Chapter One Introduction to Interpersonal Relations.

Chapter One

Introduction to Interpersonal

Relations

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 | 2

Chapter Preview

• Career success and work/life balance

• Nature, purpose and importance in organizations

• Major developments in field

• Forces influencing behavior

• Historical overview of field

• Seven themes for effectiveness


The Nature, Purpose and Importance of Interpersonal Relations

• Best-managed organizations…– understand work is done through

relationships

• Interpersonal relation is the study of why beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors can cause problems in personal and professional relationships


Interpersonal Relations in theAge of Information

• Industrial to information economy

• Alters traditional patterns of work and leisure

• Dynamic, but disorienting and stressful

• Over emphasis on information can limit one’s effectiveness

• Human-contact deficiency weakens the spirit, the mind, and the body


The Importance of Interpersonal Skills

• Interpersonal skills essential for success in most jobs

• Technical competencies not sufficient for success

• Recent trends in the workplace give new importance to human relations


Trends: Instability of Labor Market and Changing Work Patterns

• Worker dislocation due to restructuring

• Can result in:– Low moral– Mistrust of management

• New opportunities and challenges– Increase in temporary workers– More self-employed and contract

employees “Free Agent Nation”


Trends: Focus on Customer Service

• Service economy

• Technology and financial structure are easily copied, so the advantage is not sustainable

• Relationships are key to sustainable competitive advantage and they are difficult to copy


Total Person Insight

No matter what we do, we do it with people. People create technology. People implement the technology. People make it all happen. People ultimately use whatever it is we create. No matter how small your organization or how technical its process, it takes people to be successful.

Harry E. ChambersAuthor, The Bad Attitude Survival Guide


Trends: Workplace Incivility andTeam Work

• Rudeness, insensitivity, disrespect• “Me” rather than “We” attitudes• Workplace incivility threatens employee

relationships• Using teams can

– Improve product quality, customer service, and job satisfaction

• Developing team skills– Group decision making, leadership, conflict

resolution, and communication


Trends: Diversity and Income Gap

• Heterogeneous work force

• Need to increase tolerance and understanding for differences in:– Age, gender, race, and physical traits

• Socioeconomic status influenced by:– Income, job, education

• Gap creates resentment and distrust

• Wage gap keeps getting bigger

• Impacts physical and mental health


Challenges of Today’s Workplace:

• Wide range of interpersonal skills are needed

• People must manage three types:– Relationships with ourselves– One-to-one relationships– Group relationships


Figure 1.1 - Major Relationship Management Challenges


Manage Three Relationship

• Ourselves– Positive self image and self-confidence

• One-to-one– Client/customer focus– Biases

• Group– Cooperation among members


Human Relations Draws on Behavioral Sciences

• Psychology Individual

• Sociology

• Anthropology Group dynamic

• Focus on “why” of human behavior


Beyond Human Behavior….

• The field of human relations goes further than “why”

• Emphasis on applied:– Anticipation of problems– Resolution – Prevention


The “Total Person”

• Each person’s characteristics part of single system making up the whole person

• Only “total person” can be employed

• Traits are interdependent:– Physical fitness -Emotional control– Self-awareness -Self-esteem– Value orientation


The “Total Person”

• Organizations recognizing that when a whole person is improved, significant benefits accrue to the firm

• Organizations can separate:– Work and home– Emotional and physical

• Many employee development programs are being established



The rules for work are changing, and we’re all being judged, whether we know it or not, by a new yardstick—not just how smart we are and what technical skills we have, which employers see as givens, but increasingly by how well we handle ourselves and one another.

Daniel Goleman

Author, Working with Emotional Intelligence


The Need for a Supportive Environment

• A positive and supportive environment can lead to:– Greater personal career satisfaction– Greater employee commitment– Increased organizational productivity and

efficiency

• Requires full commitment and support of management


Figure 1.2 - Major Forces Influencingworker Behavior


Organizational Culture

• Collection of shared values, beliefs, rituals, stories, and myths that create a common identity and feelings of community among employees

• Every organization has unique culture

• Reflection of deeply held values and beliefs of top management


Supervisory-Management Influence

• Managers hold key position and influence employee behavior

• Competence and leadership style establish image in eyes of employees

• Perceptions influence factors such as:– Productivity– Customer relations– Safety– Loyalty to the firm



Jobs do a lot more than merely provide income. They provide the opportunity to learn and enhance skills, to have some control over one’s fate and, perhaps most important, to gain a sense of self-worth, a sense of carrying one’s own weight.

William Raspberry

Syndicated Columnist


Work Group Influence

• Research has identified three functions of group membership.

• It can:– Satisfy social needs– Provide emotional support– Lend assistance in solving problems and

meeting goals


Job Influence

• Work has taken central stage in the lives of many

• Can more than satisfy economic needs

• Provide sense of meaning, community, and self-esteem


Personal Characteristics of the Worker

• All employees bring combination of:– Abilities and interests -Aptitudes– Values -Expectations

• Behavior often reflects match between environment and individual’s characteristics

• Creating ideal work environment to meet all needs is a challenge


Family Influence

• Need for balance between work and family

• Increase in dual-income families

• Problems on the job often linked to family

• Many organizations attempt to create family-friendly environment


Human Relations Movement

• Early attempts to improve productivity focused on plant layout and mechanical processes

• Focus has changed to:– nature of work– workers as complex human beings

• Shift from concern for things to concern for people


The Industrial Revolution

• Marked shift from home-based processes to factory production

• Little understanding of employee needs and relation to production

• Limited productivity and uniformity of work

• Profound impact on nature of work and role of worker


Taylor’s Scientific Management

• Frederick Taylor redesigned jobs to optimize efficiency

• Resulted in more productivity, but required little thinking by worker

• Theories became very popular among business owners and managers



You can only get so much more productivity out of reorganization and automation. Where you really get productivity leaps is in the minds and hearts of people.

James Baughman

Director of Management Development, General Electric Co.


The Hawthorne Studies

• Mayo studied effects of illumination and ventilation on worker fatigue

• Became sweeping investigation into role of human relations in productivity

• Workers increased performance when they felt important and had greater freedom from supervisory control

• Interaction among workers created an “informal organization”


From the Great Depression to the New Millennium

• During Great Depression– Interest in human relations research waned

as other concerns gained momentum– Labor unions increased campaigns to

improve working conditions and pay

• During postwar economic expansion– Interest in human relations field increased – Important theories emerge


During the 1940s

• Douglas McGregor – Performance related to tapping human

potential

• Abraham Maslow– Hierarchy of needs

• Frederick Herzberg– Employee motivation and satisfaction


The 1950s and 1980s

• Eric Bern– Interpersonal communication and

transactional analysis

• Carl Rogers– Personality development, interpersonal

communication and group dynamics

• William Ouchi– Theory Z style of management

• Tom Peters and Robert Waterman– Importance of people in organizations


Major Themes

• Seven broad themes emerge from these studies of human relations– Communication, self-awareness, self-

acceptance, motivation, trust, self-disclosure, and conflict resolution

• Themes concern two goals: – Personal growth and development– Achievement of organizational objectives


Figure 1.3 - Major Themes in Human Relations


Communication

• “Heart and soul” of communication

• Means by which we come to an understanding of ourselves and others

• To grow and develop, we must communicate skillfully and effectively


Self-Awareness

• Good relationships with others stem from a better understanding of ourselves

• Increased self-awareness helps us develop an understanding of how our behavior influences others


Self-Acceptance

• The degree to which you like and accept yourself is the degree to which you can like and accept others

• Self-acceptance is the key to successful interaction with others

• Able to cope better with change, responsibility, diversity, and teams


Motivation

• Motivation of self – Comes from within

• Motivation of others – Comes from understanding complex

motivation theories and strategies


Trust

• Building block of successful relationships

• Trust– Frank discussion– Free exchange of ideas and information

• Lack of trust– Reduced productivity and communication– Stifled innovation, high stress, slow

decision making


Self-Disclosure

• Self-disclosure is an intricate part of building trust

• Constructive part of good communication and helps eliminate unnecessary guessing


Conflict Resolution

• Surfaces daily in our lives

• Resolution strategies improve communication, emotional control, and team building


Benefits to You

• Uncertainty and diversity make interpersonal skills essential

• Provides techniques for solving people-related problems– Act more wisely when problems arise– Anticipate conflicts or prevent them from

escalating


Chapter Review

• Career success and work/life balance– All work is done through relationships– Types of interactions-conflict, cooperation,

and group relationships– People are more productive with effective

relationships with supervisor, fellow workers, customers, and clients


Chapter Review

• Nature, purpose, and importance in organizations– Organizations depend on teamwork– Human relations is the foundation of

teamwork– Human relations can improve productivity

and efficiency


Chapter Review

• Major developments in the workplace– Churning dislocation in the labor market– Changing work patterns– Higher service standards– Workplace incivility– Team-based structures– Diversity– Income gap


Chapter Review

• Forces influencing behavior– Organizational culture– Supervisory-management influence– Work group influence– Job influence– Personal characteristics of worker– Family influence


Chapter Review

• Historical overview of field– Early attempts focused on plant layout and

mechanical processes– With time, nature of work was redefined

and worker viewed as complex human beings

– Taylor’s scientific management– Mayo’s Hawthorne studies– McGregor, Herzberg, Rogers, Ouchi, and

others contributed to productivity through people


Chapter Review

• Seven themes for effectiveness – Communication– Self-acceptance– Trust– Conflict resolution– Self-awareness– Motivation– Self-disclosure

Chapter One Introduction to Interpersonal Relations.

Documents

Transcript of Chapter One Introduction to Interpersonal Relations.