individual who left THEHOUSE due to the change. Therefore, the full picture about the reasons to leave was not obtained.

Analysis

Due to the exploration of a team and different perspectives on the same issues, the analysis of the data was an on-going process, rather than one-off procedure after the research. The researcher used note taking to capture the themes that interviewees were most concerned about and used them to build questions for the following interviewees. The coding was not used because of the present but not apparent logic of the employees’ perceptions (Ritsert, 1972). Instead, the findings were drawn in relation to the literature outlined, which either were coherent with or opposed the theories.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

This chapter presents the observations of the interviews with the members of THEHOUSE, critically assess them and link them with the debates raised in the literature review. Firstly, it is explained how the case study finds that managerial empathy in THEHOUSE strongly impacts the quality of relationship between the members and the leader and the employees return empathy by supporting the manager during the negative times. The reciprocal effect of received empathy is explained, as well as its contribution to high levels of employees’ engagement during organisational change despite uncertainty. The causality of shared empathy is critically assessed. The findings and discussion chapter also present the implications of managerial empathy observed during the interviews. This includes positive attitudes at work, high trust culture and sustainable engagement based on affect rather than transaction.

Further to this, it is moved on to linking the findings of the case study to the broader contexts and issues outlined in the literature review. It presents the issue of sustainability, together with the debates around the gap between rhetoric and reality of organisations. In addition, the importance of empathy is critically debated by introducing other factors that negatively impacted the engagement with organisational change in THEHOUSE. This is explained through differentiation between empathy and expressed empathy, which lead to discussing the importance of encouragement and support from the top to front line managers to express empathy. The limitations of the research are presented, which raises the questions for the future research in order to better understand the value of empathy in creating the sustainable engagement of the employees.

THEHOUSE – a case of genuine managerial empathy

The research showed the manager Graham Massey genuinely cares about the well-being of the employees. Through a variety of examples when Graham empathised with the employees, it came clear he understands the value of noticing employees’ moods and is aware of the impact his actions could make on their psychological happiness, for example: ‘As a manager, I feel for employees when they are not looked at by clients; therefore I try to praise them in front of the clients as much as I can in order for the team to gain confidence’ Graham.

Scholars who studied the link between empathy levels and leadership effectiveness find that managerial success lies in the ability to recognise when different behaviours are appropriate (Yukl, 2010). Indeed, the employees of THEHOUSE often reflected on their experiences to demonstrate how Graham voluntarily reacts to their anxieties by providing support. For example, during the first interview with Graham, he mentioned a situation when one of the employees seemed to be particularly sensitive about a rather regular project the company was completing at a time. Graham approached the employee trying to understand the worry and after the member expressed the causes of uneasiness, Graham respected the feelings and gave a choice to proceed with the task or to pass it to a colleague. Without being questioned, the same employee told the researcher about this situation but explained it in more depth – the project was related to the Paralympics and it reminded the employee of a loss of a very close family member. This example illustrated the manager’s care due to two reasons. First, the example in itself showed Graham’s ability to notice and feel for the sorrow of the employee. Second, the way Graham brought this example up in the interview was respecting the privacy and the feelings of the team member – he did not enclose the details even when knowing that the researcher would keep the information confidentially. The genuinity of Graham’s consideration of employees’ well-being was expressed by other members as well, for example:

‘If you are stressed, he firstly makes you comfortable and only then asks about the details.’ Sammy

‘Graham genuinely cares about your happiness.’ Veronica

‘Employees have conversations with Graham on a deep personal or even spiritual levels’ Veronica

‘Graham has an eye if you are tired – he genuinely cares about your well-being, not how much it will impact the productivity’ Sam.

Empathetic approach of the manager reflected in the interview with him as well:

‘My clients must make my team happy.’ Graham

Reciprocal effect of empathy

The study showed Graham’s empathy had a strong effect on the employees. The interviews revealed that employees held a strong interest in the manager’s success which linked with the reciprocal aspect of LMX outlined in the literature review. The leader-member exchange theory argues that subordinates return favours to the leader depending on their offerings (Graen and Scandura, 1987). Graham acknowledged the reciprocal effect of his relationship with employees: ‘If you want to see your employees working hard, leader must work hard as well’. Indeed, the interviews showed the members were taking effort to support the manager in return. In other words, Graham’s empathy was returned to him: ‘Sometimes deadlines are tight, payments overdue and you see Graham working late. I don’t want to leave at 6, because I see him working’ Lisa, or ‘They care about me, I care about them’ Sam.

Unclear causality

However, the causality of empathy in THEHOUSE could be debated. Mahsud et al (2009) propose that causality in both directions is possible, as Jayne said: ‘It is not all down to Graham - Sammy is incredibly warm hearted’. Indeed, Sammy brought an example which illustrated her empathy and putting effort to support Graham. An evening before the interview she saw Graham staying late to finish a presentation on Power Point. ‘I knew it would take him ages to do it, while if we do it together - he just tells me what to put on it– it takes 15 minutes’. Graen and Scandura (1987) question the ‘top to down’ approach to relationships at work and claim that leader reacts to employees’ attitudes and adjust his/her behaviour as much as employees react to their leader.

Implications of empathetic leadership

Positive attitudes

Despite the debatable causality, the culture of shared empathy delivered a variety of advantages to the team, such as positive attitudes to negative events, high levels of trust and engagement (see Figure - The positive implications of the managerial empathy). The mutual empathy’s implication on trust could be illustrated well by an example when Veronica found that Graham did not share the information about a client which directly affected her. However, despite the disappointment, Veronica appreciated the pressure Graham himself was under, when he faced the tension between sharing information with the employee and keeping the client’s confidentiality. As Dulac et al (2008) find, if the quality of LMX is high, the effects of the breach of the psychological contract are much weaker than in the case when the quality of the relationship between manager and employee is low. The situation between Veronica and Graham provides indication that the employee dealt with a negative event more positively by returning manager’s empathy.

Trust

Moreover, by genuinely caring of the employees, noticing and responding to their emotions, Graham creates honest and open culture, which is particularly important to consulting organisations, since the success of the business lies in the relationships between the clients and the consultants (Swart, 2006) and therefore trust between the project manager and the consultant is the key for a successful consulting service (Swart and Kinnie, 2003). As Graham claimed: ‘It’s really important for me to be build trust with employees in order for them to be honest with me about their relationships with clients.’ Indeed, the employees seemed to enjoy clear and efficient communication: ‘If there is a problem, both at work and in personal life, just go and talk to them’ Sam.

Sophie claimed trusting and being honest with Graham, even though he is strict: ‘Graham is strict on what he wants, but I have no fear at all to ask again if something is unclear’. By being strict but understanding Graham proved to encourage honesty and open culture, in which everyone trusts each other. Sam claimed: ‘if I need to go home, they know that I am not exploiting the trust. This relationship makes me not cynical… that’s why I stayed’. Therefore, the culture based on trust not only creates the fluent service, but also creates positive emotions at work which serve in shifting cynicism to engagement with organisational change (Avey et al, 2008). Indeed, Graham believes that ‘change was successful partly because of the created mutual trust’.

Engagement

When asked about the impact the empathetic approach has on their engagement, the interviewees presented several positive implications. Some claimed that managers empathising for employees ‘make you feel respected, valued as individual and understood. It makes you happy at work, and very opposite if none of these exist’ - Jayne. Sammy explained one of the reasons why she is engaged and enthusiastic to come to work is because she really likes Graham and Steven: ‘I don’t want to let them down’. Lisa compared the leadership style in THEHOUSE to her previous employer which was practising a more military approach on managing people: ‘no credit, no respect’. She claimed working there was harder, while empathetic approach in THEHOUSE allows to be absorbed into work much more. Even more, Lisa said ‘Empathy from Graham – appreciation and acknowledgement of my effort – really raised my self-esteem’. Kahn (1990: 714) claimed that psychological engagement is positively influenced by high self-esteem; therefore, in the case of THEHOUSE empathetic leadership had a direct impact on the psychological engagement of Lisa.

The employees who work externally also linked manager’s empathy to their satisfaction of working with THEHOUSE: ‘Graham and Steven are very inclusive towards consultants who work from outside the office – it makes you feel a part of team’ – Veronica.

The network of external members is crucial for a successful consulting business (Gluckler and Armbruster, 2003); therefore, engaging consultants with the unconventional work arrangements and creating their attachment to the organisation is the key. Moreover, the engagement of the external employees is particularly difficult due to the liminal space they are in (Sturdy, 2006) – belonging to multiple employers makes identification more complicated compared to the full time employees. Both external employees, Veronica and Jayne, linked Graham’s understanding and consideration with the feel of attachment to the team and engagement with the issues of THEHOUSE.

The sense of belonging to one team and caring of its success reflected in the responses of all the interviewees when asked what impact empathetic approach makes:

‘Everything is sympathised – everyone cares, nothing is wasteful’ Sam

‘If you like your manager, you want them to succeed more’ Sophie.

Indeed, the interviews demonstrated a culture of shared empathy, in which everyone is affectionate both to the manager and to their colleagues, and puts extra effort to help the organisation succeed. Therefore, the genuine consideration of the employees’ wellbeing in THEHOUSE has reciprocal effect and creates emotional engagement rather than transactional engagement, as differentiated in the literature review (Gourlay et al, 2012).

Sustainability

The emotional aspect of engagement is the key concern of the sustainable engagement framework outlined in the literature review. Some scholars argue that high levels of engagement are unsustainable and can lead to burnout (Fairhurst and O’Connor, 2010) while combining engagement and well-being strategies can deliver sustainability (Lewis et al, 2012). The research of THEHOUSE discovers a link between the integration of empathy into all processes and sustainable engagement. When asked about the importance of the quality of the relationship with the manager, Jayne directly claims the direct impact on sustainability of her motivation: ‘My motivation doesn’t last long if empathy between the leader and me doesn’t exist’. THEHOUSE seems to be committed to the ‘sustainable engagement’ approach – a pursuit of engagement but giving priority to the well-being:

‘If you are stressed, he firstly makes you comfortable and only then asks about the details.’ - Sammy

‘Graham has an eye if you are tired – he genuinely cares about your well-being, not just how much it will impact your productivity’ - Sam.

It seems that THEHOUSE is a good example of organisation which succeeds in gaining long term engagement of the employees by giving priority to the fundamental elements of work relationships rather than advanced engagement strategies. The example of THEHOUSE illustrates well how sophisticated practices, for example planned socialisation and team building activities, are not necessarily required for high quality relationships to exist: ‘We don’t usually go out or anything, but I invited both Graham and Steven to my wedding. I would have never invited them if this relationship was not there’ - Sam. In the case of THEHOUSE, the high quality relationships are the result of shared empathy, rather than advanced strategies from the top. As it was discussed in the literature review, organisations often do the opposite and overlook the basics when implementing more advanced approaches (Conway and Monks, 2008).

Gap between organisational rhetoric and reality of employees

The importance of fundamentals of work relations relates to the issue of policy-practice gap which occurs when there is a mismatch between the rhetoric of organisation and the reality of employees (Truss et al, 1997). As observed in the literature review, the gap between policy and practice delivers unsustainable performance (Hope-Hailey and Truss, 2005) as it is easily observed by the workforce (Gill and Meyer, 2011). Instead of producing better performance by manipulating employees’ reality, mere rhetoric or façade lowers employees’ commitment, demolishes the relationship between manager and employee and increases resistance to change (Gill and Meyer, 2011). The relationship between the rhetoric and reality of the organisation is well illustrated by the case of THEHOUSE. Graham told the researcher he cares about the organisation and employees, and to prove it Graham claimed that instead of buying Ferrari he keeps returning the profits to company as an investment. This is a rhetoric that any leader of an organisation could claim. The question is if rhetoric is actually integrated into practice. In the case of THEHOUSE, the rhetoric is equal to the practice and there were many examples that proved it. The best demonstration is the opt-out from the main client in 2011. The client was the major chain company of alcohol products and THEHOUSE provided them with the advertising services which Graham and employees strongly felt were unethical. Instead of chasing after the profits, the owners of the company decided to risk the financial stability of the company and opt out to follow the values and integrity. This case is a great example of how the company’s culture is spread from the top and is more than just a rhetoric or façade (Hope-Hailey and Truss, 2005).

Indeed, Purcell et al (2009) claim that in order to achieve the desired culture, the approach must spread from the top. With regards to encouraging the culture of shared empathy, there is a number of empirical evidence showing that the high levels of emotional intelligence and empathy of the executive level managers greatly contribute to the success of organisation. For example, Gardner and Stough (2002) carried a research with 110 senior level managers and found a strong correlation between emotional intelligence, such as understanding other’s emotions, with the transformational leadership. Similarly, Stein et al (2009) studied 186 leaders at the top of organisations and found that the high levels of empathy possessed by executives correlated with higher organisational profits. Moreover, it seems that not only academics but also organisations understand the importance of top management considering employees emotions and the well-being. For example, Richardson, HR partner at Rider Levett Bucknall thinks: ‘If you ask staff what they think, you have to be prepared to listen to what they say. It’s never ending cycle of improvement’ (Guardian, 2013). In the case of THEHOUSE, the interviewees often emphasised the importance of knowing that their employer truly cares about them. When discussing empathetic leadership in a larger context, this links to the discussion of the importance of trust at work. The research by Hope-Hailey (2012) explores the importance of trust to the engagement of employees. She claims that trust is a more personal but vital part of engagement, inclined from the very top of organisation. Hope-Hailey (2012:5) argues that trusting allows employees to accept certain levels of insecurity and take risks because they trust organisation would act for their benefit. Similarly to the research by Lewis et al (2012) on sustainable engagement, the research by Hope-Hailey (2012) emphasises the importance of relationships at work and considerations of the emotions.

Empathy’s influence on the engagement with organisational change

Indeed, the study of THEHOUSE showed that the empathetic managerial approach to employees had a direct link with the quality of the relationship between the employees and the leader; it built trust and more positive attitudes which consequently lead to sustainable engagement based on affection rather than transaction. Such type of engagement is particularly relevant during the times of change, when certain business circumstances that used to engage employees might be removed, for instance job characteristics (Hackman and Lawler, 1971). As Mayer et al (2002) empathises, emotional intelligence skills are particularly important during negative events when it is so important to rebuild positive atmosphere and incline supportive behaviours. For example, when Graham left the company for a month due to the workload and pressure, the interviewees stood up and took responsibilities. Sam said: ‘I think it was harder for Graham than it needed to be <…> when Graham got back, employees carried on taking some of the responsibilities off his shoulders.’ As showed in the literature review, some scholars argue that potential support of employees to organisational change is undervalued by the management. In THEHOUSE this seemed not to be the case. Graham claimed that support from his employees during organisational change encouraged him to keep focused and provided the feeling that he is not alone in this. Indeed, Sam told the researcher how he empathised with the sorrow of Graham when new logo was introduced: ‘When I created a new logo, I saw how hard it was to Graham… it was a big thing for him’. Therefore, the case of THEHOUSE showed that empathetic approach towards employees made them empathetic during hard times come in return, and provide supportive behaviours towards organisational change.

Other factors influencing the engagement

It is important to note other factors that influenced employees’ engagement with the business transformation. Graham noted during the first interview that it is not only relationships why people stay with the company ‘it’s also job security’. As mentioned in the methodology chapter, the researcher had an access only to one employee who left during organisational change. With regards to the others who left, Graham claimed that the key reason was due to the technical change in the roles. However, having talked to Charlotte as well as other people who went through the change, it came apparent that employees engagement were negatively influenced by the lack of clear strategy and the lack of career development. The lack of clear strategy and its negative effects on engagement was mentioned by several employees who went through the transformation. The employees claimed that not knowing clear strategy of the company made people cynical and sceptic about the new ideas of Graham. As Sam said, ‘People were cynical because Graham and Steven did not make it clear where they are going’. Nevertheless, with the business transformation, THEHOUSE also changed its approach to the presentation of the strategy. It seemed that the change strengthened the communication about the strategy and employees where fully engaged with the plan of the company.

Secondly, as emphasised by the employee who left THEHOUSE due to the organisational change, a second negative factor to the engagement with the transformation was the lack of career development opportunities. This issue was mentioned by Graham himself during the first interview. He acknowledged that a small organisation can provide employees with an extent of responsibilities, but not the growth in hierarchy, mainly because there is no hierarchy - ‘people can become fatter, but not taller’. However, Charlotte linked her dissatisfaction by the career development in THEHOUSE with the absence of formal appraisal system. She said that Graham was aware of her disappointment of lack of formal systems in place but did not have time to respond to this need: ‘Graham is empathetic, but he is too busy to respond to dissatisfaction. If you need the empathy, you have to go and ask’. Charlotte expressed that she had no doubt about Graham’s genuine consideration of her well-being and she claimed there was a high quality relationship with the manager, but ‘he was just too busy’, therefore the empathy was not fully expressed. Indeed, when talking about the development of other employees, Graham claimed the development is very time consuming and employees tend to learn, receive feedback and appraisals from him informally on a daily basis. Lisa too hoped Graham could express his empathy more: ‘I wish Graham had more time to praise me or give me guidance where I could improve… I think it would increase my self-esteem even more’. Therefore, the example brought by Charlotte could lead to a conclusion that despite a strong presence of managerial empathy in THEHOUSE, employees’ engagement might be lowered due to the lack of expressed empathy, not the empathy itself.

External pressures creating the gap between empathy and expressed empathy

It could be argued, however, that the gap between empathy and expressed empathy could be a result of external pressures. This gap between empathy and expressed empathy might be caused by a variety of external factors that may the extent of control leaders have in managing the relationships with employees (Liden et al, 1997). This could be pressures that leader’s position involves, such as time constraints or work overload (Mahsud et al, 2009). Indeed, in the example of THEHOUSE, it was recognised by some employees that Graham sometimes has no time to respond and express the empathy due to the pressure he is often under. Another factor that could potentially influence leaders’ control of LMX is an increasing extent of unconventional work arrangements (Liden et al, 1997), such as part-time or temporary assignments, which reduce time of interaction between a manager and employees. There could be a variety of outside pressures preventing managers to express the empathy.

The importance of managers in shaping policy-practice gap

Of course, THEHOUSE is a small organisation and the findings cannot be generalised to larger structures. However, the issue of empathy expression as a potential barrier to engagement again reminds us of the role of front line manager in shaping the attitudes of the employees and reducing the policy and practice gap. Undoubtedly, the communications in larger organisations are much more complicated and the mismatch between rhetoric and reality might be much wider due to the greater variety of factors that lie in the black box. It has been already emphasised by scholars that front line manager is key in influencing the policy and practice gap (Purcell et al, 2010). Therefore, together with the previous research, the findings of this case study lead to questioning the significance of the appropriate recruitment, training and development of the leaders; and most importantly, significance of providing front line managers with enough discretion and space to manage the relationships at work and empathise with the employees. The difference in reactions to empathy and expressed empathy found in THEHOUSE might once again prove the importance of how approaches at the top are implemented by front line managers. As Veronica described it with a cliché, ‘You join organisation, you leave the boss’. Similarly, Lisa left previous job due to the poor relationship with the manager who did not appreciate her effort: ‘…and I don’t mean a bonus or a raise, just a ‘thank you’’. Thus, to allow and encourage managers expressing empathy, organisations ought to focus on providing enough support and discretion for front line managers to be empathetic.

Limitations and future research

CONCLUSION

The case study of the house explored manager’s empathy and its implication on work relationship and employees’ engagement. The influences of empathy were explored with a particular emphasis on organisational change which has become the only constant in nowadays organisations. This chapter presented the findings and presented them in broader debates on the issues of engagement.

The research showed the manager of THEHOUSE pursuing a highly empathetic leadership which the employees linked to their high quality relationships with Graham. The case study found that empathetic managerial approach had a reciprocal effect on employees as the members held a strong intrinsic interest to return the empathy. During the interviews, several positive implications appeared. Firstly, Graham’s genuine care of employees’ well-being seemed to have a strong effect on positivity of the employees during negative events, such as breach of psychological contract or organisational change. Secondly, knowing that the manager genuinely cares created a culture of honesty and trust. Moreover, it was presented how the interviewees directly linked Graham’s empathy with their engagement and enthusiasm at work.

The findings of the case study showed a direct link between the empathy as a quality of a manager and the supportive behaviours of employees during organisational change. Linking back to the academic debate on sustainable engagement presented in the literature review, it was discussed how being empathetic assists in creating affectionate rather than transactional engagement, which is more sustainable during the times of change (Lewis et al, 2012). The results of the case study were also linked with the significance of mismatch between organisation’s rhetoric and the reality of employees to their engagement (Gill and Meyer, 2011). Consequently, it was discussed how important front line managers are in bringing company’s rhetoric into practice (Purcell and Hutchinson, 2007) and building affectionate engagement (Erdogan and Liden, 2002).

However, despite of the positive implications of empathy, it was also discussed other factors that negatively influenced engagement with the organisational change, such as lack of clear strategy or career development. The lack of career development was seen by employees as the lack of expressed empathy which was impacted by external pressures such as time constraints. Therefore, reflecting on the research outlined in the literature review, it was urged to explore to what extent organisations ought to appropriately recruit, train