Let’s go out for a drink after work! The relation between leisure time spent with colleagues and employees’ life satisfaction

Despite the tremendous research studying the factors that influence employees’ well-being, the effect of what happens when leisure time is spent with colleagues remains yet unexamined. Building on the Conversation of Resource Theory, we propose that leisure time spent with colleagues could be understood as a resource, especially for those individuals who have few friends at their workplace. In a cross-sectional design, 136 university employees provided information about the number of friends they have at work, the amount of leisure time spent with befriended colleagues, and their life satisfaction. Results suggest that a larger network of friends at work is positively associated with life satisfaction. Furthermore, the effect of the number of friends at work on life satisfaction is moderated by the amount of leisure time spent with befriended colleagues. Employees who have few friends at work report more life satisfaction, if they spend more leisure time with befriended colleagues, whereas such an effect was not found for employees with a large friend network at work. These results are placed into the context of current discussions about work-life-blending.     

Guiding Change: Using Motivational Interviewing Within Organizations

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) - This contribution to the journal “Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. (GIO)” portraits...     

Über innovationsverhindernde und innovationsfördernde DenkweisenAbout Innovation Impeding and Innovation Facilitating Mindsets

This article examines the question why large organizations, despite skillful employees and available resources, are seldom the driver of innovations. Subsequently, we highlight possibilities to overcome this current situation. It is argued that organizations have a distinct focus on an analytic-deductive mindset that undermines the acquisition of new knowledge. Therefore, organizations miss to recognize and react according to the needs of clients, as well as their employees. As a possible solution, an abductive-hypothetical mindset is presented, which supports organizations to create innovations. In order to illustrate the differences between these mindsets, we compare these approaches and examine the reasons and structures that lead to the dominance of the deductive mindset within the majority of organizations. Building on this discussion, we identify possibilities how consultants could establish abductive, innovation enhancing elements within the organizational structure. These suggestions are based on the five discovery skills (questioning, observing, experimenting, networking, and associating) of the Innovator‘s-DNA-model and are supplemented by examples how these skills can be implemented into the organization’s routine.     

Gestaltung der Führungskultur bei der Daimler Group Services Berlin GmbH durch Design Thinking

Based on creating an employee-oriented leadership culture, this report on practices illustrates how the Design Thinking (DT) approach can be used in the context of organization development. Supported by an accompanying process support, four self-directed teams, consisting of employees of Daimler Group Services Berlin GmbH (DGSB), developed concepts to enhance employee satisfaction. In the case report, we describe the challenges faced by the DGSB and the objectives set by management in terms of process execution. Based on these specifications, a ten-week DT concept was developed that included three on-site workshops. The report presents the content, goals, and results of the process, followed by suggestions how our DT concept might be further improved. Finally, based on our observations, we discuss why critical team interactions in a DT process can prevent a team from coming up with good ideas. Based on these considerations, we derive research questions whose investigation can help to further increase the success of organization development.     

Wie könnten wir Organisationsentwicklungen partizipativ gestalten?

Within this contribution, we discuss how the Design Thinking (DT) approach can be used by consultants to systematically integrate participatory aspects into change processes. Instead of perceiving employees as passive and resistant to change, the DT process aims at involving the workforce into the planning and implementation of change projects. Furthermore, we highlight why it is important to understand organizations as complex systems that require an iterative goal-oriented procedure to implement change holistically. The DT phases (inspiration, ideation, and implementation) are described, illustrated on the basis of case studies, and complemented by findings from behavioral sciences. To increase the likelihood that the DT mindset will be integrated into an organization’s structure, we underscore which aspects should be considered while embedding this user-oriented approach into an organization’s culture. Finally, we highlight the parallels between the DT approach and action research, as developed by Kurt Lewin, and discuss how DT can help to make the work within an organization more meaningful.