Every organization’s success depends on the generosity of its employees. Every organization has employees that make decisions every day about whether to be givers or takers. When employees act as givers, they contribute to others without seeking anything in return. This contribution may be offering assistance, sharing knowledge or making valuable introductions. When employees act as takers, they carefully guard their own time and expertise while trying to get others to serve their ends.
Organizations will benefit from fostering giving behavior because this willingness to help others benefits more effective collaboration, service excellence, quality improvement and innovation. The benefits are exponential to the organization. But encouraging this behavior across the board can create a workplace where takers take advantage of the givers.
In a study done by Stanford University professor, Frank Flynn, the least productive workers studied were givers—workers who had done many more favors for others than they had received. But when Flynn turned his spotlight on the top-producing workers, he found that they, too, were givers who did more favors than they received. Those in the middle were the takers. How could this be? What factors account for this finding? What are some ways to turn those least productive givers into more productive givers and encourage the takers to become givers?
Please check in next week for a continuation of this topic of givers and takers…
*Grant, Adam (2013, April). In the Company of Givers and Takers. Harvard Business Review, 90-97.
