Toward a pedagogy of connection: A critical view of being relational in listening

Abstract

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) perspectives define interpersonal work experiences such as positive work relationships and high-quality connections by the mutual growth and empowerment experienced by relationship or connection partners. Listening has been implicated as a key mechanism for building such positive interpersonal work experiences, but it is unclear how listening spurs on mutual, rather than one-sided growth, in relationship and connection partners. In this paper, we argue that management education currently focuses on the intrapersonal capability of listeners to execute key verbal and non-verbal behaviors. Less emphasis is placed on the mutual experience co-created between speaker and listener and, thus, on the potential for mutual growth and empowerment. We articulate what “being relational” in the listening experience means, and use experiential learning theory to articulate how educators might create learning spaces for “being relational” through conversations between listener and speaker. Throughout the paper we contend with issues of individual and structural power asymmetries inherent in understanding listening as a relational process.

Communicating for workplace connection: A longitudinal study of the outcomes of listening training on teachers' autonomy, psychological safety, and relational climate

“…Further, listening is not an isolated skill that should be practiced separately from school life. Rather, it is essential to instill listening skills to allow teachers to experience listening integrally, which is necessary to build a positive work environment for teachers (Hinz et al, 2022), such as cultivating an openness to working in a culturally vibrant environment and with students from different cultures and backgrounds, promoting self‐awareness, and coping with failures.…”

Relationship-specific (dyadic) humility: How your humility predicts my psychological safety and performance.

“…Therefore, managers should encourage their employees to behave humbly toward each other and endorse programs developing humble behaviors among employees. For example, because listening was found to increase humility (Lehmann et al, 2021), and listening is considered a cue of humble behavior (Owens et al, 2013), organizations could consider incorporating listening training programs (Hinz et al, 2022; Kluger & Itzchakov, 2022).…”

A sound case for listening

“…Kluger and Mizrahi ( 2023 ), recognizing excellent listening in phone conversation, propose listening be defined by dyad members' unobservable acts of devotion to each other to co-creatively explore the other. Hinz et al ( 2022 ) echo the importance of relationships in listening, describing how knowledge is co-created during the conversational process of speaking-and-listening with others. The aforementioned findings appear to concur with what McLaughlin ( 2013 ) refers to as “the power of the aural connection” to deepen the learning process between coach and coachee during telephone coaching.…”