Introduction
Human Relations implies the study of human problems and issues that occurs in the professional and interpersonal relations. It focusses on the analysis of human behaviour and aims at the betterment of interpersonal relationships among employees. The study of human relations involves understanding of the ways in which people satisfy their needs of growth and accomplish their career goals within the organisation (Dalton, 2010). An important aspect in this case is the fact that employees’ personal life that they have outside their workplace has a crucial impact on their performance at the workplace.
It has been observed that there are various factors that have an impact on the way people behave at their workplace or within the organisation. In this concern, human relations involve a definite set of techniques that are specially developed for understanding the concept behind the behaviour of the people. In this manner, analysis of the behaviour of employees enables them to be good decision makers when such situation arises so that they can anticipate if any conflict is expected to occur and come up with effective decisions to avoid such critical situations.
Background:
In today’s scenario, employees face difficulty in managing their workplace behaviour and the way they deal with the situations of their personal life. This leads to conflicting situations within the organisation for employees by hampering their relations with peers and superiors. The main reasons of employees being fired from organisations is because they lack the skill of maintaining human relations. An example in this case may be the inability of employee to work within a group or team (Mayhew, 2014). Another example may relate to the personality issues, or dishonest behaviour of employees.
Relationship between employee and management is affected in an adverse manner, and this in-turn affects the overall cost, competitiveness and the economic sustainability of the entire organisation. This has a negative impact on the reputation of the company and undermines its importance in the industry.Therefore, human relations form a major part of the workplace and it is what makes a business flourish. If there is an absence of stable and friendly atmosphere at the workplace, there occurs difficulty in managing the workforce and the logistics of operations undertaken within the organisation.
With an appropriate approach to human relations an engaged workforce is found within the organisation, where adequate training is given to employees. This results in a united workforce where highly qualified employees work in coordination with each other with full motivation. An organisation with flourishing human relations is able to retain its well trained and efficient employees and fulfils the challenges of the changing marketplace.
Concept of Human Relations
Human resource plays an important role in maintaining effective human relations thereby strengthening the relations between employees and employer within the organisation. It has been observed that major factor contributing to success in life is the ability of the person to socialise effectively and interact positively with subordinates and supervisors (Hegar, 2011). The study of human relations is beneficial for having better understanding of humans so that a connection is developed with them. It is important for an employee to possess human relation skills in order to be successful in his or her job.
Employees, who work for the front end posts, have to deal with various people in their day to day business.The concept of human relations acts as an investment into the development of resources and building an effective structure of management (Mokoena, 2014). This results in motivation in the performance of employees in a collective manner so that the goals of the organisation are accomplished in an effective manner. An effective human relation approach minimises the level of stress and complication that is faced by employees while taking crucial decisions for the organisation.
Theories of Human Relations
There have been various theories and approaches developed in the context of understanding the importance of developing positive human relations within the organisational setup. These theories provide a base for the people that are to be followed at the workplace. There have been behavioural theories that have been preferred by most of the organisations and are implemented in a successful manner in creating a favourable and positive environment of coordination and cooperation at the workplace. The behavioural theory of management is also known as human relations movement as it focusses on the human dimensions of work.
These theories are developed on the basis of the fact that understanding the behaviour of employees would help in enhancing their level of productivity. According to this theory, employees are considered as individuals, assets and resources of the organisations that are to be developed and trained in order to give their best output (Miller, 2014).There have been various theorists who have given their contribution in explaining the importance of understanding the behaviour of employees in achieving success. One of the theories is given by Abraham Maslow’s Need hierarchy theory which involves need theories fostering motivation by fulfilling the needs of employees.
The theory idealises certain assumptions like the needs of human are never fully satisfied. Another assumption says that the behaviour of human beings is resulted for a particular purpose and this behaviour is motivated by a particular need that is to be satisfied. The last assumption says, needs can be categorised in accordance with a definite hierarchical structure based on importance and flows from lowest level to the highest level. According to Maslow, the hierarchy of needs is separated in five different levels (Reece, 2011). The first is psychological needs, which the basic physical need for the well-being of human. As this need is satisfied, human-being moves to a higher level called safety need for security and protection that is important to be satisfied.
The third level requires the fulfilment of belonging and love needs for developing relationships in the society. A much higher level is the fulfilment of esteem needs for gaining self- confidence and achieving reputation and fame. The top most level is self-actualisation need.
Human Relation Practices
There have been various practices that are developed for analysing and understanding the behaviour of human within the organisations. These practices are undertaken successfully at the workplace.
Communicate and Document
This practice aims at intervening initially to rectify the problems before they take place. Employees should be given the right direction and there should be proper feedback given to them by their supervisors. An important aspect of this practice is to have open lines of communication so that the right information is transmitted to the right person at the right time. Employees should be informed clearly about their performances and the consequences. The evaluation of the performance of employees is to be done on a timely basis, and the expectation of organisation from employees should be clearly specified.
Self-Awareness
It has been analysed that one of the most effective ways of maintaining positive relations with subordinates is to have an understanding of oneself (Farazmand, 2002). When a person is completely aware of himself, he or she would gain better understanding of the influence of their behaviour on others. As it is quoted by Stephen Covey, in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, “Self Awareness enables us to stand apart and examine the way we ‘see’ ourselves, as well as to see other people.”
Self-Acceptance
This practice focusses on the degree of likeliness and acceptance of oneself in accordance with liking and accepting other people. The practice of self-acceptance acts as a base of encouraging an effective conversation with others. The practice of self-acceptance is crucial for the purpose of setting and achieving organisational goals.
Conflict Resolution
This is one of the important practices and commonly used within an organisational setting. The day to day disputes that occur within the department and among different departments are solved with the help of a person who acts as a mediator to solve the clashes among people.
An example in this case may be of eBay, an auction website company that has maintained a culture in which the focus is to provide best service to the customer and maintain a loyal and committed employee base (Green, 2004). This culture is followed on the basis of two principles; first says that people are good and the other is based on the belief that everyone has something that can be a contribution in the overall organisational success.
Conclusion:
In this manner, this research paper analyses the concept of human relations and its importance in the organisational setting.it can be concluded that maintaining positive and favourable human relations at the workplace is of prime importance for an organisation to achieve success (Mayhew, 2014). The different theorise explained in the paper provide a base to the concept and its practical importance. Thus, it should be the motive of every organisation to provide such environment to its employees that unity and coordination prevails.
References
Dalton, M. (2010).Human Relations.Cengage Learning.
Farazmand, A. (2002). Modern Organizations: Theory and Practice. Greenwood Publishing Group.
Green, M. (2004). Organisational Theory.CIPD Publishing.
Hegar, K. (2011). Modern Human Relations at Work.Cengage Learning.
Mayhew, R. (2014). An Example of Employee Relations. Retrieved on: March 12, 2014, from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/example-employee-relations-11065.html
Miller, K. (2014). Organisation Communication: Approaches and Processes. Cengage Learning.
Mokoena, A. (2014). The Switch: Gearing up for success in an organisation. Retrieved on: March 12, 2014, fromhttp://www.marklives.com/2014/03/the-switch-gearing-up-for-organisational-success/
Reece, B. (2011). Human Relations: Principles and Practices.Cengage Learning.
