"Arrange To Exchange" [Mastering the Rule of Reciprocity]

http://www.insideinfluence.com/current/article_dec.html

Inside Influence Report
Issue 90: Dec. 2008

"Arrange To Exchange" [Mastering the Rule of Reciprocity]

By Dr. Robert Cialdini
In this time of the year, often called “The Season of Giving,” it is worthwhile to consider certain aspects of the giving process that can lead to desirable outcomes, not just with family and friends but also with colleagues and coworkers.>

Research has long demonstrated the value of a generous spirit. After providing gifts, favors, services, or assistance to others, we become more liked, more appreciated, and even physically healthier. What’s more, those who have received from us typically stand ready to repay when we need something from them. This last benefit flows from the rule for reciprocation, which prescribes the willingness of people to pay back the form of behavior they have received. All human societies install this rule in their members from childhood for a simple reason: It confers great competitive advantages on a group it by encouraging profitable exchanges, mutually beneficial tradeoffs between group members in vital arenas of interaction such as commerce, defense, and care. In the workplace, this means that if you’ve complied with my request for help with one of my projects—let’s say by providing effort, resources, special information, etc.—I should be significantly more willing to comply with a request for help that you might make of me later on a project that’s important to you.>

With so many of the reasons for being a giver securely in the plus column, it would be easy to think that a large amount of giving on the job is a sure route to success there. Alas, human psychology is almost never so simple. Too much of a good thing can be a bad thing, even in the case of assistance. Take as evidence, a study done by Frances Flynn now at Stanford’s Graduate School of Business, who examined the consequences of favor-doing among employees at a large telecommunications firm. He measured the number of favors that workers did for one another along with a pair of noteworthy consequences. The first was the effect of favor-doing on the giver’s social status within the organization—the giver’s perceived worth to the company in the eyes of his or her coworkers. As we might have expected, those employees rated as more generous with their time, energy, and assistance were seen as more valuable. Achieving acknowledged social status in the workplace is no small feat and is a testament to the interpersonal gains that come from being a prodigious giver.>

But the second consequence of giving that Flynn examined, productivity on the job, did not paint so sunny a picture. Eight measures of individual productivity, including assessments of both the quantity and quality of assigned work, showed that those employees with the highest rated levels of assistance were significantly less productive than their colleagues. Why? Because they were so busy lending aid to others’ projects that they were unable to pay sufficient attention to their own. The Great Optimizer >

What are we to make of this state of affairs? If being a particularly openhanded giver on the job results in high social status but simultaneously reduces one’s personal productivity on assigned tasks, what are we best advised to do? It turns out that there is a clear answer, one that emerged from another component of Flynn’s study. It identified a single factor that amplified both social status and individual productivity. As we’ve seen, that optimizing factor wasn’t the number of favors done. Instead, it was the number of favors exchanged. Employees who first provided beneficial aid on coworkers’ projects and then got beneficial aid in return maximized the profitable effects of the giving process—not just for themselves but for all concerned—by rating high on status and production. Recall, this outcome is very much in keeping with the rule for reciprocity that is vital to all successful groups precisely because it fosters mutually advantageous exchanges.>

The implications of these results for each of us are clear. First, we should be liberal and proactive givers on the job. If we aren’t vigorous prime movers in the process, we can’t boost the number of favor exchanges that are so central to double-barreled success in the workplace . Second, and just as importantly, we should characterize our assistance in ways that heighten the likelihood that it will be reciprocated fully. How can we do that? I have three suggestions for possible such characterizations, each to be offered upon receiving thanks for our aid from the recipient. We could reply:>

1. “I was happy to help because I know how valuable it would be to get your help if I ever need it.”
2. “You’re welcome. It’s what colleagues do for one another.”
3. “Of course. I know that if the situation were ever reversed, you’d do the same for me.”

In sum, the key to optimizing the giving process in the workplace is to arrange for exchange, which involves two-steps: (1) giving favors first and (2) being sure to verbally position the favors as part of a natural and equitable reciprocal


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This posting was made my Jim Jacobs, President & CEO of Jacobs Executive Advisors. Jim also serves as Leader of Jacobs Advisors' Insurance Practice.