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Solidarity and Workplace Engagement: a Management Perspective on Cultivating Community

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Abstract

Solidarity corresponds to virtuous social behavior, including personal freedom and responsibility, civic friendship, benevolence, reciprocity, and cooperation. These attributes are fundamentally good for individual persons and communities of work. Solidarity is therefore vitally important to the practice of humanistic management. This paper aims to provide management insights into the cultivation of solidarity. The paper begins by developing a theoretical framework to understand solidarity in business context, with attention to philosophical and theological connotations. An empirical research model is presented in the form of a survey instrument to test for indications of solidarity in the workplace, and this measure is used to test several hypotheses regarding the positive associations of solidarity with validated measures of workplace engagement. Research results show that it is possible to identify and analyze workplace behaviors associated with solidarity. Data analysis confirms the validity of the model and demonstrates the positive associations of the hypotheses, based on empirical study of 40 workplaces and 399 employees. Moreover, the condition of whether the workplace was a public or private organization was found to affect the main relationship between solidarity and workplace engagement. The paper concludes with suggestions for practicable, tangible workplace behaviors based on the model, offering guidance in the pursuit of humanistic management.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Seattle Pacific University, Seattle, WA, 98119, USA

    Bruce Baker & Don Lee

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Appendix 1

Appendix 1

Work & Well-being Survey (UWES) ©

The following statements are about how you feel at work. Please read each statement carefully and decide if you ever feel this way about your job. If you have never had this feeling, cross the ‘0’ (zero) in the space after the statement. If you have had this feeling, indicate how often you feel it by crossing the number (from 1 to 6) that best describes how frequently you feel that way.

Almost never

Always

Rarely

Sometimes

Often

Very Often

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

Never

A few times a year or

Once a month or less

A few times a month

Once a week

A few times a week

Every day

1. At my work, I feel bursting with energy* (VI1)

2. At my job, I feel strong and vigorous (VI2)*

3. I am enthusiastic about my job (DE2)*

4. My job inspires me (DE3)*

5. When I get up in the morning, I feel like going to work (VI3)*

6. I feel happy when I am working intensely (AB3)*

7. I am proud of the work that I do (DE4)*

8. I am immersed in my work (AB4)*

9. I get carried away when I’m working (AB5)*

* VI= vigor; DE = dedication; AB = absorption

© Schaufeli and Bakker (2004a). The Utrecht Work Engagement Scale is free for use for non- commercial scientific research. Commercial and/or non-scientific use is prohibited, unless previous written permission is granted by the authors. http://www.wilmarschaufeli.nl/downloads/test-manuals-2/

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Baker, B., Lee, D. Solidarity and Workplace Engagement: a Management Perspective on Cultivating Community. Humanist Manag J 5, 39–57 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s41463-020-00084-9

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