ABSTRACT
In this essay, we propose an approach to transforming the institution of work through an untapped focus at the interpersonal level. The quality of workplace relationships is foundational to productivity and decent work for healthy societies. Yet, pervasive influences of prejudice and discrimination persist in ways that impede constructive workplace relationships, between managers and employees and among employees. We all have hidden biases in awareness and understanding of how power dynamics can limit our attention to helpful perspective taking. We also have hidden resources to be identified and developed to improve our workplace relationships across differences. These hidden resources are often unrecognized, unique, and shared personal aptitudes for empathic understanding, connecting, and working to advocate for constructive change. We can learn how to identify our biases and develop these resources in ways that challenge the power dynamics of automatic stereotyped assumptions and behavior while promoting attention to individuals and their strengths.
