Human relations began to attract attention to it since 1920’s the years of great depression; greater attention began to be paid to the social factors at work and to the behaviour of employees within an organisation. The following Hawthorne experiments were carried out to find out what factor effects productivity: the illumination experiments, the relay assembly test rooms, the interviewing programme and the bank wiring observation. The researchers formed the conclusion that the extra attention given to the workers, and the apparent interest in them shown by management, was the main reason for the higher productivity.
The interviewing programme in addition, discovered a drive to the present day personnel management and the use of counselling interviews, and highlighting the need for management to listen to workers feelings and problems. Nowadays, in most organizations, the dominant factors impinging on role performance are social rather than economic. Although the social importance of the work group to the individual workers was first documented in studies of factory workers, however, recently it has been discovered that the importance of informal work groups is much greater for persons in high-status positions than those in low-status positions.
Management-level employees are more likely to experience social and geographical mobility, which cuts them off from their parents, their place of birth, and their former friends. Consequently, they tend to rely more heavily on social relationships established at their place of work. To the extent that co-workers become a significant reference group for employees, one would expect them to support one another. Abraham Maslow’s (1950) theory of the hierarchy of human needs puts forward needs ranked in the following ascending order: (1) physiological, (2) safety, (3) social, (4) esteem, and (5) self-actualization.
Under this theory, the kind and degree of need for work-group approval is affected by the kind and degree to which the needs are being satisfied by persons outside the work situation. Nevertheless, a certain amount of safety and esteem from one’s co-workers, supervisors, and subordinates are necessary for effective functioning within any organization. For this reason, the major focus of human resource management programs should be on creating and maintaining good human relationships in the workplace.
However, the goodness of these relations have to be constrained by the following rules in order for employees not to get substantially distracted from the company’s collective goals. “Example of modern corporate policies: 1. st. All employees must be engaged in the company purposes when on company property and when using technology provided by the company; neither the e-mail system nor the Web should be used to transmit the pornographic, or sexually explicit or otherwise offensive materials. No persons can access pornography or other materials offensive to minorities or likely to create vicarious liability to the employer.
The company should circulate a formal policy in an endeavor to set a proper example and limit employer liability. All employees must read and abide by the policy as a condition of employment. While some tolerance may be shown by the employer for the playing of the “Free Cell” and “Solitaire” and the accessing of the “E-Bay” and exchange of innocuous pleasantries with friends, any interactions involving immorality and impropriety shall be grounds for discipline up to and including discharge from employment. 2. d.
Employees working in safety-sensitive positions or engaged in interstate or international transport may be randomly tested for drug and alcohol use. Other employees may be tested to the extent that their employers establish cause. 3. rd. Smoking can not be permitted in the main buildings, stairwells, or cafeterias except in designated areas and then only as permitted by prevailing municipal, state, or provincial laws. ” However, on occasions human beings tend to get involved in actions which may not be of a particular relevance or benefit to the company’s goals.
As in any organisation, employees develop constant behaviour patterns through the process of fulfilling their ascribed roles and attempting to follow the above policies. Each individual’s organization personality is unique. It is the outcome of basic drives for success and the inhibiting organization forces. It is, in short, employees’ attitudes, beliefs, values, and behaviours shaped by overarching collective goals to some extent. In a perfect organisation communication should be of a particular importance as it builds social relationships between employees themselves and with employers.
Nevertheless, this is becoming more and more difficult to sustain in the technologically developed world, where technology is yet enlarging. Most of the communication in the majority of large companies is done by email and phones which are not the most motivating methods of communication. Accordingly to Elton Mayo and Hawthorne Studies people have needs for creativity, support, recognition and self-affirmation. Therefore, leadership has assumed critical importance because rapid growth in size and complexity of organizational structures has necessitated greater flexibility and sophistication on the part of those in leadership positions.
There is a growing demand for expanded knowledge of the techniques and processes of leadership. Better methods have been persistently required to identify, educate, and develop potential leaders. Traditional concepts have been modified significantly by the combined results of research in the social sciences, education, and management. The resulting knowledge from this interdisciplinary approach has stimulated the development of new theories of leadership, innovative management and broader in-service training programs.
Information and telecommunications technologies are not merely helpful tools to raise productivity and enhance information exchange. In particular, because employer operated systems are exempt from privacy protections; there is the potential for invasive surveillance. The remarkable level of intrusion that has become common place in employment is distracting for employees as they feel mistrusted and therefore relations can not be built not even through the email.
New technologies enabled employers to invade employees’ privacy. Networked computers allow instantaneous monitoring of vast numbers of people engaged in multitudes of different activities. In addition, new technology enabled cross hierarchical monitoring which means that even company executives can be caught in randomly cast nets. New technologies are particularly adept at catching employees accessing pornography, and the thrust of employers’ response seems to be directed at allegedly immoral behaviour.
Whereas private sexual behaviour is quite difficult for employees to monitor using conventional means, it is now exceedingly easy to track access to pornographic web sites, passing offensive emails and the other fragments of technological use. The concerning feature is that employers are using technology to regulate the morality, however, few employees are dismissed for simply wasting time by repeated use of Internet games or virtual shopping. By contrast, punishment is given out swiftly when sex is involved.
