How happy are your employees with their psychological income?
Again and again, studies show how high the ratio of employees is that have already quit in their own mind (e.g. Gallup 2019) and are frustrated by their work or their work environment. If at all, financial compensation is often only very short-term compensation, performing well and with a sense of joy. In many industries good departments in terms of health management are available nowadays; in most cases for key workers they are not critical for well-being, self-efficacy, self-fulfillment and willingness to remain though.
But what can companies do to foster and promote healthy and engaged employees though? More and more the answer lies in the "meaningful experience" of their work - and the connected term of "psychological income".
Psychological income in the applied work
An example: Mr Green, product manager in his mid forties in special purpose machine engineering is looking forward to his paycheck at the end of the month, his happiness is limited at the end of his work day though. His passion are complex challenges, successful problem solving and satisfied customers and distribution partners. For some time now the reality of his work has been reoccuring conflicts with the development department, meetings lasting hours on end, in which the important decisions in his eyes are postponed to another day again and again. Additionally, the pressure from his boss "... to please meet all the demands of customer X!" - this is not possible because commitments of colleagues were not kept. His workdays are making Mr Green tired, he is missing that satisfying feeling of "having really achieved something" - another day that was utterly useless!
On an individual level independence/self-efficacy and fulfilling your potential give life purpose, on a collective level it is identification, belongingness and bond. This is how it is described by Rosso, Dekas and Wrzeniewski in their 4-field matrix of psychological income.
What is psychological income?
Psychological income can be understood as the satisfaction of mental and emotional needs that are connected to work. But what are these needs and which currencies of psychological income play a role? From a psychological perspective the subjective meaningful experience within one person as well as between people varies, even when these people do the same job. The needs connected to work are multifaceted and individual. Possible needs can be for example:
- Safety
- Freedom
- Authenticity
- Performance
- Recognition
- Independence
- Etc.
In our example, the needs of Mr Green of performance, problem solving and the wish to make a meaningful contribution for the customer are not fulfilled. His performance cannot have effect, there is no constructive and clear way of dealing with decisions, responsability and conflicts, and his frustration can also impact his performance negatively - now he has obstacles on two levels: his emotional needs are not acknowledged and he cannot live his strengths - he feels his performance is less and less impactful and his workdays are feeling more and more useless.
How can psychological income be improved?
First and foremost it is about creating a conscious awareness for the topic performance/work on two levels - on an individual level of personality development and on a collective level of
In erster Linie geht es darum, ein Bewusstsein für das Thema Leistung/Arbeit auf zwei Ebenen zu schaffen – auf der individuellen Ebene der Persönlichkeitsentwicklung und auf der kollektiven Ebene der Unternehmenskulturentwicklung.
Persönlichkeitsentwicklung könnte Herrn Grün helfen, besser zu verstehen, was die Situationen im Außen bei ihm innerlich auslösen, welche möglichen Kränkungen damit verbunden sind. Seine persönliche tatsächliche Leistung könnte sich sogar noch verbessern, wenn er Möglichkeiten erlernen würde, die Missstände so anzusprechen, dass er seine Kollegen auch tatsächlich erreicht. Dazu braucht Herr Grün einen Perspektivenwechsel. Neben einigen kommunikativen Skills kann ihm eine gute Selbstwahrnehmung und Empathie helfen, um auf eine Weise zu agieren, die seine Kollegen erreicht und Wirkung erzielt. Diese Wirksamkeit würde auf Herrn Grüns psychologisches Einkommen einzahlen und damit mittelbar positivere Empfindungen auslösen. Persönlichkeitsentwicklung könnte auch einen Beitrag leisten, wenn Herr Grün erkennen könnte, wo er innerlich eine Grenze halten müsste, um sich nicht so sehr von defizitären Zuständen in seinem Arbeitskontext unangenehm beeinflussen zu lassen - dann würde ihn auch seine eigene, gute Leistung weiter stärken.
Corporate culture development could focus attention on dealing with commitment as a problematic cultural field. Companies form very specific patterns, which, as with people, often result from unconscious perceptions. In our example, it makes little sense on the surface that the colleagues remain noncommittal with their statements and that his boss also asks to serve the customer comprehensively anyway. This problematic approach to commitment not only inhibits Mr. Green's performance, but also the performance of the organization itself. The organization would have to address this phenomenon and change the way it deals with commitment in an awareness-creating, appreciative and, above all, step-by-step process.
Conclusion
Psychological income in a company has two main sources. It is rooted in the way people relate to their work and in their environment itself. High-quality personality development can contribute to this if this development work enables people to relate effectively to their environment. However, companies will also increasingly have to deal with the question of how the culture, i.e. the collectively customary behavior, can be developed in such a way that it increases employees' feelings of effectiveness and thus their psychological income. Learn more about culture development here.
