The Effect of Respect: Respectful Communication at Work Drives Resiliency, Engagement, and Job Satisfaction among Early Career Employees. (July 2023)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: LaGree, Danielle; Houston, Brian; Duffy, Margaret; Shin, Haejung
• Is Part Of: International journal of business communication. Volume 60:Number 3(2023)
• Page Start: 844
• Page End: 864
• Publication Date: 2023-07
• Subjects: workplace respect -- resilience -- positive employment outcomes -- leadership communication; Business communication -- Periodicals; 658.45
• DOI: 10.1177/23294884211016529
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2329-4884

Abstract

Today's business leaders face an unprecedented challenge of engaging and retaining young workers. We examined two facets of workplace respect to determine how leaders might combat this issue. A model was tested to examine the relationship of respectful engagement, autonomous respect, and occupational resilience on job outcomes. A survey of 1, 036 U.S. young workers aged 21 to 34, employed full-time, revealed that autonomous respect was a stronger predictor of occupational resilience than respectful engagement. Additionally, there was a significant positive relationship between occupational resilience and job satisfaction, employee loyalty, and job engagement. Finally, the relationship of both respectful engagement and autonomous respect on job outcomes was positively mediated by occupational resilience, further substantiating the positive benefits of respectful communication on employees' wellbeing and, ultimately, positive long-term business benefits.