This summary is provided by the IPR Organizational Communication Research Center.
Dr. Cen April Yue, Dr. Sifan Xu, Dr. Weiting Tao, and Dr. Lei Vincent Huang examined how supervisors’ use of motivational language in workplace communication can facilitate a new employee’s adjustment, strengthen their relationship with the organization, and promote their psychological well-being over time.
A two-wave longitudinal survey of 390 full-time U.S. employees was conducted. The first-wave of survey data was collected in February and March 2022, while the second-wave was gathered in June and July 2022.
The following types of language and their impact on employees were studied:
– Meaning-making language: language that emphasizes acknowledging employees’ unique contributions.
– Direction-giving language: language that offers precise instructions, expectations, and rewards to employees.
– Empathetic language: language that presents a leader’s comprehension of the feelings of their followers, showing compassion.
Key findings include:
1.) When supervisors increased their use of direction-giving language and meaning-making language over time, newcomers had an easier time adjusting to their new workplace.
– However, supervisors’ increasing use of empathetic language did not have any impact on newcomer adjustment.
2.) When newcomers experienced smoother adjustment in the workplace, their relationship with the organization became more positive.
3.) When newcomers experienced smoother adjustment in the workplace, their overall psychological well-being was improved.
4.) Supervisors’ increased use of direction-giving language and empathetic language directly improved newcomers’ relationships with the organization.
Read the original study here.
