Building Better Workplace Relationships

As the working world transforms with technology and data, social skills are becoming even more important to organizational success. Research has revealed that individuals can learn social skills and that forming and maintaining workplace relationships is crucial. 

Social psychologists have pinpointed two key processes involved in such relationships: “perspective taking” and “empathic concern”.  “Perspective taking” involves understanding how other people view the world. “Empathic concern” involves understanding how others are feeling. Researchers have debated on whether these processes are related or distinctive. In a recent article in the Journal of Applied Psychology, researchers aimed to settle this debate. They did so by aggregating data from 119 empirical studies. 

The results of the research revealed that “perspective taking” and “empathic concern” are two distinct concepts. Perspective taking requires attention to be split between both self and other. The individual attributes goals and intentions to others by grounding understanding of the other in the understanding of the self. Perspective taking involves joint effort and is considered to be mutually beneficial. Perspective taking also facilitates strategic thinking which is crucial in competitive contexts. 

Empathic concern does not require attention to be split. An individual focuses his or her attention on others. An individual’s willingness to bond with others and provide them with social resources was more prominent with empathic concern than with perspective taking. Empathic concern was also more likely to cause people to change their behavior than perspective taking. When others were met with empathic concern, they were more likely to provide support to the person who gave them empathy. However, in competitive contexts, empathic concern was a liability. Specifically, it decreases the extent in which others are willing to make concessions in one’s favor.