\u201cGrateful Leaders and Attentive Followers: How Grateful Attention Transmits the Cascade
\n of Gratitude Expressions to Strengthen Coworker Relationships,\u201d<\/a> and it appears in a recent issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology.<\/p>\nOver the course of three studies, the team examines and demonstrates how an act of
\n gratitude from a leader can inspire a middle manager to express an act of gratitude
\n to a subordinate.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGratitude has a more systemic impact compared to workplace rudeness,\u201d she said. \u201cIt
\n can also act as a kind of antidote to uncivil, gossiping or ostracizing work behaviors.\u201d<\/p>\n
Impactful Gratitude<\/p>\n
Locklear said the team\u2019s goal with this research was to demonstrate how gratitude
\n spreads differently than other leader behaviors or expressions.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team surveyed a sample of leaders and followers in the first two field studies.<\/p>\n
In study one, leaders and their direct followers completed a survey every other week
\n for six weeks. Middle managers reported on their leaders\u2019 behaviors and their own
\n expressions of gratitude.\u00a0<\/p>\n
In study two, administrative employees from a large southern university were surveyed,
\n and they reported on their leaders\u2019 expressions of gratitude and their own feelings
\n and expressions of gratitude.<\/p>\n
Locklear said this one-two combination allowed the team to see the cascading effect
\n of gratitude in study one and then focus on how gratitude spreads in study two.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Locklear and the team has termed this effect \u201cgrateful attention,\u201d a phenomenon where
\n leaders\u2019 gratitude tells employees what to pay attention to in the workplace.<\/p>\n
Grateful attention also helps employees see positive behaviors in their work environment,
\n providing more opportunities for them to express their own gratitude.<\/p>\n
The team then ran an experiment for study three that simulated the leader-follower
\n relationship. This would help demonstrate the impact of grateful attention across
\n three levels in a controlled environment.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A group of participants who were currently employed in management roles were designated
\n \u201cleaders\u201d and read an email from their hypothetical manager. The email was written
\n as either neutral or grateful in tone. The leaders then wrote an email to their hypothetical
\n follower.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The team found that when leaders received messages with gratitude, their messages
\n to followers were more likely to contain gratitude.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Those messages were then randomly assigned to a group of employees who acted as \u201cfollowers\u201d
\n who then wrote their own follow-up emails.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The same pattern of gratitude expressions begetting gratitude expressions appeared
\n once again.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s this cognitive element of gratitude that we unpack,\u201d she said. \u201cIn the workplace,
\n our attention is being pulled in many directions, so gratitude allows a spotlight
\n to be put on the generosity of others at work. Instead of seeing someone helping you
\n just as them doing their job, you suddenly see it as something to be grateful for.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Locklear-Lauren.jpg\")
Lauren Locklear (Photo Credit: Bryce Hutson, Rawls College of Business)<\/p>\n
Authentic Gratitude<\/p>\n
For leaders looking to foster grateful attention in their workplace, Locklear suggests
\n they keep things simple.<\/p>\n
For example, prioritize the \u201cyou\u201d in \u201cthank you.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA good way of doing that is expressing a thank you that explains exactly what that
\n person did as opposed to how it helped you,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just like, \u2018Hey,
\n thanks for your help on that task; it saved me three hours in Excel.\u2019 It\u2019s, \u2018Thank
\n you for sharing your Excel knowledge with me. I really appreciate you taking that
\n time.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Leaders should be intentional about setting time aside to express their gratitude.
\n They could block out time in their individual schedule or set aside time for gratitude
\n within already established meetings. \u00a0<\/p>\n
Leaders also need to ensure grateful expressions are done in a timely manner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you tell someone thank you for a small favor three weeks later, it might fall
\n flat,\u201d she said. \u201cYou want to make sure it\u2019s done pretty quickly after the event.
\n We want to make sure we\u2019re being perceived as authentic.\u201d<\/p>\n
Locklear stressed that being authentic doesn\u2019t necessarily mean the grateful expressions
\n are done privately or in a one-on-one setting. Quite the opposite: They may have more
\n impact if expressed publicly, be it during team meetings, through team instant messaging
\n channels or simply having a gratitude board to which leaders and followers can attach
\n sticky notes. \u00a0<\/p>\n
As more people witness grateful expressions, the likelier it is that gratitude spreads
\n to other places and aspects of the organization.<\/p>\n
What is perhaps most exciting is that Locklear is seeing grateful attention transcend
\n the workplace.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have some other in-progress work that shows when we have these grateful experiences,
\n we\u2019re taking that home with us to our personal relationships,\u201d she said. \u201cWe\u2019re more
\n able to see how our family members and our partner are helpful to us and are doing
\n things for us. We\u2019re then more likely to express our gratitude to them, and then our
\n gratitude spreads to them.\u201d<\/p>\n
In her own workplace, Locklear sees moments like Texas Tech\u2019s Sharing Gratitude series
\n as an example of making physical space for authentic gratitude.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy displaying the notes publicly, the gratitude board was a physical reminder and
\n nudge to those who passed it to think about the things they are grateful for. I think
\n this exercise allows for authentic gratitude because it is an opt-in model,\u201d she said.
\n \u00a0“In this way, the board helped to reinforce gratitude as an important aspect of Texas
\n Tech\u2019s culture.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n
Of course, Locklear was not shy about expressing her own gratitude for Texas Tech
\n and Rawls College.<\/p>\n
\u201cI wouldn\u2019t be able to do this work and research without the support of Texas Tech,\u201d
\n she said. \u201cFrom here, it\u2019s possible for me to ask research questions and chase interesting
\n topics I find inspiring.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Learn more about the Area of Management at Rawls College.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A research team led by Texas Tech\u2019s Lauren Locklear explores how gratitude spreads from leaders and impacts the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74585,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[168,170,169],"class_list":["post-400440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-lubbock","tag-lubbock","tag-lubbock-headlines","tag-lubbock-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=400440"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/400440\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74585"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=400440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=400440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=400440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Portrait](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/jacob-gordon.jpg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Three](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/group-.jpg\")
Mark Ehrhart, Meghan Kane and Lauren Locklear<\/p>\n