Is there contagion in your workplace? If not, your workplace may not be up to date. In fact, it may be deprived of some critically positive information.
One of the most active buzzwords currently in the U.S. is “contagion.” Contagion is so pervasive that it has been labeled (by sociologists and psychologists) prestigiously as “Contagion Theory.” The most concise definition of contagion theory is “collective behavior.” That is, crowds cause people to act in unison in a certain way, or crowds converge on a single idea. (On the darker side, it is sometimes referred to as “mob mentality.”)
Contagion is also the buzzword of the moment in new and promising concepts for workplace development. A word that was once primarily used to describe the spread of disease has now taken on expanded dimensions.
Emotional contagion, as defined by Wikipedia, is the tendency to feel emotions that are similar to and influenced by those of others. It represents a tendency to automatically mimic and synchronize facial expressions, vocalizations, postures, and movements with those of another person and, consequently, to converge emotionally. A study referenced in the Washington Post has shown that emotion can ripple through clusters of people who may not even know each other. In particular, happiness was found to be particularly “contagious,” and one person’s happiness has the potential to affect another’s for as much as a year.
According to a recent article from Dennis Whittle, CEO of Global Giving, prosperity can also be contagious. He has observed the restaurant scene in Portland, Maine, evolve in a dynamic way after “one or two really great chefs moved to town, and others followed.” Indeed, this concept holds great promise when one considers the impact it could have on a struggling economy.
So, what are the contagions nurturing/festering in your workplace? If there are contagions abound in workplaces across America (for good or evil), we all need to know about them.
