“One cannot hire a hand; the whole man always comes with it”
Peter F. Drucker – Pioneer of an approach to business management that put people and ethics before profits

“Bring your Whole Self to Work“ has almost become a battle cry adopted by numerous organizations in their attempt to attract and retain the best talent in what appears to be an ever-shrinking environment to work in. Its popularity (and importance) was galvanized by Mike Robbin’s highly successful book of the same name – Bring your Whole Self to Work. Published in 2018, it continues to influence and impact the discussions and strategies in boardrooms across the country and the western world. The difficult questions that all organizations must consider are the effects of the organizational culture on the overall success or failure of their companies. And this is exactly where Bring your Whole Self to Work comes in. We need only look at the extraordinary volume of business research, articles and blogposts that are dedicated to the topic of the whole self at work, to understand the significant influence it has had in business and perhaps, most significantly, in the field of Human Resources (HR).

In her book, HR Technologies, Stacey Harris writes a very interesting preface in the “About the Author” section of her book. Stacey has a lengthy resume in the field of HR, but she does not focus on this in the preface. Instead, she talks about visiting her father’s oil distribution complex in her youth, her first job in HR, her guidance by a mentor to pursue her ambition to be a researcher, her personal loss and her interrupted career.

Why did she choose to introduce herself and the book in this way? I think Stacey intuitively understands the importance of presenting herself and the material in a more human, compassionate and authentic manner; that the distinction between personal and professional is artificial at best and counter-productive at worst. This distinction, in the workplace, can absorb a great amount of energy and lead to conflict instead of collaboration.

But there does appear to be a reckoning by corporations, both public and private, that they have left behind the notion of the “whole person” in their drive for efficiencies. Now subsumed under the shorthand, “The Whole Self”, the integration of the whole person in an organization has gained the recognition it has long deserved.

Bringing the “whole self” to the workplace has, at its core, a cultural transformation in which employees can bring their true, authentic selves, to the workplace (whether virtual or in-house). The upside, according to advocates of this culture, is that employees are more comfortable, more likely to take risks and thus provide their personal input and creativity without fear of judgement by their colleagues.

One of the most influential advocates of employee authenticity is John Garrett, a former CPA, whose interview in a podcast is highlighted in Thomson-Reuters Accounting website. John Garrett writes a blog entitled, What’s Your “And.”, in which the “and” refers to a life passion or interest outside work (e.g., one can be an accountant and a painter). As a consultant, for strong cultural identity in a business, he suggests that leaders begin by sharing their own “ands” and asking their employees about theirs. Not only does the sharing of an “and” permit a leader to show some vulnerability, it also serves to humanize the workplace. John argues that having more dimensions makes you a better professional. In a competitive marketplace looking for employees, more “ands” allow the business to differentiate itself from others.

The pandemic, he believes, provides a perfect opportunity to introduce “ands.” He states, “Software is the same across the board. Technical skills are pretty much the same across the board. It’s your people’s personalities and outside of work passions… The core of your organization is the collective “ands” of your people, so shine a light on that.” https://tax.thomsonreuters.com/blog/the-importance-of-bringing-your-whole-self-to-work/

But are their pitfalls to bringing your “whole self” to work?

Laura Guillén, in a summary of a collaborative research study recently published Human Relations, explored the social and performance consequences of behaving authentically at work. Their hypothesis was “that when a person shares the values, priorities, and beliefs of the organization, their true self will be celebrated and appreciated by others. In contrast, if an employee does not identify with what their organizations and their fellow workers stand for, authentic behavior may lead to interpersonal conflict.”

As an example, she contrasts two managers in HR. One manager is trying to change the reward system from an individual to a team performance model in a family business with a strong communal culture. His performance model is embraced. The other manager shares these values but works in a company that prizes individual competition among colleagues. This manager’s authentic self is regarded as disruptive and unwelcome.

In a study of 251 computer engineers in Spain, she and her colleagues found that those employees whose values aligned with those of the organization were more likely to embrace authenticity from like-minded colleagues. In contrast, those employees who did not share these values engaged to a greater extent in interpersonal conflict and poorer performance ratings. They concluded, “…despite the undoubtful relationship between authenticity and individuals’ well-being, our findings suggest that the advice “be authentic” might not be infallibly good and must be prescribed with care in professional contexts given its potential negative consequences. https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/384484

For Stacey, her personal and work life have been interwoven and she has a more expansive view of the “whole self” that informs her views of HR and the promise of HR Technology. She writes about the purpose of her book:

“Work and our personal lives are not nearly as separated as we like to imagine in the corporate world, and Human Resources is the means by which these two worlds connect. Everything we do in HR and HR Technology has an impact on our business, our employees and ultimately their personal lives.

Sometimes that impact is noble and good, but in other cases that impact can be dangerous and disheartening. In a world where the stories about the abuse of power and technology abound, it can be easy to become cynical about organizations in general, and specifically about the role of HR and HR Technology. There is another side to this story though, and for every bad actor there are hundreds of hard-working HR professionals and technologists doing good every day of the year. This book is specifically for those people, the ones trying to figure out how organizational goals can coincide with human goals, and how technology can be responsibly harnessed to reach a better future.”