HUMAN RELATIONS IN THE WORKPLACE BY OLUSESAN S' ASEKUNOLARINMOYE PhD

1
HUMAN RELATIONS IN THE WORKPLACEBY OLUSESAN
S. ASEKUN-OLARINMOYE PhD VICTORIA O. AJALA
PhD
2
A PAPER PRESENTED AT THE 10TH UNIVERSITY
COLLOQUIUM OF BABCOCK UNIVERSITY TO NON-ACADEMIC
STAFF ON 14TH AUGUST 2006Theme Restructuring
for optimal productivity
3
WHAT ARE ORGANIZATIONS?

• a consciously and formally established entity to
  accomplish certain goals that its members would
  be unable to reach by themselves.
• systems theory gives a more comprehensive view
  of organizational processes and states that an
  organization is a managed system, designed and
  operated to achieve a specific set of
  objectives.- Bateman Snell (1999)

4
Objectives of organizations

• Make a profit for its owners
• Furnish its customers with goods and services
• Provide an income for its employees
• Increase the level of satisfaction for everyone
  involved

5
Types of organizations

• Profit money making
• Non-profit service
• Formal - bureaucratic
• Informal - democratic

6
Systems theory

• Recognizes that all parts of a system is
  interdependent on the other without one of the
  cooperating and collaborating parts, there will
  not be appropriate cohesion and this forces the
  system to grind to a halt.
• Recognizes that it is only when all parts work
  together that you can vouchsafe for efficiency
  and effectiveness

7
Systems theory contd

• Suggests that an organization is one level in a
  series of subsystems and each subsystem a
  component of the whole
• Suggests equifinality which places emphasis on
  the fact that there is no best one way of doing
  things thus, many different combinations of
  subsystems, ideas, and methods can lead to the
  same goal.
• Synergy which states that the whole can be
  greater than the sum of its parts.

8
WHAT MAKES GREAT ORGANIZATIONS?

• Quality of management
• Quality of products
• Innovativeness
• Long-term investment value
• Financial soundness
• Ability to attract, develop, and keep talented
  people right caliber people
• Community and environmental responsibility
• Use of corporate assets

9
People dynamics in Organizations

• Managers super ordinates
• Supervisors middle level
• Junior workers subordinates (large cache)

10
Types of Managers

• Traditional managers
• Contemporary managers

11
Traditional manager

• Thinks of self as a manager or boss
• Follows the chain of command
• Makes more decisions alone
• Hoards information
• Tries to master one major discipline, such as
  marketing or finance
• Looks up for direction and answers
• Accepts and does repetitive work
• See others primarily as bosses and competitors
• Demands long hours

12
Contemporary Manager

• Thinks of self as a sponsor or internal
  consultant
• Deals with anyone necessary to get the job done
• Invites others to join in decision-making
• Shares information
• Tries to master a broad array of managerial
  disciplines
• Questions, collaborates, and negotiates with
  others to find solutions
• Learns new ways to contribute
• Creates relationships based on common purpose,
  mutual respect and exchange of information
• Demands results

13
Managers Views of workers

• Theory X
• People, notably subordinates are lazy, reluctant
  to assume responsibility, lacking in ambition,
  require to be controlled and directed and if
  necessary, coerced and punished.
• Theory Y
• Assumes that individuals align themselves with
  organizational goals, require little control or
  direction, seek rewards consistent with their
  performance, accepts and relishes
  responsibility, possesses initiative, creative
  skills and is motivated by higher order needs for
  affiliation, esteem and self-actualisation

14
Workers views about management

• Administrative style (bossy or friendly)
• Information dissemination (timely or not)
• Participation in decision-making (participatory
  management)
• Consultation input to emergent issues
• Welfare emphasis on work rather than the
  person?

15

• These and more can bring about conflict in the
  workplace. Everyone must work assiduously to
  eliminate this potentially conflictual issues. It
  is only possible where there is congruence
  between Management on the one hand and Workers on
  the other.
• This is the ideal that I believe BU must work
  towards and that is why Human Relations is
  extremely important in the context of the
  workplace and even outside the work place.

16
Human relations

• Definition - being sociable, courteous and
  adaptable. Its about doing what is needed to
  minimize and go to greater lengths to resolve
  conflicts, real or imagined. Its about avoiding
  trouble with your fellow workers. Its about
  following protocol and using the chain of command
  in staying marginal within a certain pre-defined
  nomenclature.

17
Human Relations contd

• It is building and maintaining relationships in
  many directions with many kinds of people in both
  good and bad working environments.
• Effective human relations demand that you know
  how to handle difficult problems when they
  ariseworking under demanding and seemingly
  unfair supervisors. Dealing with an irate
  customer will surely embody even-temperate
  dispositions, never matching the customers
  anger. It's about building and maintaining
  long-term relationships with family, friends and
  allowing the workplace to be a good backdrop to
  emulate elsewhere. Romer, (2005)

18

• From the perspective of the Human relations
  school, whose foremost proponent was Chester
  Barnard (1938), human relations is about people
  and a whole lot of broader issues of
• Motivation Maslows hierarchy of needs
  Herzbergs two-factor theory Hygiene-context
  factors, company policy and administration,
  supervision/relationship with superior, working
  conditions, remuneration pay, salary,
  relationship with peers and subordinates, status
  and promotion and job security
  Motivators-context factors, sense of achievement,
  recognition, the work itself, responsibility,
  advancement, personal growth
• Autonomy (self-rule)
• Trust
• Openness in managerial and organizational matters

19
Organizational climate

• Human relations is about the climate in the
  organizational setting. Organizational Climate
  according to Mullins(1996) as quoted in
  Asekun-Olarinmoye(2006), is characterized by the
  nature of the people-organization relationship
  and the superior-subordinate relationship.

20

• These relationships are determined by
  interactions among goals and objectives, formal
  structure, the process of management, styles of
  leadership, and the behaviour of people.

21

• Ideally, a healthy organisational climate should
  have the following features
• Integration of organizational goals and personal
  goals
• The most appropriate organization structure based
  on the demands of the socio-technical system
• Democratic functioning of the organization with
  full opportunities for participation
• Justice in treatment with equitable personnel and
  employee relations policies and practices

22

• -mutual trust, consideration and support among
  different levels of the organization
• Open discussion of conflict with an attempt to
  avoid confrontations
• Managerial behaviour and style of leadership
  appropriate to particular work situations
• Acceptance of psychological contract between the
  individual and the organization
• Recognition of peoples and expectations at work,
  and individual differences and attributes

23

• Equitable system of rewards based on positive
  recognition
• Concern for quality of working life and job
  design
• Opportunites for personal development and career
  progression
• A sense of identity with, and loyalty to the
  organization coupled with a feeling of being a
  valued and important member. Mullins(1996)

24
Human relations impacts productivity

• Good atmosphere happy people high
  productivity organizational and personal growth
• Low morale unhappy people low productivity
  organizational decline and rationalization
  (restructuring)
• Commitment quotient - You need to make a strong
  and permanent commitment to invest your life and
  your talents in organizations pursuits and this
  deserves your best efforts. Achieving
  organizational goals allows you to reach your own
  goals and potential Go for it, and dont allow
  nothing to keep you off track!

25
What has attitude got to do with it?

• Everyone, from the most optimistic to the
  pessimist should from time to time go through
  some form of attitude adjustment. Stress on the
  job or because of same, along with not being in
  tune to handling problematic issues can spell
  angst cause unproductiveness and mismanagement of
  time. The former usually occurs when someone
  slips unknowingly into a pattern of negative
  behavior over a period of time. Some days may be
  better than others and the individuals focus is
  permanently skewed to the negative side of his or
  perception if change is not eminent. The latter,
  can be either self-imposed or caused by any type
  of excessive elements in the work environment.
  Job stress can be caused when workers set too
  many difficult goals for themselves and, as a
  result, move in an unorganized manner in too many
  directions at the same time

26
(No Transcript)
27
PR ASPECTS TO HUMAN RELATIONS

• Introduction - The word human simply means of
  or relating to mankind. And relations in the
  context of this topic means dealings between or
  among individuals, groups. In public relations
  we are talking about constantly making efforts at
  maintaining pleasant relationship with people
  whether with those people within or those outside
  an organization. Workplace for our topic is
  Babcock University premises, and Babcock
  University is full of PEOPLE, those within and
  those outside. There is no way human relations
  in the workplace will be discussed without
  relating it to public relations. In fact there
  is a very thin line between human relations and
  public relations.

28

• Human relations is an interdisciplinary study of
  social relations in the workplace that embraces
  sociology, social anthropology and social
  psychology (BNET Business Dictionary
  http//www.Google.com).
• Findings reveal that supporters of the human
  relations movement believe that workers want to
  feel part of a team with socially supportive
  relationships and to grow and develop.
  Motivation, communication, employee participation
  and leadership are significant issues.

29

• Public relations is human relations at work it
  is a critical aspect of developing any business
  organization. Everything a person says or does is
  part of the persons public relations campaign
  and particularly at workplace, the image workers
  project everyday for everyone they meet becomes a
  lasting impression in the minds of the people
  whether such people are visitors or even
  colleagues both senior and junior. Workers,
  therefore become a force in the public eye on a
  regular basis. Here we are talking about
  communication verbal and non-verbal. The point
  must be made now that non-verbal communication
  cues such as body language, facial expressions
  are especially important in conveying

30

• feelings, accounting for 93 percent of the
  emotional meaning that is exchanged in an
  interaction (Bovee Thill, 1989).
• Using public relations terminology, an
  organizations publics constantly focus on
  the workforce that they see as soon as they
  arrive at the organizations gates starting with
  the general environment, the security personnel,
  and the people that they come in contact with
  even before they enter an office. When they
  finally enter an office first impressions do
  really matter. For optimum productivity,
  therefore, Babcock University workforce must be
  at their best all the time, as it is natural for
  PEOPLE not to forget a negative impression.

31

• At Babcock University, the following are the
  publics of all categories of administrative staff
  members they are the people who form
  negative/positive opinions about each worker they
  come in contact with. They literally take the
  picture of the worker at each point of contact.
• Students present and prospective
• Parents existing and prospective
• BU Top level Management staff
• Visitors all categories
• Colleagues Senior and junior
• Alumni
• BU campus business ventures
• Senior and junior University Staff members at the
  following strategic units of the University,
  such as University Chapel University Library,
  Bookstore, BU Medical Centre, Food Services,
  Bursary, Human Resources Department,
• Deans, Professors and Head of Departments
• All Departmental staff members Academic and
  non-academic
• In fact every worker in all parts of the
  University that may have one thing or the other
  to do with administrative staff.

32

• The point should be made now that while a worker
  can easily make up with an internal staff member,
  it is not that easy with external publics they
  go away with whatever negative (and perhaps just
  a bit of) positive impression they might pick up
  from the workforce.

33

• A WORKERS PERSONALITY AT WORKPLACE
• Psychologist Dennis Coon (1986) describes
  personality as a persons unique and enduring
  behaviour patterns. He says that personality
  refers to the consistency in who you are, have
  been, and will become. Furthermore, he says
  that personality is the special combination of
  talents, attitudes, values, hopes, loves, hates,
  and habits that marks each person as unique.
• So, what kind of a person are you? What is your
  personality type? Coon (1986) lists some
  discernible traits of a persons personality.
  Let me just pick the most desirable traits that
  BU would be happy to have in all her
  administrative staff members warm humble kind
  cheerful honest good-natured reliable
  talented thoughtful sociable and confident.
  Any BU worker with a bit of each of these traits
  is already a first-class ambassador of this
  University. To me, an ambassador is definitely a
  public relations person.

34

• PUBLIC RELATIONS PERSONALITY CHECKLIST
• Wilcox, Ault and Agee (1992) present the
  personality checklist of
• an effective public relations personality to
  include, among others, the
• following
• Good sense of humour
• Friendly, meet people easily
• Able to persuade others easily
• Well-groomed, businesslike appearance
• Considerate and tactful
• Adept in use of words
• Able to gain managements confidence
• Enjoy being with people
• Enjoy listening
• Enjoy helping other people resolve problems
• Can cope with sudden emergencies
• See mistakes as learning experiences
• Respect other peoples viewpoint
• Perceptive and sensitive
• Quickly absorb and retain information.

35

• Babcock University administrative staff members
  must, apart from being competent at their jobs,
  like their work, the PEOPLE they work with, and
  be able to get along with PEOPLE.
• In conclusion, to achieve optimum productivity,
  BU staff members obviously need more PEOPLE
  skills. I wish you luck in this task.

36
Biblical components

• Romans 12 vs 18 If it be possible, as much as
  lieth in you, live peaceably with all men.
• Phillippians 4 8 Finally brethren, whatsoever
  things are true, whatsoever things are honest,
  whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are
  pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever
  things are of good report, if there be any
  virtue, and if there any praise, think on this
  things.

37
Last thoughts

• THINKING
• PERCEPTION
• ATTITUDE
• DISPOSITION
• COMMITMENT RATIO
• PEOPLE ORIENTATION
• GOD DIMENSION

38

• Thank you for listening