Abstract

Recognition is essential in human social life. It is also critical in the workplace as one of the central communication activities that provides social cohesion, meaning and direction amongst colleagues and clients. Without expressions of recognition to others-formal and informal, high-context and low-context, social and structural, from a simple greeting to an affirmation for competent achievement, the workplace and the human behavior in it may become less than optimal and even dysfunctional. Expressions of recognition promote social cohesion. Based on a literature review and qualitative analysis, this article will provide an understanding of recognition in the workplace from a variety of viewpoints. It will explain recognition as central to the rationale of productivity, identify characteristics of its use and prevalence, discuss recognition as forms of behavioral guidance and social capital and exchange, before concluding to emphasize the role of recognition in the social and regulative functions of the modern workplace.

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