Can The Annual Meeting Really Let All Employees Get Close To Each Other?

Managers generally believe that annual meetings can foster team cohesion.

A large number of research shows that managers believe that the so-called combination of life and work activities such as company dinner last year or other gatherings, such as company dining, happy moments, softball games, newborn gifts and charity shows, will enhance working relationships and ultimately create a more effective working environment.

Classical psychological studies on the formation of interpersonal relationships also confirm this.

This seems to be an unthinking way out.

However, in one study, I worked with Professor Tracy L. Dumas from Ohio University Fisher business school and Professor Katherine W. Phillips from the Columbia business school, in the study entitled "getting close to each other at the annual meeting: racial integration, racial differences and working relationships". We found that this method is not suitable for the increasingly widespread cultural diversity of working environment.

Unfortunately, getting colleagues closer together at the annual meeting seems to work only in a single working group: that is, only when these people come from the same group.

Our findings are based on two different sets of survey data.

The first group consisted of 228 business management students, 10% of whom were from a small number of people (apparently not fully represented), including African Americans, Native Americans, Latino Americans and so-called self proclaimed "others"; 13% were Asian Americans; most of the remaining 77% were white.

We see that another group is composed of 141 individuals working in the United States, most of them (68%) are white; the minority mentioned before accounted for 24%; Asian Americans accounted for 8%.

In these studies, we are concerned about racial differences, not just a minority group that is not enough to represent the whole.

Although ethnic minorities are more likely to find their differences from most people's perspective, our findings apply to those who are not ethnic minorities but work in diverse ethnic groups.

In this survey, we asked the respondents: how high is the participation in social activities sponsored by the company (what we call "integration behavior")? How much does it involve family members? How much personal life do they exchange with other colleagues? We also asked them how much they enjoyed or enjoyed the party, and finally asked how much they felt close to their colleagues.

The result is: Our findings strongly demonstrate that "integration behavior" enhances the feelings of employees with the same ethnic background, but in different races.

The middle display is unknown.

It's hard to share personal information with people who are different from your culture in your work environment. This is probably because you have envisioned how the other person will respond to you.

Where you learn, what music you listen to, what you like to do on weekends, and even the cultural background you mention may be totally different.

In fact, another study by my colleague, Katherine Phillips, found that when participants were very different, when they were involved in self exposure games (for example, small interaction in the office "know you"), they could effectively avoid ethnic differences, rather than actually narrowing them.

The above research and our research are expected to have a reappraisal effect on the "communication hypothesis" proposed by Gordon Allport in the classic book "the nature of prejudice" in 1954.

His original theory is that the more we associate with different people, the less our prejudices will be, and we will get closer.

Allport (1954) solemnly explains that this "communication hypothesis" will only play an important role in communication on the basis of peers.

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This informal way of "knowing you" is not enough for individuals who are racially diverse.

If you can't profit from it, why do people who are different from other colleagues still work hard to participate (our research shows that they do participate) company related social activities? Our other analysis indicates that most of them are motivated by external benefits, such as good performance appraisal, bonus, or coordination with them.

Expectations.

Ironically, a standardized corporate practice aimed at enhancing employee feelings seems to be ineffective for those who are different from most people who use different cultural backgrounds but seem to need them most.

What can managers do to improve the situation? They may need to make sure that employees feel that they have the option to work together with other colleagues or to talk about their private work life.

They may also have to pay attention to the quality of staff communication and to cultivate a corporate culture, that is, to accept and respect individual differences.

With all the lights of the banquet, the holiday tune and the joking and friendly jokes, understanding what really happened at the annual meeting is the first step in finding ways to promote effective communication among colleagues in a racial diversity organization.

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