The Theory of Human Relations - Essay Example

Running Head: People, Groups, and their Leaders People, Groups, and their Leaders Inserts His/Her Inserts Grade Course Customer Inserts Tutor's Name 05 October 2009 Introduction Human relations are an important aspect of modern social life and interaction between people. The theory of human relations covers such important issues as personal values, motivation, team and groupwork, etc. Researchers admit that the decision latitude for internal task distribution depends on the skill and competence level of the work group members. The barriers prevent team members and employees to communicate effectively and cooperate. The range of competences has to be seen in the context of group size and the complexity of the overall task. In larger groups with more complex tasks, overlapping competences might be sufficient; in other words, not every person has to be able to do everything Competence increases as time goes on, as individuals acquire new skills and problem-solving capabilities. Group Dynamics within Organization Following Lamberton and Minor-Evans (2009, p. 179), group dynamics is the important aspect of development in every organization as it improves growth and productivity issues. Multi-skilling and task rotation can vary according to individual preferences and their current level of competence, allowing group members to find suitable niches. Perceptual barriers mean that all people see the world differently. In order to understand each other, employees should pay a special attention to individual differences and different communication strategies. Perceptual barriers lead to poor performance and lack of cooperation between employees and departments. In order to rely on internal flexibility to deal with personnel fluctuations due to absences or changing output requirements, adequate personnel resources and sufficient time for planning are needed in addition to a certain degree of multiskilling of group members. Then the group will be able to balance the variances on its own. Human Relations and Group Dynamics Daft (2006, p. 81) admits that human relations aim to create trust and credibility among employees and motivate them. In this case, individualists view their team as an entity in and of itself rather than one that is connected to the external context and are therefore even less apt to use external sources of information to make corrections in their behavior and improve their performance. Particularly in individualistic cultures, team-based organizations need to have systems that help teams set realistic expectations. Similar ideas are explained by Topping (2002, p. 78) and Smith (1982, p. 51) who admit that positive human relations allow employees to stay motivated while at the same time remaining open to learning from feedback and mistakes. Doing so often requires extending team members' task skills. Task skills and effective performance is impossible without effective communication and positive climate. (Segriovanni and Glickman 2006, p. 52). Communication Pitfalls and Strategies for Success Segriovanni and Glickman (2006, p. 88) state that positive and friendly human relations can encourage sharing practices within and between organizations, observe and adapt to organizational environmental trends, and maintain awareness of cultural convergence. Elton Mayo underlines that HR professionals who can change their assumptions and are adept at modifying basic HR practices will be better poised to face future trends in the use of teams that are just on the horizon (Segriovanni and Glickman 200, p. 55). The effective communication is a critical tool for increasing employees' awareness of the value of their contribution to the organization's success and for creating a dialogue with their managers that can enhance the contributions that employees can make. Indeed, change and organizational transformation are unlikely to occur without new values being introduced into the performance management system. Dr. Irving Janis introduced such term as "groupthink". It means close interaction and communication between employees during decision-making and problem-solving situations. The selected communication channel is appropriate because it allows fast response and better coordination of all efforts (Lamberton and Minor-Evans 2009, p. 173). Thus, if an organization's goal is to increase worker participation, it must not overlook its computer applications. They can facilitate or inhibit information sharing and interaction within an organization, and thereby facilitate or inhibit the maintenance and growth of worker participation in the organization as well. Hoyle and Wilmore (2002, p. 44) suppose that effective communication is a core of team work and performance management bonding together all the elements of organizational success into a single, aligned process that channels employee performance toward the same organizational goals and reinforces and maintains that alignment through reward and recognition programs. If the power of this tool can be harnessed and used to the fullest, then organizations can better their chances of success in a highly competitive business world. The strategies of the company are to reduce resistance to change and prepare employees for future merger. Some employees, for whatever reason, will always view this type of change as a threat, and information will not be volunteered. Their strategy is one of turf protection and not one that furthers the overall corporate objectives. If left unchecked, their sentiments might spread like a virus to others within the organization and could completely shut down communication within the organization (Barker, 2001, p. 469). Leadership Lamberton and Minor-Evans (2009, p. 180) underline that leadership and its styles influence climate and morale in a group. They distinguish four styles: (1) autocratic, (2) consultative, (3) participative, and (4) free-rein. The strategy is appropriate as it allows leaders to improve human relations and create positive culture in all departments If the merging firms are separated by great distances, communication becomes all the more essential. When opening up a new office or division in a new city, state, or country, plans are made well in advance to maintain communication. Periodic meetings, reports, or visits by management are all traditional methods of keeping in touch with the field office and keeping it in check. Warren Bennis distinguishes between leadership and management functions and underlines that leadership is more complex behavior based on charisma and power of a person (Lamberton and Minor-Evans 2009, p. 181). Leadership and management should be seen as a process by which knowledge that resides in one or more people comes to be represented in one or more others. Certainly the transfer of knowledge is not the only thing that happens in communication, and for certain purposes it may not be the most useful way of thinking about the process. Underlying the knowledge transfer view of communication is the assumption that any communicative act rests on a base of mutual knowledge. Likewise, steps must be taken in advance to ensure that the communication between the merged organizations is maximized. Temporary relocations may be necessary to ensure that information is transferred to the appropriate personnel (Charan et al 2001, p. 72). Leadership Power and Authority Working with people, a special attention should be given to power and authority. Leaders should develop an effective communication strategy in order to improve interpersonal communication and morale. Leaders should choose the best communication style to change current culture and communication. The best style is consult/join style. The advantage of this style is that it will help leaders to communicate with employees and meet their expectations and needs. The strategy will be based on audience strategy approach which allows the manager to meet diverse interests and needs of employees. This will prevent the emergence of narrow group self-interest and will help preserve equities among the entire workforce. Thus a balance must be maintained between decentralization of rules and unit functional autonomy and consistency of certain principles and practices across units. Otherwise, autonomous units will tend to develop animosity and competitive relations with other units. A coordinator might be elected by the group to handle external communication. To avoid the development of hierarchies or unintended supervisory roles and conflicts of interest, the role of the coordinator should be rotated. People respond differently to certain working conditions or task demands (Segriovanni and Glickman 2006, p. 58). What is seen as a challenge by one individual may be experienced as stressful by another person. Negative effects on psychological and social well-being occur if a person feels qualitatively or quantitatively overloaded or underutilized. The persistence of such factors over time can result in symptoms of stress-related illnesses and long-term negative health effects. In general, the potential a job offers for personal development increases with more individual and collective discretion in decision-making and organization of work activities (Armandi et al 2003, p. 1076). In human relations, power plays a role of a driven factor and a control tool. The types of power are "legitimate power, coercive power, reward power, networking power, charismatic power and expert power" (Lamberton and Minor-Evans 2009, p. 179). Moreover, each organization has to find its own approach how to implement change, reduce resistance and achieve higher productivity. As restructuring process in an organization can bring to a variety of issues related to resistance to change and culture breakup or, the opposite, to a high standard performance, it is important to have a detailed management plan, create an appropriate organizational environment to deliver change, follow carefully the steps of change models and focus on human resources. there can be deferent types of change related to different systems and processes within an organization. According to Mullins (2007), the most common are cost reduction, redundancies, and culture change and performance improvement. It happens often when organizations have to restructure departments and redundant some positions in order to cut costs and achieve efficiency. Arguably, people remain the 'key factors' in organizational change. The best strategies for employees are commitment, compliance, or resistance. Therefore, it is reasonable to draw attention to the staff motivation, in order to deliver successfully the change and to eliminate individual resistance. At this point, it might be helpful to implement theoretical approach to the restructuring process. Conclusion In sum, a new business environment changes the role of managers and leaders within an organization and demands greater flexibility of their authority and responsibilities. The main requirements imposed by modern business are effective group dynamics, problem-solving and decision-making skills, understanding of leadership and management concepts and their practical application in modern organization, power and authority within an organization. The research proves that effective managers should possess leadership skills and abilities in order to manage modern staff. In their turn, leaders require management skills in order to foreshadow possible changes and problems within organizations. Essentially, the leadership philosophy is a way of thinking about corporate activity; a frame of mind; an attitude. It recognizes the primacy of consumers and customers as they influence all business operations. It starts with the company's chief executive, who must recognize that, lacking markets for the company's products and lacking customer wants and needs, no business can exist. Modern management and leadership cover the application of management techniques in the utilization of marketing resources. This philosophy will help managers to create positive teamwork and organizational environment. References Armandi, B., Oppedisano, J., Sherman, H. (2003), Leadership theory and practice: a "case in point. Management Decision. 41 (10), 1076 - 1088. Barker, R.A. (April 2001). The nature of leadership Human Relations. 54 (4), 469 Charan, R., Drotter, S., Noel, J. (2001). The Leadership Pipeline How to Build The Leadership-Powered Company, Jossey Bass: San Francisco. Daft, R. (2006). The Leadership Experience, Thompson South-Western; 3 edition. Hoyle, J.R., Wilmore, E.L. (2002), Principal Leadership: Applying the New Educational Leadership Constituent Council (Elcc) Standards. Corwin Press. Lamberton, L., Minor-Evans, L. (2009). Human Relations: Strategies for Success. Career Education; 4 edition. Career Education. Segriovanni, Th., Glickman, K. (2006), Rethinking Leadership: A Collection of Articles. Corwin Press; 2nd edition. Smith, J. (1982), Managers and supervisors: A problem of relationships. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, 10 (4), 51 - 52. Topping, P. (2002), Managerial Leadership, McGraw-Hill: New York.. Read More