Chapter One: Introduction To Human Relations

Chapter One
Introduction to
Human Relations
Chapter Preview
• Nature, purpose and importance in

organizations
• Career success and work/life balance
• Major developments in field
• Historical overview of field
• Forces influencing behavior
• Seven themes for effectiveness
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The Nature, Purpose and Importance of
Human Relations
• Best-managed organizations…
– understand work is done through
relationships
– are not simply being “nice to people”
– genuinely help employees come alive
through their work
– align goals of worker and workplace

Human Relations Defined
• Study of all types of interactions among

people, including:
– Conflicts
– Cooperative efforts
– Group relationships
• Study of why beliefs, attitudes, and
behaviors can cause problems in
personal and professional relationships

Human Relations in the Age of Information
• Industrial to information economy

• Information exchange is foundation of
most economic transactions
• Increase in amount and speed of
information
• Alters traditional patterns of work and
leisure

• Dynamic, but disorienting and stressful

• Reduced sources of connection away
from work
• Less contact with extended families

• Over emphasis on information can limit

one’s effectiveness
• Need balance and perspective
• Human-contact deficiency weakens the
spirit, the mind, and the body
• To survive and thrive, we need warm-
hearted contact with people

The Importance of Human Relations
• 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

Trend: Instability of Labor Market
• Worker dislocation due to increased

numbers of:
– Mergers and acquisitions
– Buyouts and downsizing
– Business closings and bankruptcy
• Can result in:
– Low moral
– Mistrust of management

Trend: Changing Work Patterns
• When, where and how

• New opportunities and challenges
– Increase in temporary workers
– More self-employed and contract
employees “Free Agent Nation”
– Telecommuting
– More employers over a career
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Trend: Orientation Toward Service to
Customers
• Service economy
• Some competitive advantages are easy
to copy (i.e., technology, financial
structure)
• Relationships 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. Chambers
Author, The Bad Attitude Survival Guide
Trend: Lack of Civility in the Workplace
• Rudeness, insensitivity, disrespect

• “Me” rather than “We” attitudes
• Workplace incivility threatens employee
relationships

Trend: Increasing Use of Teams
• Using teams can:

– Improve product quality and customer
service
– Improve job satisfaction
• Organizations need to develop team
skills:
– Group decision making
– Leadership
– Conflict resolution
– Communication

Trend: Increasing Work Force Diversity
• Prominent characteristic of today’s work

force
• Organizations need to increase
tolerance and understanding for
differences in:
– Age
– Gender
– Race
– Physical traits
– Sexual orientation

Trend: Growing Income Inequality
• Socioeconomic status influenced by:

– Income
– Job
– Education
• Created climate of resentment and
distrust
• Wage gap keeps getting bigger
• Negatively impacts physical and mental
health of lowest socioeconomic status
Challenges of Today’s workplace:
• Wide range of interpersonal skills are

needed
• Contact with customers, clients,
patients, and other workers
• Every relations differs in:
Age and Gender Work background Values
Communication style Work ethics Culture
• Each encounter offers new challenge

Manage Three Relationships
• People must manage three types:

– Relationships with ourselves
– One-to-one relationships
– Group relationships

Figure 1.1: Major Relationship
Management Challenges

Relationship with Ourselves
• Positive self image and self-confidence

is good for relations with others
• Many people have negative ideas and
feelings about themselves

One-to-One Relationships
• Occupations with high client/customer

contact face this challenge every day
• Biases can be barriers:
– Racial
– Age
– Gender
– Communication-style

Group Relationships
• Many assigned to work as members of

a team
• Lack of cooperation among members
can result in quality or productivity
problems

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

Examples of “Total Person”
Development Programs
• Stress management • On-site services
• Physical fitness (i.e., Dental)
programs • Parenting classes
• Balancing work and • Financial planning
family seminars and home loan
• Values clarification assistance
education • Software training
• Assertiveness
training

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

Influential Forces
• Understanding human behavior at work

begins with a review of the six major
forces that affect every employee

Figure 1.2:
Major Forces
Influencing
Worker
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
• Managers hold key position to influence

employee behavior
• Spokespersons for the organization
• Philosophy, competence, and
leadership style establish image in eyes
of employees

Supervisory-Management
• Establish perceptions of organization’s

concern for employee welfare
• 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
• All employees bring combination of:

– Abilities and interests Aptitudes
– Values Expectations
• Behavior often reflection of match
between environment and individual’s
characteristics
• Creating idea 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 started movement in

1874
– He became aware of inefficiency and
waste
– Systematically studied each job
– Segmented work down into isolated,
specialized tasks
– Different workers were assigned to each
task
• Resulted in more efficiency, but
required little thinking by worker
Taylor’s Concept
• Theories became very popular among

business owners and managers
• Paved the way for the assembly line
• Criticized for exploiting, not helping,
workers

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
• 1920s, Elton Mayo sets out to study

effects of illumination and ventilation on
worker fatigue
• Became seminal investigation into role
of human relations in group and
individual productivity

Mayo’s Two Discoveries
1. Workers increased performance when

they felt important and had greater
freedom from supervisory control
2. Interaction among workers created an
“informal organization”

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 1960s
• Eric Bern
– Interpersonal communication and
transactional analysis
• Carl Rogers
– Personality development, interpersonal
communication and group dynamics

During the 1980s
• William Ouchi
– Theory Z style of management
• Tom Peters and Robert Waterman
– Importance of people in organizations

Major Themes
• Several themes emerge from these

studies of human relations
• 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
• Conflict tends to obstruct cooperative

action, create suspicion and distrust,
and decrease productivity
• Resolution strategies improve
communication, emotional control, and
team building
• Requires much energy

Benefits to You
• Better understanding of human behavior

in groups
• Can help you become more sensitive to
yourself and others
• Provides techniques for solving people-
related problems
– Act more wisely when problems arise
– Anticipate conflicts or prevent them from
escalating

Summary
• The study of human relations helps

people fulfill growth needs and meet
organizational goals
• Realization that employee’s life outside
of work has impact on organization
• Many firms are developing training and
education programs for “total person”

Summary
• Human relations gives people a better

understanding of basic behavioral
concepts
• Understanding allows them to make
better choices when problems arise
• It helps them anticipate and prevent
conflicts

Summary
• The development of the human

relations field redefined:
– Nature of work
– Perception of managers and workers as
complex human beings

Summary
• Seven major themes:

Communication Self-awareness
Self-acceptance Motivation
Trust Self-disclosure
Conflict resolution

Chapter One: Introduction To Human Relations

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Chapter One: Introduction To Human Relations

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Chapter One

• Nature, purpose and importance in

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

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1-3

• Study of all types of interactions among

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1-4

• Industrial to information economy

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1-5

• Dynamic, but disorienting and stressful

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1-6

• Over emphasis on information can limit

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1-7

• Interpersonal skills essential for

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1-8

• Worker dislocation due to increased

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1-9

• When, where and how

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 10

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 11

No matter what we do, we do it with

• Rudeness, insensitivity, disrespect

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 13

• Using teams can:

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 14

• Prominent characteristic of today’s work

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 15

• Socioeconomic status influenced by:

• Wide range of interpersonal skills are

• Each encounter offers new challenge

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 17

• People must manage three types:

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 18

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 19

• Positive self image and self-confidence

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 20

• Occupations with high client/customer

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 21

• Many assigned to work as members of

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 22

• Focus on “why” of human behavior

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 23

• The field of human relations goes

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 24

• Each person’s characteristics part of

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 25

• Organizations recognizing that when a

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 26

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 27

The rules for work are changing, and

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 28

• A positive and supportive environment

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 29

• Understanding human behavior at work

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Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 31

• Collection of shared values, beliefs,

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 32

• Managers hold key position to influence

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 33

• Establish perceptions of organization’s

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 34

Jobs do a lot more than merely provide

Copyright © Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved. 1 - 35