Relationships between company employees can be different: friendly or intolerant, positive or denying any dialogue. But not only their mood during the working day depends on people’s desire to work side by side and find a way out of conflict situations.
We are talking about much more global things: risks for the business, the threat of not achieving the goals set by the manager, the likelihood of delaying the project and losing position in the market. The socio-psychological climate in the team directly affects the success of the company. Therefore, it is important for a leader to approach its formation carefully and responsibly.
What is the moral climate in the team? How is it formed and how to “diagnose” it? What “alarm bells” should you pay attention to? And how to create a favorable psychological climate in a team that will allow the company to successfully grow and develop? Irina Avetisyan, an expert in improving business efficiency and developing teams, business coach, coach of top executives and teams, answered these questions to the FAN .
photo from the personal archive of Irina Avetisyan /
What is the socio-psychological climate in a team?
The company's work is determined by hundreds of daily personal contacts. Business processes require communication between the manager and subordinates, between employees within departments and representatives of structural units.
This creates a special atmosphere, the so-called psychological mood of the team, which shows the general mood within the company. This nature of relationships between colleagues is called the emotional climate in the team. Its formation is influenced by many factors: from the management style adopted in the company to the satisfaction of each employee with working conditions.
If this atmosphere is favorable, then the team works effectively. Departments carry out their tasks, employees take initiative and offer new ideas. In such an environment, competition can develop, but only healthy competition, when every specialist strives for professional growth and development.
“In a comfortable psychological environment, it is easy for an employee to complete his tasks,” comments business trainer and coach Irina Avetisyan. “He feels a sense of contentment and peace that allows him to reach his potential.” Moreover, the employee strives to make his own contribution to the development of the company and brings the employer a good bonus. The manager receives an unplanned positive financial effect and an infusion of new ideas into the company’s work.”
Maintaining a favorable atmosphere in the team brings other positive results.
- Successful conflict resolution . They can arise at any level: between employees and administration, between individual specialists, between a manager and one of his subordinates. If the atmosphere in the team is generally positive, any conflicts will be resolved more easily and quickly, and it will be easier for their participants to build a constructive dialogue. In turn, long-term conflicts that smolder for months lead to disruption of the emotional background in the team and a decrease in the results of its activities.
- Team cohesion . When each employee is focused not so much on personal results, but on moving towards the company’s goal, a corporate or “team” spirit is formed. Such an atmosphere supports the cohesion of employees and shows their common interests. With people committed to a common goal, a company can achieve better results.
Set up feedback
To create a climate, it is necessary for the leader to have a high level of personal awareness. This will help in correctly assessing the situation and competent personnel management. But it is more important to receive feedback from each subordinate. Conduct open dialogues, constructively comment on problems, and not just emotionally criticize.
For feedback to work, start the dialogue with something positive, and then discuss the possible development of the situation. It is important not to get personal. You definitely need to end with positive conclusions or wishes. Train employees to talk openly about problems.
Reasons for the deterioration of the emotional climate in the team
The team atmosphere is easy to disrupt. As a rule, this is caused by mistakes on the part of management. According to Irina Avetisyan, there are three main reasons for the development of imbalance.
Imperfection of the personnel management system
If the developer made mistakes at the stage of its formation, there is a high risk of creating a persistent negative atmosphere in the company. It can be formed as a consequence of procedures and mechanisms that systematically cause disputes and conflicts.
“When processes become more complicated, when a complex hierarchy is added to resolve even simple issues, if there are no standards of behavior in emergency situations and there are no regulations for actions in regular ones, conflicts and discontent in the team are inevitable,” the expert notes.
Personal qualities of a leader
Leadership style inevitably affects the morale of the team. The personal qualities of not only the heads of departments are important. The manager’s rudeness, disrespect for his subordinates, his commitment to act on the “divide and conquer” principle, multiplied by incompetence in the field of psychology of labor relations, destroy a favorable microclimate. Another dangerous flaw of management is inattention to the processes occurring within the team.
“It is important for a leader to be able to consider and extinguish a conflict at the stage of its inception,” clarifies Irina Avetisyan. “After all, it’s always easier to prevent a fire than to put it out.”
pixabay.com/
Presence of “troublemakers”
These are employees who, due to their own character or due to dissatisfaction with the conditions in the team, bring discord into its ranks:
- create in leadership;
- initiate “actions of intolerance” against another employee and remove him from the team;
- sow an atmosphere of hostility and dissatisfaction with working conditions;
- their actions lead to disorganization not only of their own working time, but also of other team members.
“You need to be able to spot such employees at the selection stage,” the expert notes. “And it is extremely important to identify “troublemakers” by monitoring the state of the psychological climate.”
Levels
In psychology, it is customary to consider the psychological climate at two levels (two types):
- Static level. This is that part of the climate that is determined by the stable characteristics of the team: the system of likes and dislikes, attitude towards work, values and beliefs of employees. This level of climate is resistant to the influence of negative external factors. Reaching this level is the height of mastery. A static climate is typical for older groups, but even such groups do not always manage to reach this level.
- Dynamic level. This is the part of the climate that changes daily and depends on mood, current life problems and important events in the lives of workers. This level is typical for fresh, young teams. However, even in an old team there can be a dynamic, that is, unstable climate. He is weak to the influence of external factors.
In a static climate, participants feel safe. At the dynamic level there is tension, a feeling of instability.
Consequences of a negative atmosphere in the team
If tension in a team persists for a long time, it will inevitably lead to negative consequences. Among the most likely:
- increased staff turnover: employees often leave of their own free will, while there were no prerequisites for this from management (for example, a salary reduction or a change in work schedule);
- “migration” of employees within the company: specialists from one of the departments turn to the manager with applications to transfer them to other departments;
- development of dissatisfaction among employees: topics of lack of prospects, comparisons with competing companies and discussion of the negative state of affairs become the main ones in communication;
- an increase in the number of disputes between employees: both in one division and between different departments;
- decreased labor productivity: it inevitably develops in a team where there is socio-psychological tension; as a result, the company begins to lag behind planned indicators, new and ongoing projects are under threat;
- decrease in the quality of the result: as a rule, it is observed in the area where there is moral tension.
An unfavorable atmosphere affects all team members. At some point, the manager is also drawn into it. If he does not strive to understand the reasons for what is happening and eliminate the root of the problem, his functions are reduced to resolving numerous current conflicts. At the same time, the manager’s time is distributed irrationally: conflicts do not allow him to focus on achieving the planned financial goal.
pixabay.com/
Democratic style
This type of management is based on very trusting and friendly relationships between all team members, as well as goodwill and sociability. In this case, all responsibilities, powers and initiatives are distributed between the manager, his deputies and subordinates. All decisions are made collectively.
The director, who has adopted a democratic management style as a basis, cares about the opinion of his subordinate team regarding key production issues. Communication between the manager and employees occurs exclusively in the form of wishes, requests, advice and recommendations.
Rewards for quickly and efficiently completed work are not excluded. Communication takes place in a polite and friendly manner. If necessary, orders are used (extremely rarely).
Advantages of creating a positive psychological climate in the workforce
“First of all, in business we count money,” comments Irina Avetisyan, an expert in improving business efficiency and developing teams. — And a positive psychological climate plays a significant role here. It prevents financial losses from professional mistakes made by employees under conditions of severe stress. The cause of this stress can be hidden and open labor, personal, and production conflicts.”
Another positive bonus from creating a favorable psychological climate in the team is a significant reduction in additional costs for the adaptation of new employees. If experienced managers and specialists do not quit due to interpersonal conflicts or a stressful environment, there is no need to look for replacements and train new employees. This saves the manager’s time and company resources.
“The actions of disloyal employees can cause great damage to a business,” clarifies Irina Avetisyan, “especially if they are offended by the results of a conflict that did not end in their favor. A favorable climate prevents such financial losses.”
We create a unique corporate culture and select employees based on values
There are companies in which the level of compensation is lower than the market average, but people do not leave there, thanks to a truly favorable climate in the team. In my experience, these are most often European companies, especially Scandinavian ones, which reflects the general cultural code of the country.
In Russian companies, the psychological climate can be very different and largely depends on the personality of the owner.
Sberbank, of course, reflects the personality of German Gref, Tinkoff - the personality of Oleg Tinkov. Where owners are actively involved in the business, including strategic and operational tasks, it is enough to talk with the owner-ideologist of the business to get an impression of the corporate culture and general climate in the company. Creativity, dynamics, speed of decision-making, flexibility, openness to new technologies, desire to take leadership positions, and willingness to take risks are always reflected in employees.
On the other hand, companies that have been transformed from traditional Soviet structures often still bear the imprint of a planned approach, bureaucracy and a lack of flexibility in relation to market changes. Therefore, it is important for every company to select an employee who will fit into the corporate culture and share the values and goals of the organization.
After all, there are managers who feel great in vertically integrated structures, there are managers who can create a productive climate only in a flat structure with a democratic culture, and for others it is important that the company operates according to agile principles.
Diagnosis of the psychological climate in the workforce
A business manager needs to regularly analyze the state of the moral environment in the team. In this case, a whole range of factors should be assessed, which are identified based on the results of both external and special observation.
External factors that indicate a violation of the team climate will be noticeable when communicating with subordinates and during meetings:
- the conflict has entered the open stage: an employee or group of employees no longer hides dissatisfaction, declares it openly, and makes harsh statements about the “source of the problem”;
- The atmosphere in the team is tense: signs of this include employees’ lack of restraint in communication, sharp answers to questions posed, the predominance of negative emotions, including irritation, anger or fear, and lack of interest or inspiration.
Such factors indicate that the conflict situation has reached its climax and the employees no longer intend or are unable to hide it. But it can also be identified in a latent state, when people are still afraid to talk about it out loud or do not consider it necessary.
pixabay.com/
You can do this by:
- surveys. Preferably anonymous, so that employees do not have the fear of being punished or caught spreading gossip;
- collective and individual consultations of a psychologist with employees. During such sessions, the specialist may notice signs of conflict in the formative stage;
- testing. Using special tests, you can determine the degree of employee satisfaction with working conditions and atmosphere in the company;
- regular conversations between a manager with psychological skills in the field of labor relations, or a full-time psychologist, with employees, heads of departments, as well as employees who quit on their own initiative;
- collecting information about the situation in the state by security personnel.
“If the organization has a full-time psychologist, he should carry out this work, this is his responsibility,” clarifies Irina Avetisyan. “If there is no psychologist, this work is automatically transferred to the manager, who is forced to either redistribute time on it, paying less attention to his responsibilities, or put it aside for later, and then the conflict is not resolved for a long time.”
In addition, the manager often cannot give an objective assessment of what is happening. His perception of information is often distorted; he himself may be a participant in the conflict. Therefore, the involvement of external specialists - private practicing psychologists, corporate culture experts or trainers from specialized psychological consulting centers - becomes the only correct solution to the problem.
Looking for the weak link
Another factor that affects the team climate is an employee who is toxic to the team. I have a client - a large pharmaceutical company, in whose marketing department one of the employees was critical of the manager and practically created an opposition group against him.
As a result, employees, instead of working to achieve ambitious goals for promoting new drugs to the market, spent their time and energy on endless discussions and gossip. In such a situation, the only possible solution was to fire the destructive employee.
Test: find out if you can competently enter the market in another country
Another example. In a large manufacturing company, at a certain moment, the plant director entered into a state of conflict with almost all related departments; the company management understood that a difficult and stressful climate had developed, but they were in no hurry to part with the director due to the fact that his qualifications were unique in the industry.
As a result, the shareholders talked with the director of the plant, tried to get the most open feedback, and it became clear that the conflict situation and difficult climate arose due to the fact that the director felt personally responsible for the commissioning of the new line, but was faced with a large number of problems related to failure to meet deadlines and promises from other departments and external contractors, and in connection with this he panicked, became stressed and lashed out at his employees.
They hired an experienced deputy, helped him with planning and gave him more authority, after which the situation leveled out and the climate in the team became much more friendly.
How to create a favorable psychological climate in a team
“One of the most effective approaches to creating a favorable moral microclimate in an organization is the “Teach - Treat - Wet” technique,” comments Irina Avetisyan. “It allows you to both nip a negative situation in the bud and resolve a long-standing conflict.”
Stage "Teach"
It involves training newly appointed managers in conflict resolution and techniques for preventing their occurrence. Specialists who work with clients in the service sector also need to be trained.
This approach initially reduces the risks of developing conflict situations, since “decision makers” and authoritative representatives of the team initially understand the importance of the socio-psychological climate and are aimed at maintaining a comfortable atmosphere in the team.
Stage “Treat”
It is used in the early stages of an identified conflict or if the microclimate in the team has begun to deteriorate. Effective working methods are:
- interviews - individual and group;
- business games - including role-playing, in an informal setting, with elements of analyzing a situation close to the current one;
- individual psychological diagnostics - working with an employee who contributes to the development of a conflict or expresses a desire to leave the team;
- focused psychological assistance to a specialist who, in the opinion of a staff psychologist, needs it;
- additional training for a manager who failed to maintain a favorable atmosphere or became the initiator of a conflict. In this case, it is first necessary to assess whether the manager has the personal qualities that allow him to occupy this position;
- transfer of an employee to another department - if the specialist is valuable to the company, but he was unable to establish friendly relationships with colleagues.
“If we speak in medical terms,” notes Irina Avetisyan, “the task of this stage is to transfer the “patient” to outpatient treatment and prescribe him “medicines” that are suitable for his symptoms.
pixabay.com/
Stage “Wet”
It is resorted to if the conflict situation has reached a crisis point or the climate in the organization has deteriorated significantly. In this case, only the fundamental actions of the leader can help:
- dismissal of the “troublemaker”;
- transfer of the manager who caused the crisis situation or was responsible for it to the position of expert, if an additional assessment did not confirm that he has the personal qualities to work in a more responsible position;
- disbanding the department in which the conflict broke out and in which the employees, according to the psychologist’s conclusion, will no longer be able to restore normal relations.
Assessment Questions
To assess the state of the internal climate in a particular team, you can simply ask its participants simple questions. These could be:
- Do you like your job?
- Would you like to change it?
- If you have a choice, will you move to another company or stay here?
- Can you fulfill yourself in your current job?
- Are you satisfied with everything at this workplace?
- Are you comfortable performing the responsibilities assigned to you?
- Are you getting paid enough?
- Do you have the opportunity for career growth and advanced training?
- Do you manage to complete your work within the allotted working time, do you often have to stay late at work?
- What would you like to change in your work team?
- Do you like your boss and his approach to management?
- How often do you encounter conflicts in your team?
- Do your colleagues show you trust, respect, and help you in difficult times?
Maintaining a Healthy Atmosphere
The achieved balance in the team must be maintained. To do this, the expert advises regularly monitoring the psychological climate, which will allow solving three problems.
- Assess the general mood in the team, including the degree of satisfaction of employees with their relationships with each other, their immediate supervisor and their employer.
- Identify conflicts between colleagues at an early stage.
- Identify factors that negatively impact team morale and may lead to conflict.
It is important to take into account that each person is unique, and there are no “universal” tools for effectively influencing everyone. In each case, it is necessary to select those tools of psychological influence that will take into account both the specifics of the situation and the characteristics of a particular employee.
“It is important to give priority to preventive methods over those used in an already existing conflict or outright crisis situation,” emphasizes Irina Avetisyan. “And also use administrative methods, such as reprimand, reprimand and dismissal, only in situations where other attempts to neutralize the conflict have failed.”
Monitoring the psychological climate can be carried out by a full-time psychologist or department heads. Also, for this task you can involve a third-party expert, whose position will be more objective than a company representative.
Additional tools for influencing the microclimate
In addition to the proposed methods, it is worth implementing the following principles in the company:
- Information openness. Eliminate secrets, secrecy and vague formulations that create a tense, oppressive environment in the team. Do not leave room for gossip: discuss the current situation, plans and innovations honestly and openly. Engage staff in dialogue.
- Finger on the pulse of the team. Maintain feedback with staff, ask about working conditions and desired changes, and be interested in emerging difficulties and problems.
- Adaptation to current reality. Take into account current events in the world, look for ways to support the team in a crisis situation. Provide the opportunity to work remotely, pay for online training sessions, and issue wages and bonuses on a timely basis.
