Friendlier faces hit the workplace
By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer
Since it's Labor Day, if you can bear to think about work for a minute, ponder whether your business style really works.
Jon Orque • The Honolulu Advertiser
If "acting professional" means keeping your emotional distance from colleagues, or if you're too stuck on the idea of "focusing on the task at hand" to pay attention to what's going on in the lives of people around you, you need to update your work ethic, according to research from the University of Michigan Business School.
"There's something really amazing going on within the United States' workplace relationships," said Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks, a cultural psychologist and assistant professor at the University of Michigan Business School in Ann Arbor. "In comparison with other cultures, Americans are putting aside emotional concerns."
In other words, he says, being all business all the time is all wrong, and being friendly can make you more productive.
The traditional "all business" American style at work may actually be a barrier to productivity in today's global environment, a University of Michigan research says. So how can you break down that barrier? • Does your boss like you to send e-mails or have discussions face-to-face? Figure out the way your supervisors and co-workers work best with you, and you'll work better together. • Pay more attention to the way people say things instead of just what they say. That means being more aware of people's body language and tone of voice. • In social settings, researchers found Americans to be highly friendly. The challenge is transferring that behavior into the workplace. The solution may be making more of an effort. Source: University of Michigan research led by Jeffrey Sanchez-Burks
That sounds good, says Dale Dudas, office manager for the employment agency Sales Consultants of Honolulu. But Dudas says he is not so sure it's true.
Work it out
It would be easy to say disgruntled employees are less productive, but Dudas wonders if the reverse is true: How much of your personal life should you bring to the office?
"People don't want to hear about your problems," he said. "We all have days where we get up on the wrong side of the bed."
But Sanchez-Burks says Americans' emotional detachment at work puts them at a disadvantage.
His findings, published in the August issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, say there's something peculiar about the way mainstream American culture restricts workplace relationships.
"I highly agree with the fact that the friendlier you are the more productive you are," said Toni Nepomuceno, division director for Office Team in Honolulu, where her duties include staffing, sales and recruiting.
"People can always be taught how to type faster," she said. "But you can't really teach someone how to act."
Nepomuceno has seen firsthand how cultural differences affect the workplace in Hawai'i. But she surmises that we may be a little better than mainstream America at dealing with the cultural divide.
"If you want to be successful," Nepomuceno said, "you have to learn not necessarily how to be a chameleon, but know the people you work with and see what works best for them."
Sanchez-Burks notes findings that might put Hawai'i above the curve, because we have the influence of East Asian cultures such as China and Korea, which he says tend to be more in tune with others' emotional expressions, eye contact and tone of voice — whereas European American culture is about what is said more than how it is said.
The American business culture also could stand to learn something from the Japanese culture, Sanchez-Burks says, because there's more importance on maintaining the interpersonal harmony and focusing attention on the needs, desires and goals of others in a relationship.
It doesn't matter which style is better, he said. Part of breaking down the barrier in business relationships, he said, is just paying attention to nonverbal communication.
