April is a month of significance for South Africans, as it marks the 29th anniversary of the country’s democracy and freedom. The mood and atmosphere during the first democratic elections on 27 April 1994 were filled with hope and belief that South Africa had finally overcome its past divisions and was ready to work together towards building an inclusive future. However, the road towards inclusivity and accommodating each other’s differences has proven to be challenging. This is where paying attention to social interactions in the workplace becomes crucial in improving the experience of freedom for everyone.

The Role of Interaction in Psychology

Psychology is the academic discipline that studies human behavior as influenced by individual and societal events. The focus of psychology is on conscious and unconscious phenomena that influence human behaviour, and the primary goal is to study human subjective experiences and perceptions in the context of social interactions. Matters of cognition, attention, emotion, personality, and subjective meaning attributed to relationships and events all form part of the discipline.

Our Personality and Social Interaction

Social psychology researchers have argued that there is a dynamic interaction between personality and social interaction. They assert that an individual’s behavior is an outcome of the continuous and reciprocal interaction between their personality and the situations they encounter. It is this interactionism that drives a person’s behaviour. In this sense we can see that corporate leaders’ personalities impact the organisation as much as the corporate leader is impacted by that organisation. To understand individual behavior, there must be an understanding of the social context of that behavior. This is true of colleagues who have to interact daily with each other. As much as they interact based on their respective backgrounds, they are impacted by how they interact with fellow colleagues.

Emotional Intelligence and Social Interaction

Emotional intelligence is one of the leadership enablers for social interactions in the workplace. It is relevant in several important ways, including the ability to manage employees effectively, inspire them to be productive, build and maintain mutually beneficial relationships with all stakeholders. Emotional intelligence strongly correlates with the ability to understand others’ emotions and their subsequent behaviors, and it enables appropriate understanding of nuances in social contexts where interactions take place. Given the above it must be important to recognize how improving emotional intelligence will improve social interactions in the workplace. In turn, this improvement is likely to lead colleague to feel free to be themselves in the workplace.

Spiritual Intelligence and Social Interaction

Spiritual intelligence is largely understood as the awareness and consciousness of interconnectedness between the self and other individuals, the organisation, society, the natural environment, as well as the transcendental. It is about the purpose and meaning one attributes to one’s life and creates an understanding of what is external to the self. Since there is a dynamic interaction between human behavior and the social context, then spiritual intelligence becomes the tool through which individuals become aware and conscious of themselves in relation to others. It therefore goes without saying that when we improve our spiritual intelligence we will improve the quality of our interactions. In this way, we are better positioned to allow others to feel included in workplace related activities.

Corporate South Africa will be a better place when leaders and employees alike improve their emotional and spiritual intelligence and seek out opportunities to have quality interactions in the workplace. Celebrate Democracy Month by improving the quality of diverse interactions in the workplace, and empower everyone to experience freedom to be themselves at work.

Let us work together to build a more inclusive and productive workplace environment for all.

Written by Our Founding Director Phyllis Ndlovu