{"id":6510,"date":"2025-07-08T22:08:56","date_gmt":"2025-07-08T22:08:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aomtodayprod.wpenginepowered.com\/?p=6510"},"modified":"2025-07-09T15:35:57","modified_gmt":"2025-07-09T15:35:57","slug":"relationship-building-gets-you-through-tough-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/relationship-building-gets-you-through-tough-times\/","title":{"rendered":"Relationship-building Gets You Through Tough Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher<\/a><\/p>\n

Treating employees well creates a reservoir of goodwill that employers can tap into to keep morale high and preserve organizational loyalty during difficult times.<\/p>\n

Academy of Management Scholar Jaqueline \u201cJackie\u201d Coyle-Shapiro<\/a> of California State University, San Bernardino, and the London School of Economics said that if organizations develop high-quality relationships with their employees, then that will act as a buffer that dampens the effect of negative events that employees might interpret as a \u201cpsychological contract breach.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe lesson that I would give to leaders and managers is: Invest in your relationships with your staff\u2014develop high-quality relationships with the people that work for you,\u201d Coyle-Shapiro said. \u201cThis takes time; you\u2019ve got to invest resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to get to know your employees; you\u2019ve got to understand where they\u2019re coming from,\u201d she said. \u201cHaving high-quality relationships with your employees is like a blanket on a cold day.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt acts as a buffer to actually keep out the cold when you cannot deliver what you promised to an employee.\u201d<\/p>\n

High-quality relationships are the foundation for supervisors, managers, and leaders to be successful over the long term. That\u2019s true even if the benefits of investing in people aren\u2019t apparent right away.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe payoff of relationship-building comes down the road,\u201d Coyle-Shapiro said. \u201cAnd so when leaders don\u2019t put in the time and effort to do so, if you\u2019ve got managers that are very short-term in their thinking, they\u2019re not going to think about investing and building high-quality relationships early on.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is a mistake, primarily because things happen, and supervisors and leaders may find themselves in a situation where they cannot fulfill promises to employees and they can\u2019t promote employees or give them a raise,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps they\u2019ve promised them interesting assignments that aren\u2019t coming to fruition, therefore that high-quality relationship will help buffer the negative effects of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

This insight also ties into the benefits of corporate social responsibility<\/a> and having an organizational mission related to making a positive societal impact that employees can believe in.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf employees work for an organization with a social mission, and they find that the organization is not fulfilling its promises and obligations to that social mission, what we found is that employees will step up and compensate for the organization\u2019s failure to provide high-quality care to patients, as an example,\u201d Coyle-Shapiro said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEmployees, particularly those with high professional identification, will step up and compensate for the organization\u2019s lackluster efforts to deliver on its mission statement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Daniel Butcher Treating employees well creates a reservoir of goodwill that employers can tap into to keep morale high and preserve organizational loyalty during difficult times. Academy of Management Scholar Jaqueline \u201cJackie\u201d Coyle-Shapiro of California State University, San Bernardino, and the London School of Economics said that if organizations develop high-quality relationships with their […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3338,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,20,29,19],"tags":[],"sp_smart_badges":[],"ppma_author":[70],"class_list":["post-6510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-c-suite","category-careers","category-emotions","category-leadership"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRelationship-building Gets You Through Tough Times - Academy of Management Today<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aom.org\/today\/relationship-building-gets-you-through-tough-times\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Daniel Butcher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/relationship-building-gets-you-through-tough-times\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/relationship-building-gets-you-through-tough-times\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Daniel Butcher\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/d1297a59039d9ca7bac9d9f0952e508c\"},\"headline\":\"Relationship-building Gets You Through Tough Times\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-07-08T22:08:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-09T15:35:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/relationship-building-gets-you-through-tough-times\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":435,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/relationship-building-gets-you-through-tough-times\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/02\\\/boss-talks-to-team-members-1.webp\",\"articleSection\":[\"C-SUITE\",\"CAREERS\",\"EMOTIONS\",\"LEADERSHIP\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/relationship-building-gets-you-through-tough-times\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.aom.org\\\/today\\\/relationship-building-gets-you-through-tough-times\\\/\",\"name\":\"Relationship-building Gets You Through Tough Times - 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