This paper must cover a variety of skills within an organization. Please include: values and ethics, personality type INFJ (Myers/Briggs indicator), conflict management skills.
INTRODUCTION
For years, the business organizations are complaining that the skills of the workers do not match the required organizational skills. There has been a dramatic shift in the needs of the organizations due to the rapidly changing markets with globalized competition. Before initiating any efforts to fill the skill gap, it is critical to identify and document the skills which are needed in the existing work environments and what shall be needed in the future. The economy today is highly uncertain and there are many different explanation available to justify the uncertainty. But Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel economist of Columbia University wrote in a recent article that the problem is “rooted in the kinds of jobs we have, the kind we need, and the kind we’re losing, and rooted as well in the kind of workers we want, and the kind we don’t know what to do with.” He believes that for economic advancement, change is inevitable and this has to be dramatic.
The workforce today exists in a riptide of change due to which the new entrants in the workforce are faced with the challenge of distressing skills gap. A study by the Pew Research in 2011 identified that only 55 percent of the graduates from college considered their education “very useful in helping prepare for a job or career.” Similarly, a study conducted earlier in 2009 by ASTD research found that only 51 percent of the organizations surveyed considered the skills of the current workforce compatible with their goals, strategies and business models.
On the other hand, in the last few decades, we have educated employees with expertise who are also known as the knowledge workers. The same middle managers who were once treasured for overseeing the slowly-evolving bureaucratic organizations are nowhere to be seen in the rapidly changing organizations competing in the globally connected marketplaces. The same competencies that were once required by the employees and the middle managers for successful operations are now insufficient and at times seem to be counterproductive too. Today, not only the organizations but their managers and the workforce are forced to re-invent themselves on a continuous basis; this means that they need to be continually seeking change to tackle the high complexities of the global marketplace.
Those who fail to recognize change fail to keep pace eventually with the global dynamics like Eastman Kodak. With the advent of technology and the digitalization of the world, the company failed to cope up and eventually bankrupted. The point of differentiation between organizations is the workforce and its expertise. The human resource is the most critical asset of the company and building upon it can help the organization to achieve sustained competitive advantage over its rivals. But, what makes the workforce successful is that they have all the required skills and competencies that can be built upon for the success of the organization.
ORGANIZATIONAL SKILLS
Employees who possess better organizational skills perform better at job as compared to those who have inefficient work habits. Though organizational skills are usually referred to as those skills which helps in saving time at work and raising the levels of productivity, it also some other impacts. The usual organizations skills considered at work include: project scheduling, time management skills, listening skills, conflict resolution skills and prioritizing skills. Having good organizational skills saves time and eventually improved efficiency at work. This paper sheds light on some of the essential organizational skills for employees for working with others at the workplace.
Ethics and Values:
Ethics refer to the values and principles used by an individual to govern the decisions and activities. Today, the organizations have a code of ethics that acts as a guideline for the overall policies, programs and strategies of the business. There is a direct impact of the ethical philosophy used on the reputation, bottom line and the productivity of the business (Mahsud, Yukl & Prussia, 2010). Though, the basic purpose for the existence of the business organizations is still to earn profits, but there has been a drastic shift in what precisely the society expects of the corporate sector. There are many reasons why the organizations are shifting towards the values-driven management: the first reason is that due to globalization, individuals raised in different cultures have come together to work and having diversity in the organization, it has become imperative to focus more on ethics and values. Another reason is that organizations are focusing on cutting costs due to which the individuals are given the authority to make their own decisions and having values and ethics helps. Once the employees or management fails with their human rationalization, they must have the set of ethical values in place to look back for guidance.
Some of the core values that are a must in the organizations are also otherwise known as the required skills by the employer when seeking the potential employees. The first and the foremost thing is to be honest in the organization; honesty is the key to building relations at work and enhances the level of commitment and loyalty (Zhang, 2012). Secondly, the individual must practice the highest ethical standards which means to demonstrate integrity in their character. Everyone must take responsibility for own actions and quit blaming others. This leads to building cohesion and mutual respect in the organization. Building trust and earning trust is even harder; but it is also the most critical aspect required in the business. Trust, respect, honesty and responsibility are interrelated values in the workplace. And these are all linked with the ability to work in teams where individuals should support and work openly with their other members.
Time Management Skills:
Time management is the most significant among the organizational skills for employees as well as the organizations. Though many people consider themselves as being organized but they are not well aware as to what being organized actually means. This process starts by setting goals that need to be accomplished and is followed by being disciplined to accomplish the set goals. By managing time, the last minute rush can be avoided and the potential stress can be eliminated (Manktelow, 2006). If someone fails to manage the time, it can result in poor quality of work, higher levels of stress, poor professional reputation and most importantly, inefficient work flow.
There are ten reasons why time management should be applied at the workplace.
- Prioritize: By making use of time management in the organization, the employees learn to prioritize their daily tasks. This means that they learn to rank everything in order of criticality and importance. With everything prioritized, the employees remain focused.
- Setting goals: This is another use of mastering in the time management skills. By setting all the long and short term goals, the employees and the management plans the deadlines. This is equally helpful in the professional as well as personal life of the workers. When time is to be managed, the goals are set which can be achieved.
- Productivity: Yet another significant reason for making use of the time mastery skills at the workplace is that it has a positive impact on the levels of productivity. Employees tend to identify more efficient ways when the focus is more on the timelines and task accomplishments. And even if they require any help or assistance, they would quit wasting time and seek help sooner so that they do not run short of time. With emphasis on meeting timelines, the employees would be more determined and focused that would lead to raising their level of productivity (Zampetakis, Bouranta & Moustakis, 2010).
- Performance: When the productivity of the employees would rise, the employee performance is sure to increase. This would not only allow the team to jump ahead of projects but also trigger the overall performance for the organization in achieving the long term goals.
- Procrastination: Having executed the time management skills in the workplace would help in eliminating procrastination. As people learn to manage their time, they understand the significance of scheduling the right task at the right time. Moreover, having learned the ability of managing time, the employees struggle hard to compete with their peers and perform in a manner that exceeds the expectations of the leaders or managers.
- Develops employees: The employee learns the process of time management and also develops his own efficient skills to minimize inefficient operations that could lead to wastage of time. So, not only is the employee undergoing training through learning the time management skill, but also develops. Further, the employee also develops on the learned expectations of the leaders from them.
- Tracking employees: Companies tend to keep a track of the employees through the employee time management software. It gives the organization an opportunity to track the performance as well as the used and abused time by the employee.
- Breaking bad habits: As the people learn to manage their time, they would be breaking apart from their bad work habits. This means that not only their personalities are being strengthened but the workplace would also gain strength. By getting rid of the bad habits that had once been hindering the efficiency of work, the employees would become more productive and lead to higher performance for the organization.
- Employee motivation: By setting goals of time management for the employees and rewarding them later on, it has been seen that workers tend to get motivated. Moreover, when time management is being executed, the employees feel relieved and start enjoying their work.
- Improves the lifestyle: Eventually, the best part about being able to manage the time at the workplace is that the employee succeeds in finding the balance between life and work. By being able to manage the time at work, the employee leads to following the pattern outside work and leads a better managed personal life too.
People Skills:
The tools through which people tend to interact and communicate with others in the organizational environment is known as the People Skills. Apart from having the professional and technical skills, it is imperative for the employees to possess people skills to be successful in the new organizations. The people skills or the soft skills refer to those attributes or competencies through which people tend to get along well with others. Teri Hockett says: “People skills come down to how people interact with each other, from verbal and non-verbal perspective; they are non-technical in nature. When we think of people skills, words such as personality, empathy, and tonality come to mind” (Walumbwa et al., 2011). In order to be successful, the employees need to be able to practice the people skills at work.
First of all, one must have the ability to relate to others; this is usually inherent in having a well-rounded personality. But sometimes, by simply respecting other’s differing opinion and trying to understand others is also done through personal willingness. In order to get along with others, the most fundamental skill is to be strong in communication. In order to be an effective communicator, one must be able to get along well the colleagues, and persuade them to listen to you as well. For employees, being patient towards the colleagues and staying stable in stressful situations is perceived to be a strong asset by the management. So, being patient towards others is a highly valued people skill at organizations.
When working with others, it is important for the individuals to trust each other; but what is more critical is the ability to empathize with someone as it leads to the creation of a relationship. Yet another important skill is active listening for the employees at work; not only it creates trust and credibility; but it also helps to produce better. With active listening, individuals learn to think and focus before taking any action. Merely listening is not a good people skill; with active listening and by showing genuine interest in what the other person is saying, the individual learns to dig deep insights (Robles, 2012). A good communicator is the one who listens well and responds in a flexible manner. It is imperative for an employee to be able to bend their own beliefs in response to the requirements of the situation at hand.
The organization has its own culture and people work in a close environment with each other. Every employee must possess the ability to persuade others especially when he has a conflicting point. This is also linked to having good negotiation skills; it is applied both internally and externally. Internal negotiations include discussing the job offers and salary through negotiation. On the other hand, externally, the customer and suppliers require being negotiated.
The people skills that are critical in organization include: being aware of the significance of the body language and to be honest at the workplace (Zhang, 2012). While communicating with people, not only verbal honesty is required, but the employees must also be mindful of how they are communicating non-verbally which means through their appearance, tone, expressions and gestures.
Managing Personality:
Every individual has a different personality and these are developed with a combination of internal and external elements of the life. More than five decades ago, the Myers-Brigs Personality Inventory was developed by two psychologists—Isabel Myers and her mother, Katherine Briggs. The scale consists of four pairs of personality traits given below.
The rarest of the combination is the INFJ which only consists of 1%-3% of the population. INFJ stands for being introvert, intuitive, feeling and judging. Usually such people are sensitive, empathetic, caring and warm. But when considered from the organizational perspective, the people with INFJ personality tend to be more committed, intuitive, future-focused, creative, organized, passionate, and values-oriented. The best thing about such personality types is that their intuition warns them ahead of trouble and especially in times of crisis, they tend to act as rescue workers for the business. Their ability to act insightfully helps in solving problems.
Being aware of your personality is highly imperative as this knowledge can be put to work by the manager or the leader. Through this tool, individuals can understand their own energy and skills which can then be used to relate with the world around. Once, a person is able to understand the different aspect of behavior, then those behaviors can easily be modified if required. Further, this knowledge helps the leaders to recognize and respect the difference among their team members. Being able to recognize the differences in personality provides an opportunity to a person to communicate effectively with others and to understand their needs. Being able to identify the differences in personality type helps the managers as well as the employees to understand others and to recognize why conflicts may occur.
Conflict Resolution Skills:
Conflict is inevitable in the workplace; there are many reason why employees may ignite conflict with other at work like personal problems, high stress due to lingering deadlines, job insecurity and even competitive pressure from peers. Conflicts would occur one way or the other no matter how positive the attitude is. So, the skill to resolving conflict is yet another skill that is necessary in the organizations (Rahim, 2011). The process through which two or more parties engage in a debate or disagreement to reach a resolving agreement is known as the process of conflict resolution. The management and team leaders should have several skills to effective resolve the conflicts arising which include:
- The ability to identity arising conflicts
- The ability to have multiple perspective towards an issue
- Being able to solve the problem
- The ability to empathize with others; it means to understand the feelings of others
- Being able to listen actively where feedback is provided to the speaker to confirm the understanding of communication
- Having the ability to control, assess and manage emotions as well as non-verbal cues
- The ability to be objective, critical and compromise with the other party
As it is already mentioned, the conflict resolution skills are linked with the type of personality of an individual. Even when resolving a conflict, it helps when the leader or manager is aware of the differences between the personality types of both conflicting members (Bourke, 2010). And it is easier to handle the situation if the manager has an INFJ type personality who is more insightful, listens actively and remains focused.
CONCLUSION
Today, the organizations build their competitive advantage by focusing on the people as this is the only resource that cannot be imitated. But having the right kind of skills and competencies in the organization is what helps to build the advantage. There are several organizational skills that are necessary for the success of businesses. While hiring and training the employees, the main focus is to ensure that the skill gap is minimized and the workforce has all the necessary skills required by the business. The paper sheds light on some of these skills including: ethical values in organization, time mastery skills, conflict resolution skills, people skills and discuss why it is important to understand the type of personality an individual has.
References
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