The workplace is not just a place of work. It’s a social environment subject to the same interpersonal experiences that happen in the sandbox. New studies in neuroscience break down what goes on in the brains of employees when workplace situations cause them to disengage.

In a recent webinar hosted by ICMA’s Center for Management Strategies, participants explored the inner workings of the human brain and its response to perceived threats in the workplace. Gerald Brokaw and Philip Harnden of the Commonwealth Centers for High-Performance Organizations explained the SCARF model, which stands for status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness. They detailed how when any of these elements are in danger, the brain perceives the situation as a threat.

When threatened, the brain reacts in ways similar to how it reacts when it senses pain. These changes in the brain are even detectible on a functional MRI. Brokaw and Harnden, explained how when threated, the brain kicks into survival mode, prompting primal, knee-jerk reactions to situations (think: fight or flight response). Over time, employees can unwittingly lower engagement as a means of self-protection. In other words, they reduce their level of injury to perceived slights in the workplace by simply not caring enough about their work. 

In this presentation, Brokaw and Harnden outlined the key drivers of high morale and shared their insights into how managers can achieve it and, as a result, boost productivity.