The Importance of Psychological Resources
Henry David Thoreau said “do not hire a man who does your work for money, but him who does it for the love of it.”
In personal relationships, we want to give and get equally, but it is not just the amount of reciprocity that is important, it the nature of what is being reciprocated. Just as in a relationship with a person you give psychologically and emotionally, so in a job you give psychologically and emotionally as well. Moreover, just as in a relationship with a friend, you get psychological and emotional benefits, the same transaction happens within a job. Research has uncovered the nature of this fascinating exchange.Psychologist Peter Kahn describes the notation of the Need-Satisfying Approach in engagement. In 1990, he interviewed 32 employees including counselors and financial professionals to investigate what work variables influence their involvement with work tasks. He found that engagement in work was the simultaneous employment and expression of a person’s ‘preferred self’ in task behaviors that promote connections to work and to others, personal presence, and active full role performances. Just as in personal relationships, we want to give and get in ways that we view as personally rewarding. This means that employees who are able to use their talents and who are rewarded in ways that align with their preferences naturally will be more engaged at what they are doing.
As Kahn explained, employees make choices each moment to either alternately pull away from or towards work tasks, projects, or responsibilities. This means that the ability to express one’s strengths in the workplace and to feel a connection to one’s tasks and responsibilities is key to the employee feeling engaged. Employees could not be fully present at work if they felt that their basic needs were not met from the workplace, and
To find the employee that Thoreau mentioned, you must find the employee whose psychological needs are best met from the specific position. The worker who feels that he is able to express his preferred self—by expressing his strengths, talents and skills—will be a passionate and engaged worker.not being able to have one’s needs satisfied leads to feelings of dissatisfaction and disengagement.
Photo Credit: Flickr/Artondra Hall