To be kept in solitude is to be kept in pain and put on the road to madness. A person’s membership in his group—his tribe—is a large part of his identity.
—E. O. Wilson
People are a vital component of the performance of any organization and developing a workforce that is committed and loyal requires perpetual investment. A sense of belonging is an essential trait for competitive corporations because of its impact on performance. At the same time, it contributes to the emotional welfare of employees because it meets their fundamental need for connection1.
What energizes effectiveness in any organization is, first and foremost, a sense of inclusion and belonging and only then operational activities. In a healthy work climate, people have fun at work, perform their tasks with enthusiasm, and are happy to come to work in the morning.
Defining Organizational Culture
Peter Drucker famously said, “Culture eats strategy for breakfast.” You might have the best strategy in the world, but if your culture does not support it, there are costs. Organizational culture can be defined as a set of knowledge, practices, norms, and beliefs that make up the social and psychological environment of a group or business. It includes values, rules, and rituals that shape the attitudes and behaviors of the members of the group. The practices of individuals are, therefore, not spontaneous; they are “standardized” and conditioned by the culture. The values that make up this culture are ideals and moral principles that give broad guidelines to the group’s actions.
Culture drives many aspects of organizational life, including decision making, rewards, promotions, how people are treated, and so on. It influences people’s attitudes and behaviors at work and has a strong impact on performance. It defines how people act in difficult situations; how they handle pressure and challenges; how they treat customers, colleagues, and each other.
One of the ways to support belonging is to have an organizational culture that facilitates belonging. Another is to ensure that there is the sense of alignment between personal and organizational values.
Organizational culture is not static. It is particularly sensitive to the moods of the people who define it. It is created most strongly by the actions of the leaders of the organization—as always, actions speak louder than words here. It is not enough to simply have a transcribed vision and list of values. The goal is to generate an environment where people are engaged, passionate, and prepared to execute your strategy.
And, in today’s global world, one of the primary talents of leaders is the ability to manage change and leverage difference. They are required to deal with challenges, friction, and misunderstandings stemming from diversity, physical distance, and technology. This is where belonging fits in.
How can you as a leader make sure that you have created an environment and a set of values, norms, and practices that allow people from a variety of backgrounds to feel comfortable, recognized, and valued? Belonging inspires your team to feel safe and creates optimal conditions for health and well-being—and then for productivity. Without this, achieving your strategy can be very problematic.
Experiencing Belonging in Organizations
I found, when speaking to participants during the interview phase of my research, that a sense of belonging is developed by sharing the company’s philosophy, mission, and vision, and by advocating adherence to corporate values. Very often, it includes a strong awareness of organizational history. However, there needs to be a link between theory and practice, with espoused values being put into practice by the management team.
The EY 2019 Belonging Barometer2 undertook research with more than 1,000 employed American adults. The results showed that when people felt like they belonged, they were more productive, motivated, and engaged. It was reported that a strong sense of belonging leads to better collaboration, retention, and business performance. Besides this, it significantly reduces stress levels and improves physical health, emotional well-being, and performance.
Another important finding was that employees had an expectation for both belonging and diversity in the workplace. In fact, nearly half believed that diversity is best represented at work, and more than a third said that it was in the workplace that they most experienced a sense of belonging. They experienced a lesser sense of belonging in their neighborhoods and even in their places of worship.
Participants in the EY study (particularly baby boomers and Gen Xers) believed that a sense of belonging was engendered by being both trusted and respected. Likewise, by being able to speak freely and voice their opinions and by having their unique contributions recognized. When there was not a sense of belonging, the overwhelming emotion described was that of being ignored. Furthermore, according to another study, men tended also to feel stressed, while women reported feeling sad. It was also reported that millennials experienced loneliness as a result of not belonging, reporting that exclusion was a form of bullying.
My own research reflected a similar theme, where participants admitted that when inclusion, acceptance, and recognition were in alignment with the values of the organization, this was seen as essential to developing a sense of belonging in an organization. Besides this, an important aspect was the need for organizations to recognize their human side, with a management style focused on the emotions of individuals. It is not enough to talk about belonging—it must be promoted, and there must be real transformation. Human management in the workplace is an essential criterion.
According to participants, organizations should understand the shift in relationships from a balance of power to collaboration and communication. Employees want to have friends at work; connect with the organization’s mission and values; be included, accepted, and recognized; they want to be happy and healthy; and, above all, they want the work that they do to be meaningful. Excessive work hours are now not acceptable; they want to have free time to share with family and friends.
However, some participants also emphasized that the responsibility for developing a sense of belonging should not rest exclusively with the human resources office but also with managers and employees, affirming that everyone can work together to promote a safe, belonging, and inclusive work environment.
Nevertheless, an organization cannot be expected to create a sense of belonging if employees themselves are not willing to cooperate. Employees must strive to develop ties with co-workers, to show respect and affection. As one participant emphasized, you cannot belong if you do not make the effort to engage with others.
The role of leaders was also highlighted by participants. Employees are looking to their people managers to promote a happy work environment, where they feel safe to share their ideas, where they feel free to be themselves.
The feeling of belonging is the identification and specific attachment to a reference group adhering to shared values and characteristics. All the members of a social group must be aware of belonging to this group and must interact more or less directly with each other. This distinguishes a social group from a simple grouping of individuals.
Similarly, a team represents a group of people working collectively toward a common goal. It necessitates cohesion, communication, and collaboration, and importantly, it requires personal effort from all team members to make it work. Being in a team where there is a high trust and high psychological safety does not only translate into a high sense of belonging, it also renders into team effectiveness. While we know this to be true instinctively, it has been confirmed by research.
In 1999, Amy Edmondson, professor at Harvard Business School, identified psychological safety as a key factor for effective teams. This was described by her as:
A sense of confidence that the team will not embarrass, reject or punish someone for speaking up. It describes a team climate characterized by interpersonal trust and mutual respect in which people are comfortable being themselves.
This is not to be mistaken for being nice, she says. It is about giving candid feedback, openly admitting mistakes, asking for help, and learning from each other.
Psychological Study Project Aristotle by Google
The need for psychological safety was confirmed in a three-year-long study undertaken by Google, titled Project Aristotle. This name was to reflect the philosopher’s quotation that “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Google sought to build the perfect team, and the research team in 2011 set about studying hundreds of teams in Google’s 114,000 employees to find what made for the best results. They realized that there were certain group norms that defined teams, but despite the massive amount of data that they had, they could not find a consistent pattern of what made some teams more successful than others. Until they stumbled on the theory of psychological safety. They were then able to use their data to demonstrate that, regardless of the make-up or purpose of the team, the one consistent requirement for success was that people were equally heard, and that they had a degree of empathy for each other.
As Charles Duhigg3 wrote in the New York Times:
The paradox, of course, is that Google’s intense data collection and number-crunching have led it to the same conclusions that good managers have always known. In the best teams, members listen to one another and show sensitivity to feelings and needs.
Amy Edmundson agrees, stating in her book Fearless Organizations4, this sense of security and trust is essential for employee retention, as psychological safety is a fundamental part of the employment contract. When this is not the case, research suggests that it leads inexorably to higher turnover and absenteeism rates, lower productivity, and other harmful outcomes.
We all know when we are in a psychologically safe team, because it allows us to have critical conversations; it enables us to dare, meaning to challenge authority, give feedback in real time, build trust, and grow together. It can move successfully from a transactional to a relational model of communication. As Edmundson states in her book “Speaking up is only the first step… and then the true test is how leaders respond when people actually do speak up.”
When the team is not psychologically safe, it can have a devastating impact on its members. Indeed an interesting observation from my research exposed how participants felt in response to their own notbelonging either manifesting as emotional paralysis or brain freeze. Certainly, research shows that the fight or flight reaction effectively disables the executive function of the brain, leaving us with the raw emotions and less logical rationale.
From a Transactional to Relational Business Agenda
Our global business world is becoming increasingly relational versus transactional, so genuine connection means we have to focus on the whole person, the entire person, the person who shows up, and not the person we think they are. When we are part of an organization, a team, or a family where we are safe and included, this gives the feeling that our genuine self is applauded and admired. There is no persona as Carl Jung described, no guise, no pretext; rather, there is a feeling that we can take our masks off, be ourselves, and feel comfortable contributing. In teams where there is healthy belonging, people are allowed to be themselves, to meet themselves, and have a strong sense of being seen and heard. When people cannot be themselves, many will try to fit in by assimilating to the dominant culture. This phenomenon is known as covering or masking.
A Deloitte study of more than 3,000 people found that 61 percent of the people cover at work on at least one dimension. This is more prevalent if they are black (79 percent) or gay (83 percent). An interesting finding of this study was that over 40 percent of straight white males (often regarded as the dominant culture) said that they also masked at work. Clearly, the issues of inclusion apply to everyone. And, up to 73 percent of the people surveyed said that masking or covering was detrimental to their sense of self, and half said that it reduced their commitment to the organization.
Benefits of belonging for employees and organizations
A sense of belonging has benefits for both employees and organizations. When individuals feel that they are listened to, respected, accepted, and that their contribution is valued, this generates happiness, increases their motivation and commitment to the organization, productivity, and loyalty increase, and they will want to stay longer.
Being able to be ourselves is not about vulnerability—it is about nondefensiveness. It is about not having to manage your identity along with managing your job, as one participant in the Deloitte study put it. It allows us to be with our feelings. We can be with ourselves and then be with others. Organizations and teams that provide a supportive environment and caring behavior create a sense of trust and safety.
Indeed, an alignment of values is beneficial to both the employee and the organization. Participants believed that employees’ commitment to the organization’s mission will be higher, there will be more loyalty, and they will want to stay longer.
Identification with the organization’s mission and values seems to have the same effect on team members as having strong and stable social relationships with others. It is a source of happiness and has a positive impact on health. It is a key indicator for job satisfaction.
To develop a sense of belonging, people must be able to identify with the team, the organization, or the brand for which they work. Group membership is a mixture of a sense of usefulness to a group and solidarity with a team and is a powerful indicator of the spirit of belonging. It makes it easier for the employee to adapt the company’s values, codes, and ethics. They will find meaning in their activities and will be more efficient.
Power of Belonging: Reflective-Exercise
1. What are your thoughts, beliefs, and values about belonging in your organizational context?
2. How do your thoughts about belonging relate to your workplace relationships?
3. What alignments or misalignments vis-à-vis belonging do you notice within the organizational context?
4. Can you begin to reflect on the possibilities and the benefits of belonging within your organization?
Findings and Quotes From My Research
Alignment With the Values of the Organization
The affiliation between the values of the organization and the values of employees is an essential element in the development of the sense of belonging in organizations. Participants expressed their desire to fit into the culture of their workplace, and this included identification with the organization’s values, mission, and goals.
I am proud to work for my organization because I am part of a clear and concrete project and ambition. I am part of a group of individuals who share the same corporate values.
—Director of Operations, Telecom
When the work they do does not correspond to their own values, the disconnection with the organization can lead employees to look for other job alternatives. It can also negatively impact their health. Conversely, when they identify with the values of their organization and become involved in its mission and goals, their sense of belonging increases. This alignment contributes more to a sense of belonging than remuneration and conditions of employment.
Doing this interview has already made me aware how unsafe I felt… I couldn’t trust anyone… I was scared to talk about the real issues with the powers above me because I saw people who did got rejected and ejected in some way. I didn’t fit in and my health was actually impacted because I didn’t feel safe and I did not belong, so I left.
—Director, Oil and Gas Industry
How can we feel proud to belong to an entity if we find no meaning in it, if the direction is not clear?
—Head of Facilities, Transport Industry
Compensation or working conditions have no impact on the sense of belonging. A volunteer may feel a strong sense of belonging to a group because he or she feels recognized and shares its values.
—Head of Supply Chain, Manufacturing
Participants saw that leaders had a critical role in involving employees with the organizational values.
Employees look to managers to know the rules, to understand the company’s culture and how it operates. It is up to them to promote inclusive behavior among employees.
—Strategy Consultant, Consulting Industry
Some participants in management positions discussed their efforts to develop a sense of belonging through ensuring that employees knew the value of the work they performed and their contribution to the organization’s mission.
We have a very clear corporate mission that gives employees the feeling that they are contributing to something important to their company. This values their efforts and motivates them to move towards something they believe in.
1 Proof that positive work cultures are more productive HBR by Emma Seppälä and Kim Cameron, December 01, 2015.
2 EY Belonging Barometer study May 11, 2019.
3 What Google Learned From Its Quest to Build the Perfect Team New research reveals surprising truths about why some work groups thrive and others falter. By Charles Duhigg, NY Times Magazine February 25, 2016.
4 Amy Edmundson Fearless Organizations.