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Modern Human Relations
Rationale
Human Resource Development (HRD) is the use of training, organisational development, and career development efforts to improve individual, group, and organisational efficiency to mobilize workforce.
Human Resource Development helps to:
- Develop the key competencies that allow individuals in organizations to perform current and future jobs, through planned learning activities
- Groups within organizations initiate and manage change
- Ensure a match between an individual and organisational needs.
Definition
- Human resource development is concerned with providing learning and development opportunities, making training interventions and planning conducting training programs. It is essentially a strategic process, which is concerned with meeting both business and individual needs.
According to T.V.Rao, "HRD is a continuous planned process by which employees are helped"
There are several competing definitions for HRD including things such as unleashing human potential, training and development, career development, organisational performance, complex systems, organisational change and development, and other issues. The publications of the Academy of Human Resource Development (www.ahrd.org) have many thriving examples of HRD practice, theory, and application.
Typical HRD Practices
- Executive and supervisory/management development
- Professional skills training
- Technical/Job instruction and coaching
- Sales and marketing training
- Customer service training
- New employee orientation
- Health and safety training
- Organisational development consultation
Organization Development is the process through which an organization develops the internal capacity to be the most effective it can be in its mission work and to sustain itself over the long term. This definition highlights the explicit connection between organisational development work and the achievement of organisational mission. This connection is the rationale for doing OD work. Organization development, according to Richard Beckhard, is defined as: a planned effort, organization-wide, managed from the top, to increase organization effectiveness and health, through planned interventions in the organization's 'processes', using behavioural science knowledge.[1]
There are also a number of methodologies specifically dedicated to Organization Development such as Peter Senge's 5th Discipline and Arthur F. Carmazzi’s Directive Communication. These are a few of more popular approaches that have been developed into a system for specific outcomes such as the 5th Discipline's learning organization” or Directive Communications Organisational culture enhancements.
According to Warren Bennis, organization development (OD) is a complex strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values,and structure of organizations so that they can better adapt to new technologies, markets, and challenges.
Warner Burke emphasizes that OD is not just "anything done to better an organization"; it is a particular kind of change process designed to bring about a particular kind of end result. OD involves organisational reflection, system improvement, planning, and self-analysis.
The term "Organization Development" is often used interchangeably with Organisational effectiveness, especially when used as the name of a department or a part of the Human Resources function within an organization.
Organization Development is a growing field that is responsive to many new approached including Positive Adult Development.
Learning Objectives and Outcomes
This is a non-taught unit designed for self-directed study by those intending to enhance their professional or managerial competence, knowledge, understanding, and skills in human resource management.
Knowledge
After completing the course, student will understand
1. the concepts and nature of organisational and human resource development
2. the fundamentals of workforce motivation
3. the basic components of human behaviour systems model
4. group dynamics and individual and group behaviour
5. how technology might affect people and their performance at work
Skills
After completing the course, student will be able to
1. review the existing job design principles and suggest improvements where appropriate
2. conduct employee appraisals
3. deal with workplace conflicts
4. participate in the planning and implementations of the future human resource development changes and policies
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Introduction
Human Relations Movement refers to those researchers of organisational development who study the behaviour of people in groups, in particular workplace groups. It originated in the 1920s' Hawthorne studies, which examined the effects of social relations, motivation and employee satisfaction on factory productivity. The movement viewed workers in terms of their psychology and fit with companies, rather than as interchangeable parts.
"The hallmark of human-relation theories is the primacy given to organizations as human cooperative systems rather than mechanical contraptions."
George Elton Mayo stressed the following:
- Natural groups, in which social aspects take precedence over functional organisational structures
- Upwards communication, by which communication is two way, from worker to chief executive, as well as vice versa.
- Cohesive and good leadership is needed to communicate goals and to ensure effective and coherent decision making
(Wilson & Rosenfeld, Managing Organizations, McGraw Hill Book Company, London, p.9.)
It has become a concern of many companies to improve the job-oriented interpersonal skills of employees. The teaching of these skills to employees is referred to as "soft skills" training. Companies need their employees to be able to successfully communicate and convey information, to be able to interpret others' emotions, to be open to others' feelings, and to be able to solve conflicts and arrive at resolutions. By acquiring these skills, the employees, those in management positions, and the customer can maintain more compatible relationships.
(DuBrin, A. J. (2007). Human Relations Interpersonal Job-Oriented Skills, Pearson Prentice Hall, 9th. ed., New Jersey, p. 2.)
Institutes where human relations are studied include:
1. the Tavistock Institute, co-publishers of the Human Relations journal;
2. the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioural Science;
3. The Oasis School of Human Relations, Masters Degree in Globally Responsible Leadership (Oasis Press publishes human relations books and manuals);
4. Trevecca Nazarene University, Bachelors Degree in Management and Human Relations for working adults;
5. the University of Oklahoma offers a Bachelor of Arts in Human Relations, as well as a Master of Human Relations;
6. the Concordia University (Montreal, Canada) offers a Bachelor of Arts in Human Relations, as well as a Master of Human Systems Intervention.
See also
The Social System
Tutorials
Readings
Human behaviour refers to the range of behaviours exhibited by humans and which are influenced by culture, attitudes, emotions, values, ethics, authority, rapport, hypnosis, persuasion, coercion and/or genetics.
The behaviour of people (and other organisms or even mechanisms) falls within a range with some behaviour being common, some unusual, some acceptable, and some outside acceptable limits. In sociology, behaviour in general is considered as having no meaning, being not directed at other people, and thus is the most basic human action. Behaviour in this general sense should not be mistaken with social behaviour, which is a more advanced action, as social behaviour is behaviour specifically directed at other people. The acceptability of behaviour is evaluated relative to social norms and regulated by various means of social control.
The behaviour of people is studied by the academic disciplines of psychiatry, psychology, social work, sociology, economics, and anthropology.
See also
External links
There are therefore five major components of the individual in this systems model of human behaviour
- Cognitive component -- Perceives, stores, processes, and retrieves information
- Affective component -- Can modify perceptions and thoughts before and after they are processed collagenolytic
- Conative component -- Directs and manages input and output functioning
- Spiritual component -- How we approach the unknowns of life, how we define and relate to the sacred
- Behavioural system -- Overt action of organism (output of the individual)
Group behaviour in sociology refers to the situations where people interact in large or small groups. The field of group dynamics deals with small groups that may reach consensus and act in a coordinated way. Groups of a large number of people in a given area may act simultaneously to achieve a goal that differs from what individuals would do acting alone (herd behaviour). A large group (a crowd or mob) is likely to show examples of group behaviour when people gathered in a given place and time act in a similar way—for example, joining a protest or march, participating in a fight or acting patriotically.
Special forms of large group behaviour are:
2. spectators - when a group of people gathered together on purpose to participate in an event like theatre play, cinema movie, football match, a concert, etc.
3. public - exception to the rule that the group must occupy the same physical place. People watching same channel on television may react in the same way, as they are occupying the same type of place - in front of television - although they may physically be doing this all over the world.
Group behaviour differs from mass actions which refers to people behaving similarly on a more global scale (for example, shoppers in different shops), while group behaviour refers usually to people in one place. If the group behaviour is coordinated, then it is called group action.
Swarm intelligence is a special case of group behaviour, referring to the interaction between a group of agents in order to fulfil a given task. This type of group dynamics has received much attention by the soft computing community in the form of the particle swarm optimization family of algorithms.
See also
- bandwagon effect
- behavioural sink
- Belbin Team Inventory
- collective consciousness
- collective effervescence
- collective hysteria
- collective intelligence
- crowd psychology
- group conflict
- herd behaviour
- Keeping up with the Joneses
- mob rule (ochlocracy)
- moral panic
- peer pressure
- social anthropology
- social behaviour
- social comparison theory
- spiral of silence
External links
- Monkey Software to generate optimum groups based on the web of relationships between members
- Termites Software to generate optimum seating plans just like Monkey
The Technical System
Tutorials
Readings
Technology and People at Work
See also
- Impact of Information Systems on Society
- Week 1, Interview with Carolyn Axtell of the University of Shefffield on the impact of information technology on people at work
- New PC to encourage older users
- Introducing simplicITy computers
Productivity is a measure of output from a production process, per unit of input. For example, labour productivity is typically measured as a ratio of output per labour-hour, an input. Productivity may be conceived of as a metric of the technical or engineering efficiency of production. As such, the emphasis is on quantitative metrics of input, and sometimes output. Productivity is distinct from metrics of allocative efficiency, which take into account both the monetary value (price) of what is produced and the cost of inputs used, and also distinct from metrics of profitability, which address the difference between the revenues obtained from output and the expense associated with consumption of inputs. (Courbois & Temple 1975, Gollop 1979, Kurosawa 1975, Pineda 1990, Saari 2006)
Job enrichment is an attempt to motivate employees by giving them the opportunity to use the range of their abilities. It is an idea that was developed by the American psychologist Frederick Herzberg in the 1950s. It can be contrasted to job enlargement which simply increases the number of tasks without changing the challenge. As such job enrichment has been described as 'vertical loading' of a job, while job enlargement is 'horizontal loading'. An enriched job should ideally contain:
- A range of tasks and challenges of varying difficulties (Physical or Mental)
- A complete unit of work - a meaningful task
- Feedback, encouragement and communication
The Administrative System
Tutorials
- Fundamentals of Leadership
- Developing, Appraising, and Rewarding Personnel
- Communicating for Effectiveness
- Managing Conflict and Change
Readings
There are five effectors on the Capability Model:
Modelling — This includes both Albert Bandura's Observational Learning in which we “learn” from observing others (not merely “imitate”) and other forms of social learning in which we learn from being situated in a common environment with others.
Mentoring —The informal transmission of knowledge, social capital, and psychosocial support.
Coaching — Encouraging the individual to improve both job skills and knowledge.
Training/Development — Learning that is provided in order to improve performance on the present job and helping others to acquire new horizons, technologies, or viewpoints.
Feedback — The learner responds in such a way as to reverse the direction of change.
During the rollout, do not get hung up with identify basic tasks, but rather competencies. A task is normally identified with a particular job, duty, or project; while a competency is a knowledge structure and/or related skill sets that will guide a person throughout a chosen career path.
For example, if one is in the training profession, then having a good knowledge base on ADDIE will help guide her throughout her career path, such as being a trainer, designer, consultant, or project manager. Within that competency, there are basic tasks or concepts that are used in particular functions of training. For example, a learning objective is normally written by a designer, while the trainer uses it as a guide to ensure the end-results are met. In addition, a good consultant might never use the term in particular situations knowing it will only confuse the present clients.
A task basic fits in the third component of the capability model — performer outcome; while a competency, along with the attributes, allows ones to effectively perform the tasks.
A performance appraisal, employee appraisal, performance review, or (career) development discussion [1] is a method by which the job performance of an employee is evaluated (generally in terms of quality, quantity, cost, and time). Performance appraisal is a part of career development.
Performance appraisals are regular reviews of employee performance within organizations.
- Negotiated Approach to Performance Appraisal, University of California
- Discussion on and formats of performance appraisals
Conflict management involves implementing strategies to limit the negative aspects of conflict and to increase the positive aspects of conflict at a level equal to or higher than where the conflict is taking place. Furthermore, the aim of conflict management is to enhance learning and group outcomes (effectiveness or performance in organisational setting) (Rahim, 2002, p. 208). It is not concerned with eliminating all conflict or avoiding conflict. Conflict can be valuable to groups and organizations. It has been shown to increase group outcomes when managed properly (e.g. Alper, Tjosvold, & Law, 2000; Bodtker & Jameson, 2001; Rahim & Bonoma, 1979; Khun & Poole, 2000; DeChurch & Marks, 2001).
- Definitions
- Conflict Resolution vs. Conflict Management
- Models of Conflict Management
- “Current” Conflict Management
- How to manage conflict
- International Conflict Management
- Counseling
- Conflict Management Articles - A collection of Conflict Management Articles
- Search For Common Ground - One of the world's largest non-government organisations dedicated to conflict resolution
- CUNY Dispute Resolution Consortium- The Dispute Resolution Headquarters in New York City.
- The Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) Conflict Management Toolkit
Looking to the Future
Tutorials
Readings
Human Relations Challenges of the Future
Conflicting Pressures of Conflict and Peace
Whenever we are talking about international human relations we are also going to have to look at “conflict” in a variety of forms. As countries modernize, they experience change with varying degrees of conflict involved. Countries that have modernization occur rapidly are hotbeds for Fundamentalist movements. They are especially vulnerable if they are “Third World Nations” who lack a system of national education. There appears to be a strong correlation to technological/educational growth to religious abatement.
Read More ...
Recommended Texts
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Modern
Human Relations at Work 9th Edition Richard M. Hodgetts - Florida International University Kathryn W. Hegar - Mountain View College 0324205635 503 pages Case Bound 8 1/2 x 11 © 2005 Check the availability and buy your books from our Bookshop. See also |
Resources
- Business First
- Effective workplace communications
- Internet Activities and Key Terms
- Human Resource Management in the News Summaries
- Management News Summaries
- Personality Testing
- Putting Your Personality to the Test
- Skills Profile
- Teamwork Checklist
- The Myers and Briggs Foundation
