Effective People Management in the Flight Industry - Essay Example

EFFECTIVE PEOPLE MANAGEMENT IN THE FLIGHT INDUSTRY Introduction One of the most important resources that any organisation has towards its excellence and success are human resources. Effective human resources have the ability to boost the performance of a company to levels which are not expected by managers, this is because people’s efforts can make them go beyond their required levels of performance if there are important and effective skills that manager use to inspire them. Human capital develops and implements policies that guide business operations towards achieving the set objectives. In all industries, people are basis upon which organizations gain an insight into different approaches of performing various tasks. The productivity of human resources depends on the way human resource managers manage them during their working hours on the job. If human resources are managed effectively, the result is always an increase in their motivation and drive to do work. The work of these managers is therefore to look for ways to enhance their motivation and all other things will fall into place. Managers who are ineffective in their performance sometimes face opposition and rejection by workers, they may face sabotage for those decision and strategies that are implemented in the hope of ensuring increased performance in the organization. Inspiring proper performance in the flight industry The Flight Industry is one of the sectors that are associated with a lot of prestige by many people. Employees joining the industry are always beaming with huge expectations of better pay and flight adventure in destinations across the world. The fact is that like other industries, there are companies that offer low cost flight services to the clients, this means that, flight attendants have to be prepared to cope in such an industry in order to enjoy their work responsibilities and grow their careers. Emotional Labour In the flight industry, emotions are a normal part of life; this is the case in any service industry. Workers are expected to keep smiling and showing their clients a happy face even when the flight attendants are experiencing work stress (Suvanto, 1989, p. 23). New employees who are brought on board as flight attendants must learn how to adapt to the demanding work circumstances; they have to understand that smiling is an important thing that has to be maintained. In general, emotions play an important role in any work environment, they tell the kind of experiences that one is passing through, positive emotions elicit increased motivations that increase work performance. Emotional management is one of the most important responsibilities of human resource managers in the flight industry (Dyregrov, 1992, p. 27). The most important thing for these managers is to ensure that they rely on strategies that increase employees’ morale in the job; they should give them a chance to enjoy themselves on social media as well as provide other kinds of infrastructure that makes them happy on job. Human resource managers need to understand how to effectively manage emotional labour, helping people to portray good emotions in their flight job. When flight attendants cannot have their needs effectively met, they are stressed, just like other employees in different service industries. Unfortunately, they have to keep smiling and attend to customers’ needs. Human resource managers should effectively manage the emotions of their flight attendants so that they remain productive in their job responsibilities. Aesthetic beauty Another important duty of human resource managers in the flight industry is to guide their flight attendants through aesthetic labour; this is an important practice in the flight industry, where flight attendants have to appeal to the senses of customers. Flight attendants have to ensure that they are effective in their service delivery, they have to be ‘good looking,’ simply by putting on a ‘right look’ while on the job. The reason that underpins this practice the sociological perspective of the body when explains that the human body is an essential surface on which special marks that depict status, position in the family and society and other things can be displayed. The kind of body displays that are prevalent for flight attendants include dress code, which has to be kept official throughout, cosmetics as well as right posture Human resource managers in the flight industry should therefore pay attention in encouraging and guiding flight attendants into effective aesthetic labour. They should do it in a manner that does not impose work rules on them; instead, it should inspire effective intrinsic motivation in their job (Cherrington, 1989, p. 54; Elkins 1980, p. 539). All the different approaches that are taken by human resource managers should recognize that every flight attendant has a way of contributing effectively to the effectiveness of the flight industry (Drucker, 1966, p. 12; Massie, 1979, p. 9; Koontz & O’Donnell, 1978, p. 104); therefore, they should inspire each of the in equal measure How to manage flight attendants Managing flight attendants is an important responsibility for human resource managers, just like in any other industry, when flight attendants are not effectively managed, the motivation in the job decreases and other could opt for jobs in other companies. In low cost flight companies, managers have to go to great levels to inspire their attendants to do their level best. One of the ways is to provide them with opportunities to enjoy social media, many flight attendants and employees in different sectors seem to enjoy being on social media. Human resource managers should provide them with opportunities to enjoy this service as well as other opportunities on the internet. Knowing the people that work in the organization Successful managers have an important understanding of the kinds of employees that work in the organizations, knowing employees go beyond knowing the names. The managers interacts with employees in the course of their work and teamwork activities (Peter, 1994, p. 67), they listens to everybody’s views and opens discussions with them freely. In order to know the characteristics of employees and their value in the organizations, manager should allow free communications channels between the employees and their offices. When there is not free flow of information, workers tend to feel that there is a barrier separating them and the senior management. For any information which flows from up to bottom, managers should ensure that they their employees to give feedback. It is from such feedback that they can tell the attitudes of work towards different work practices. Managers should sometimes probe for information from their subordinates in order to give them a chance to exercise their opinions. On the other hands, managers should create enough time to listen to the views of their employees. One of the best ways to be good communicators is to learn how to listen (John, 2003, p. 54). In creating relevant and effective people skills, managers should understand that workers are not perfectionists; people gain experience and excellence in the job with constant practice. Managers should understand that making faults is a normal process during learning or work practice, this means that they should be the first one to acknowledge and praise their employees whenever they do an excellence job and encourage them whenever they do mistakes, knowing that it is from mistakes that people perfect their skills in the work place. Implementing the correct strategies in handling employees in an organisation is essential in optimizing their corresponding responses in times of crisis (Flannes & Levin, 2001, p. 29). Managers should always be keen on enhancing the efforts of their employees in order to achieve the best results out of their efforts. In doing to have effective people skills, managers need to concentrate on three most important areas; Establishing the most effective and reliable communication between the organization’s employees and its managers Increasing engagement strategies among the employees Giving managers the right people skills among the company managers The duty of managers in organizations is not just in creating strategies and approaches to enhance organizations effectiveness, but to make their employees in a manner that makes them increase their output. Effective management of people in any industry involves a combination of various factors. Some of them include, Common sense, sensitivity of employees towards the job and other company features, their confidence, teamwork as well as general practices as the work place. While some managers are naturally good in managing their employees to produce their level best, some do not have such skills and the business therefore has to work out all means to equip them with such skills in order to be effective. Companies that do not give a lot of remuneration to their employees need to compensate for this issue by incorporating those approaches that can make employees gain satisfaction with such remuneration. Money has always been cited as the tool that enhances increased performance from a company’s employees, however, money only increased extrinsic motivation but may maintain it in the long run. This means that when the company uses money as a tool to motivate its employees, it may suffer at times when economic and other factors affect its overall profitability. Effective companies therefore use various strategies that promote intrinsic motivation among its employees (Drucker, 1977, p. 132). It is possible to find workers who are paid low in certain companies being comfortable and happy in those companies, the secret is usually in the benefits that the company offers which elicits their intrinsic motivation. Human resources have to ensure that they establish clear, appropriate and effective policies that govern the way workers interact and perform their duties. In addition, they ensure that new employees are properly recruited following stipulated policies in the company and industry at large. The department also supervises workers in their various job descriptions, supporting them to adapt at the work places through induction programs. It is important that workers feel valued and appreciated, The human resource department is responsible for making teams through which workers get to share their experiences at the job while working together to achieve a company’s goals and objectives. One of the best practices in effective people management is ensuring that employees get constant training on effective ways to be productive and in the work obligations. Some of the organizations that are keen on enhancing productivity of their employees creates different trainings on-the-job for their employees, at the same time, they also trains their employees in different aspects that affects their lives. Part of the areas that companies give priority in training their employees includes savings, entrepreneurship and aspects of career growth and development. The focus when doing these trainings is to help employees make proper decisions about the lives while out of the job or in the course of their working. In a low cost flight company, flight attendants and other are attracted to look for other well-paying companies if the particular companies do not have effective systems of enhancing the productivity of the their employees. This is the same habit for workers in different industries, but when they are effectively managed, they can be contented and productive. Continually improve work performance Effective managers have important obligations that go beyond searching and eliminating of process interference factors, they spend time researching on better ways of how to do different things and achieve performance. They understand that people have inert skills that need to be tapped in order to be effective and efficient; they understand that there are various ways in which a job can be tackles provided it is within the required guidelines. Effective managers are always determined to instill changes that improve processes and work performance; they do all their best in order to bring productive changes in the work place. One of the main concerns of such managers is to see a staff that is motivated and working within the right framework. There is a special strategy that effective managers use in order to inspire proper work performance in the work places and at the same time improve any job processes, this strategy is summarized in an acronym PDSA; which stands for, Plan; here, managers are supposed to establish a plan that stands to solve or improve a certain prevailing problem or need. Do; managers are required to put the plan into practice, it may begin on a small scale but gradually grow to influence work practices in the entire organisation Study; managers are supposed to make a careful study of the plan and make necessary adjustments to make it productive. Act; manager should implement the plan in full after it has been ascertained that plan is a good solution to dome of the existing challenges at the work place. Implementing changes is often one of the toughest things to do in organizations; some employees may resist certain types of changes simply because they have been used to doing certain things in a certain way. Effective managers do not respond by creating enmity with such employees, they look for alternative ways of changing the employees’ attitudes so that look at the bright side of things. They use concrete facts and evidence to convince the employees that some things have to be changed and approached differently. One of the most important things that employees need to understand is that business practices and dynamic and keep changing and remain competitive a business has to keep changing too. Modes of doing business are changing too; workers need to understand how to use technology in doing their job responsibilities (Grantham, 2000, p. 12). Effective managers will take time to train their employees on how to use certain types of technology, for instance, when making flight bookings, paying as well as searching for destinations. Where do effective managers search for ideas that enhance change in their organizations? Some may be quite intelligent and generate them after a study of business and market trends while others read different books and journals. There are those who derive their ideas from the perspectives and opinions of their employees (Vroom &Yetton, 1973, p. 67; Mintzberg. H. 1973, p. 17-83), such managers have proper ways of communication with which their subordinates channels their ideas and opinions. They comprehend the value of everyone and can learn from their subordinates. Conclusion In conclusion, managers should know that effective managers are not born; they are made through constant training and mentoring. At the same time effective managers are also made thorough the same process (Chester, 1938, p. 34), everyone can make mistakes, it takes effective people skills to make corrections and inspire workers to effective performance. Human capital is the most important resource for any business organization; however, their effectiveness depends on the way they are managed by the company’s human resource managers and the structures that have been put in place. Bibliography Cherrington, D. J. 1989. Organizational behavior: The management of individual and organizational performance. Allyn and Bacon, Boston. Chester I. B. 1938.The Functions of the Executive, Harvard University Press, Cambridge. Dyregrov A, Skogstad A, Helles O, H, Haugli L 1992. Fear of flying in civil aviation personnel. Aviation Space Environ Med. Vol, 63, No. 1: pp. 831–838. Drucker, P. 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