Re-discovering humanity in the workplace: the role of Relational Goods in social development

Emergency-related transformative situations require businesses to react with courage and rapidness to address the incipient challenges. The recent COVID-19 crisis deeply affected world’s economies, consequently imposing a re-thinking of work activity and a re-organization of work environments themselves. The proliferation of virtual relationships, as a response to the digitalization of work, could increase the distance between the economy and real life. Companies are relational networks having a central role in the development of our society; indeed, if companies lost the profound human meaning of cohesion and innovation, the fabric of the society itself would be lost. Virtual relationships have disrupted existing routines. Therefore, social distance has increased the employees’ alienation. In this division between emergency situations and social development, the necessity to rediscover the role of human relations, conceptualized as relational goods, has emerged. Starting from this gap, the research aims to observe how relational goods -which derive from inter-subjectivity and reflexibility deriving from social relationships in the workplace- could increase the willingness to share information with colleagues and reduce turnover intention. Covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) was used on a sample of Italian SME employees to empirically validate the Relational Goods construct and test the hypothesized relationships. Theoretical and managerial implications were provided to highlight significant avenues for future research on reflexive and inter-subjective relationships on the workplace. 1 (AOM: 12469)