Study: Good relationships with your people drive employee learning

What responsibilities do leaders have to foster employee learning? Well, obviously they should find out what skills employees lack or could improve upon, and arrange learning experiences in those areas.

But, less obviously, leaders can promote learning just by the quality of the relationships they have with employees.

A research study from Tilburg University in the Netherlands demonstrates that employees who maintain a close and trusting bond with their leader are more likely to take part in learning activities than those who don’t.

Ambition, persistence

To gather data, the researchers administered questionnaires to more than 1,100 employees and 233 leaders at a variety of Dutch organizations. They asked employees to self-assess their engagement in learning activities, the quality of their relationship with their manager, and what kind of/how much feedback they got from the manager. The researchers asked these same employees’ leaders to rate the employees’ learning engagement, and also quantify the relative difficulty of the activities the employees undertook.

Analyzing the responses, the researchers found a strong correlation between close manager-employee relationships and the degree to which the employee participated in learning activities.

Reciprocal dynamics

Notably, the researchers concluded, when employees have a relationship of confidence with their manager they show more ambition in choosing their learning goals and more persistence in achieving them. They do this, at least in part, to demonstrate loyalty to their leader and enhance the trust between them.

A separate but related dynamic was at work on the leader side, the researchers said: “Leaders invest more in employees whom they value and trust by setting difficult and specific learning goals and providing feedback.”

Advice to leaders

The researchers noted that their results pointed to both good and not-so-good news. The good: Employees who have close relationships with their managers are likely to learn more. The not-so-good: Employees lacking these relationships are likely to lag in learning.

Here’s what the researchers said: “Our findings reveal that leaders are inclined to treat subordinates differently, and … are more active and effective in encouraging learning activities when they have trusting, respectful and reciprocal exchange relationships with their (employees). Leaders should become aware of this tendency, and try to stimulate all employees to engage in learning activities, regardless of the exchange relationship.”

Translation: Don’t let the fact that you aren’t as close with certain of your employees lead you to neglect learning opportunities for them. Effective leaders need to maximize the skills of all their people, regardless of whether they’re bosom buddies or not.

This blog entry is based on the following academic study: Bezuijen, X.M., et al. (2010) How leaders stimulate employee learning: A leader-member exchange approach. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83, 673-693.