Szu Jan Joanna Lin, a professor in the management department of the Terry College of Business, was recently quoted in an article from SHRM about how family life could make people better managers.
There could be a strong link between running a department in a company and running a household, a new study suggests.
The “family” effect on management goes past conventional assumptions about how home life impacts work, Lin said. She’s the lead author in the study.
“I think we focus so much on the negative things about work/family balance or the demands of a family—people need to meet these family demands, so that’s why sometimes they couldn’t perform well at work,” Lin said. “Yet we’re finding that leaders could be more effective at work because of their family life.”
She pointed out that a supervisor’s positive interactions with family at home might affect how they cooperate with employees at work, such as “providing assistance and showing concern for employees, and … helping employees develop their strengths and showing enthusiasm about what needs to be accomplished on a specific workday.” Using those interactive lessons from home into work is a good lesson for all managers, Lin said.
The article continues to detail rising empathy in the workplace and a need to establish boundaries with regard to managing a workplace.
