HUMAN RELATIONS AND YOURSELF

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CHAPTER 1

HUMAN RELATIONS AND YOURSELF

CHAPTER OUTLINE AND LECTURE NOTES

The chapter begins with ten statements about human behavior in the form of a quiz. The purpose of the quiz, including the explanation of answers, is to provide the student insight into the relevance of studying human relations, as well as to pique the student’s curiosity about the field.

I. HOW STUDYING HUMAN RELATIONS CAN HELP YOU

Human relations is defined here as the art of using systematic knowledge about human behavior to improve personal, job and career effectiveness. From the standpoint of management human relations is quite important because it contributes to organizational effectiveness, the extent to which an organization is productive and satisfies the demands of interested parties such as employees, customers, and investors.

Human relations knowledge and skill is potentially beneficial for the individual as well as the organization. Carefully studying human relations, and incorporating

suggestions into work and personal life, can lead to five key benefits:

• Acquiring valid information about human behavior.
• Developing skills in dealing with people.
• Coping with job problems.
• Coping with personal problems.
• Capitalizing on opportunities (such as ideas for developing your career

and becoming a leader).

• Demonstrating potential for advancement (possessing good human

relations skills facilitates being promoted).

II. HOW WORK AND PERSONAL LIFE INFLUENCE EACH OTHER

Work and personal life have a reciprocal influence. A study with university employees found that employee satisfaction with their job influences the mood at home. Work and personal life influence each other in a number of specific ways.

• Job satisfaction contributes to general life satisfactions and chronic job

dissatisfaction leads to declines in general life satisfaction.

• An unsatisfying job can affect physical health, primarily through stress

and burnout. People with high job satisfaction even tend to live longer than those who suffer prolonged job dissatisfaction.

• The quality of relationships with people at work and in personal life

influence each other. Personal relationships on the job also influence (Human Relations for Career and Personal Success Concepts, Applications, and Skills 11e Andrew DuBrin) (Instructor Manual) 1 / 4

Copyright © 2017, Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 1-2 personal relationships off the job. How we behave at work is closely related to how we behave at home.Successful couples look for ways to emphasize the positive, and perhaps the same approach is useful on the job. Interacting harmoniously with coworkers can put one in a better mood for dealing with family and friends.

• Certain skills contribute to success in both work and personal life. For

example, people who are effective in dealing with friends and family members and who can organize things are likely to be effective supervisors.

• Workers who achieve a good balance between the demands of work and

family life are likely to be productive and have more job satisfaction.

III. HUMAN RELATIONS BEGINS WITH SELF -UNDERSTANDING

You have to understand yourself before you can be effective with others. Six methods of achieving self-understanding are noteworthy. The self generally refers to a person’s total being or individuality. The public self is what a person communicates about himself or herself, and what others actually perceive about the person. The private self is the actual person that one may be. The alternative self is an understanding of the self, based on what could have been if the past had happened differently.

Some evidence suggests that the self is based on structures within the brain. The self may be the sum of the brain’s individual components, or subsystems.

Here we discuss six types of information that contribute to self-understanding, along with potential problems in self-evaluation.

• General Information about Human Behavior

Information one acquires about people in general can be applied to the self.

• Informal Feedback from People

You can pick up useful feedback (information that tells you how well you have performed) on the job and in personal life. Sometimes this feedback must be solicited.

• Feedback from Superiors

Most employers provide feedback to their employees. In some companies feedback is provided formally such as during a performance evaluation. In other cases feedback may be provided informally, such as a supervisor telling an employee he or she is doing a good job.

• Feedback from Coworkers

A growing practice in organizations is the use of peer evaluations, a system in which coworkers contribute to an evaluation of a person’s job performance. 2 / 4

Copyright © 2017, Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 1-3 The peer evaluation for customer service technicians might be good class discussion material.Feedback from teammates could indicate a developmental opportunity, an area for growth, or a weakness.

• Feedback from Self-Assessment Quizzes

The exercises in this book, and in magazines and newspapers, can often give a person some useful self-insights, but the exercises should not be regarded as scientifically valid. Students can visit www.queendom.com for a wide variety of self-assessments.

• Looking at the Self through the Johari Window

The Johari Window is a grid showing how much information you know about yourself as well as how much other people know about you. One axis of the grid is the degree to which information about you is known to or understood by you. The other axis is the degree to which information about you is known to others. The basic premise of the model is that we can improve our personal and professional relationships through understanding ourselves in depth.

• Two Self-Evaluation Traps

Self-awareness also has two negative extremes or traps. One extreme is that focusing on the self can highlight shortcomings the way staring into a mirror can dramatize every blemish and wrinkle in the face. The other extreme is tending to overestimate one’s competence. For example, some people are always thinking they deserve a bigger raise. Others suffer from a holier than thou syndrome – overestimating their moral competence. A study with college students found that they consistently overrated the likelihood that they would act in generous or selfless ways.

Cultural differences can help to explain at least some differences in under evaluation versus over evaluation. For example, East Asians tend to underestimate their abilities, while North Americans are more likely to overestimate their abilities.

IV. HOW THE HUMAN RELATIONS MOVEMENT DEVELOP ED

The human relations movement began as a concentrated effort by some managers and their advisors to become more sensitive to the needs of employees or to treat them in a more humanistic manner. The following influences, presented in Figure 1-4, supported the human relations movement.

• Scientific Management

Frederick W. Taylor’s theory that focuses on the application of scientific methods to increase productivity. The focus of scientific management was on the application of scientific methods to increase individual’s worker productivity. Taylor also studied problems such as safety and fatigue.Scientific management also contributed to the human relations movement by creating a backlash against what many people thought was mistreatment of workers.

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Copyright © 2017, Pearson Education, Inc. All Rights Reserved 1-4

• The Hawthorne Studies

Research methods were used to investigate employee productivity using the scientific method. An interpretation of the findings was that employees reacted positively because they felt management cared about them. This interpretation is referred to as the Hawthorne effect.

• The Threat of Unionization

In the late 1930s, as labor unions grew rapidly, employers’ feared unionization would have negative consequences for their companies.Therefore, they sought human relations techniques to satisfy workers in an effort to stem the tide of union growth.

• The Philosophy of Industrial Humanism

According to industrial humanism, emotional factors (such as a desire for recognition) are a more important contributor to productivity than physical and logical factors. The key to increased productivity is to motivate employees rather than to order them to perform better.

• Theory X and Theory Y of Douglas McGregor

Douglas McGregor urged managers to be open to the possibility that under the right circumstances people are eager to perform well.

Theory X Assumptions

• The average person dislikes work and will avoid it if possible.
• Most people must be coerced, controlled, directed, or threatened with

punishment to get them to work.

• Average employees prefer to be directed, wish to shirk responsibility, have

relatively little ambition, and highly value job security.

Theory Y Assumptions

• Expenditure of physical and mental effort is as natural in work as in play.
• Employees will exercise self-direction and self-control for objectives to

which they attach high value.

• Commitment to objectives is related to awards associated with their

achievement.

• Under the right conditions, the average person accepts and seeks

responsibility.

• Employers have the ability to exercise a high degree of imagination,

ingenuity, and creativity to solve organizational problems.

• Under present conditions of industrial life, the intellectual potentials of the

average person are only partially utilized.

McGregor, although humanistic, did not mean to imply that being directive and demanding with workers is always the wrong tactic. Visit the Business Balls Website to assess whether a situation and management style are X or Y.

http://www.businessballs.com/mcgregorxytheorytest.pdf

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