{{B}}Doing Favours at Work{{/B}}
Productivity rises when workers help each other more. Francis Flynn, of Columbia University's business school, studied 161 engineers working for a telecoms firm near San Francisco. They work in eight teams, but each individually sorts {{U}}(31) {{/U}} detailed engineering problems sent in from around the country. Mr. Flynn asked each employee to report how {{U}}(32) {{/U}} he swapped help with each member of the team and who had given relatively more in their exchanges. Thus, he looked separately at the frequency with {{U}}(33) {{/U}} individual workers made such swaps and at how one-sidedly generous they were. He also asked employees to rate how highly they regarded one {{U}}(34) {{/U}}
Mr. Flynn correlated the answers he got with information from the firm on employees' productivity. He found that generous employees who got little {{U}}(35) {{/U}} exchange were well-regarded by colleagues. Employees who helped colleagues generously but did not receive help in return were less productive. Those who received as well as gave {{U}}(36) {{/U}} relatively more productive, particularly those who helped each other most often. A pattern of frequent giving and receiving boosted {{U}}(37) {{/U}} productivity and social standing.
Why {{U}}(38) {{/U}} productivity rise when employees frequently swap help? Mr. Flynn has two explanations. First, as employees learn more about the resources they can offer each other, they develop a more-efficient pattern of requesting and giving help. Second, helpful employees learn to trust each other more, and become willing to do bigger favours because they feel more sure {{U}}(39) {{/U}} the likelihood of reciprocation. And, of course, it is nicer to work with helpful people {{U}}(40) {{/U}} with the other sort.