Human Resources - Developing Personal and Professional Competencies - Case Study Example

Human Resources - Developing Personal and Professional Competencies Developing personal and professional competencies Life Scenario One A situation occurred recently that made it difficult to establish a common ground, a negotiation, with a personal acquaintance. There were team elements to this scenario in which I was expected to be involved in group activities. The main argument involved a clash of different personalities and therefore there was conflict occurring as a by-product of this disagreement. The task in the situation was to endure an extended period with the group that had radically different interests from my own. This included a formal environment as well as an informal gathering to share stories and foods. My argument is that my presence within this environment would not be satisfactory to the group based on logical arguments regarding lifestyle values and lack of commonality. The aggressor, my acquaintance, argued incessantly in favour of this particular group activity and felt that I had much to contribute as a group member. In this particular case, I decided to avoid the function altogether, realising that my attitude about the concept were valid. However, as I began to reassess the situation, I realised that I was taking action against an uncertain situation based on my own locus of control. This concept identifies that people either believe they have control over their own fates or these things are influenced or determined by externalities (Treven & Potocan 2005). I was finding considerable stress regarding this particular function and manifested this stress based on my view of the ability of the external world to influence events. The first thing that I gauged was the level of emotional intelligence that I carried, in terms of understanding and regulating my own behaviours and reconsidering how my attitude influences others. In this situation, though I did not realise it at the time, the aggressor was attempting to negotiate a compromise and it made me consider that I was being considered a behavioural model by which to mould his own behaviours. My locus of control was distorted, mildly out of whack for a better term, making me realise that defensive posturing when faced with difficult situations is not effective in certain situations. This learning can easily be put into HR practices, as it deals with the fundamentals of human behaviour. This is something that any quality human resources practitioner must be able to provide. There is what is referred to as a soft HRM theory that focuses on human factors in human resources dealing with motivation and leading others in order to reach strategic goals (Price 2007). An appropriate locus of control assessment survey, as part of the recruitment or change model within the organisation, would determine the level to which each employee gauges themselves against the external world. As an individual responsible for ensuring a proper job fit, and having a soft style HRM policy, this would help the workers understand their role within the organisation as well as how they might respond to externalities as they surface. Negotiating through a difficult situation was not the solution in that case, it was understanding the level to which others measure themselves against me based on results from their locus of control pre-test assessment. I think this would improve human relations and improve the ability to coach others when their own emotional intelligence increases. Future improvements in this situation would include recognising that “the overall purpose of human resource management is to ensure that the organisation is able to achieve success through people (Armstrong 2006, p.28). The goal of the HR practitioner is to ensure that people are not only fitted to the proper job, but that they remain satisfied and loyal to the organisation, especially if there is an objective of gaining motivation to perform to desired standards. Planning forward in this case refers to secondary resource consultation in areas of sociology and psychology to gain a better understanding of different theories of personality. This can be applied in many ways as part of a self-service HR model by improving not only cognition, but the method by which employees view themselves and their surroundings. Scenario Two This particular life experience reminded me, again, of the importance that mood and motivation play towards meeting the ultimate objectives of a successful business with quality human capital development. This situation involved a colleague that was frustrated due to the organisation’s lack of advancement potential through the ranks of management. This individual would depersonalize others and did not find personal accomplishment in her job role. These are symptoms characteristic of job burnout (Singh, Goolsby & Rhoads 1994). In this situation, the interpersonal communications barriers between managers and workers were well-developed based on prejudices and many different inter-office biases about the job performance of the supervising manager. There was often tension between the two workers as the manager attempting to place high controls of the job when the employee colleague was searching for advancement opportunities and job rotation. My role in this situation was to counsel the colleague in order to help them develop their own sense of self-motivation without considering, in such a high degree, the opinion and actions of the management team. As with in the other situation, “emotional intelligence is vital to the work of a leader” (Litvin & Betters-Reed 2005, p.200). I needed to understand that some of the depersonalization efforts being expressed by this colleague were a product of burnout in the job role however this individual did not have the functional communications skills necessary (as well as emotional intelligence) to express them properly. This person was allowing their emotions to gain control whilst my role was to calm them. The first attempt to deal with this individual was to offer positive reinforcement about their skills on the job in an attempt to put more perception of control over the situation back in the colleague’s lap. My first thoughts were to reduce the stressors that were causing this response, of which these included an external locus of control, resistance to controls, and did not have managerial support in this person’s needs fulfilment. At the most fundamental level, an employee requires some validation about their organisational belonging and a positive reinforcer if they have met with demanded performance standards. In this particular incident, the management team was not very supportive and did not provide much in terms of transformational style leadership. This was a hard HRM practice that did not work well with the organisation or its culture. I decided that the cognitive behavioural approach would be the most appropriate course of action, however reduced for a shorter period as a means of changing the employee’s perspective on the matter. In this, the person in a listening role will perform a functional analysis that identifies the softer HRM elements related to behaviour, motivation and morale. This analysis identified that the colleague was learning through operant conditioning, beginning to negatively associate himself from the manager only through repeated exposure. His ongoing presence in the area produced this operant conditioning reaction whilst personal emotions were always running high. Through observational techniques, I was able to determine that these moods surfaced with repetitive visualisation of the manager. This approach helped the colleague determine what was at the root of their behaviour and begin to isolate herself from the management team when determining their validation within the organisation. The goal of a quality HR leader is to lead an individual, and through the cognitive behavioural approach of self-assessment, the end result was positive and helped build dissociation from the management staff. Planning for future events would require considering the role of needs analyses or functional analyses, with a blend of observation or experiment, is a quality primary method of understanding what gets to the root of negative interpersonal relationships or management sentiment. The role of human psychology is vast and very much involved with human resources and when factors that can be changed through leading practices are possible, the key is understanding the basis of relationships and individual value systems. Improving in the future, as part of planning, involves setting up some form of template by which to measure personality traits so that the individual can consider their dependency on management when determining their own value in a business. This skill contributes greatly to the role of human resources leader since it uses a blend of knowledge in mentoring and coaching along with designing HR research instruments so that even at the recruitment stage, it can be known what might be predictors for certain personalities. If the HR practitioner is actually considering a more in-depth and evaluative measure that relies on some primary research data, these tools would be effective at determining new rewards policies or performance appraisal systems that are in-line with their individual psychological profiles. A well-developed system with these resources might be able to build more motivation and remove reliance on management in issues of burnout. With the individual depersonalizing others, it was becoming an organisational issue that needed to be handled at the individual level to avoid culture being altered in a way that made others feel this way. I felt the role of being a quality HR professional was to assess the situation, create change when possible, and also help in changing negative thought processes in burned-out workers. Scenario Three In this situation, behaviour was another factor that changed personal practice and method toward a resolution. Attempting a collective bargaining process in relation to tourist destination choices, I realised that there were cultural elements associated with the opposing parties that determined whether certain locations would be more preferable. The group considering these factors were extended family members from different parts of the world, together for a long period of time during an extended foreign stay. The goal was to create a local destination where the group could travel together and satisfy the majority considering it consisted of approximately ten different individuals. The competency learned through the many different objectives was the importance of understanding culture when dealing with foreign family members. In this situation, I was generally not against any of the suggestions the group offered, as in some way they fit my rational self-interest and my needs for recreation. I do not generally have a strong dependence on group affiliation naturally as a part of my own subculture associations, therefore I do not look toward the family unit as being that functional in my decision-making or how I view myself. This was what was causing most of the problems in the situation: my individualistic cultural personality amidst a group with very strong group values and were looking for consensus in their decisions. The first thought in this situation was that I needed to gain momentum with pushing forward the decision-making process as everyone in the group was growing visibly exhausted with trying to come up with a collaborative solution. None would speak of it, however. It was causing anxiety to run high and there was the beginning of negative reinforcement from many group members. The action taken was to use academic cultural knowledge toward the situation in order to diffuse it and also help others to see the point of view of various group members as individuals as a means to reduce their reliance on group cohesion and consensus. Using concepts related to diversity and transformational HR leadership, I reminded the group that consensus is not always achievable , however motivating an end result was paramount since there were performance timelines associated with finding an acceptable tourist destination. In this case, there was a very high need, at the cultural level, for stern leadership with a harder HRM focus and a much less passive mentality. Looking for consensus means they were attempting to bridge gaps for positive reinforcement, something that no individual within the group was prepared to do since the issue had spiralled so far out of control. Offers one expert in HR, “leaders aspiring to be effective in multicultural environments must develop an awareness of the different dimensions of culture that are and will be most central to their different constituencies” (Shriberg & Kumari 2008, p.20). This group needed a less transformational manager and one that understood the basis of the lifestyle and then took lessons from managing conflict within these groups. I understood that this group had a high uncertainty avoidance factor as well collectivism with low emotional intelligence, but high measures of self-interest. The goal was to assist not only in putting tighter controls over reaching the ultimate goal for the sake of everyone’s interest, but also to assist others in understanding non-verbal cues from others as well as straight-forward negative reinforcement. The learning in this case that was most apparent was that it is possible to diffuse hostile situations within a certain culture so long as there are understandings of what drives their attitudes, values and perceptions. In this case, people needed to be managed instead of led as the first goal. In other groups, as future planning, this would likely not be as acceptable as it was in the collectivist group with low emotional awareness. Even though my own cultural values were significantly different than the group, I was able to draw out their more positive personality traits and also take control when it was needed based on long-running cultural values. Future planning would also include testing these same theories on different group projects or creating an assessment planning tool that identifies cultural dimensions of new business recruits prior to making any measurable changes to operational process or procedure. In a difficult environment, I learned that people will often respond to hard HRM processes that are more rationale and management focused so long as they fit certain personality profile predictions. This particular skill, of understanding how to approach multicultural group projects, would be valuable in the role of HR especially in a large organisation. The functional HR manager assesses cultural profiles, measures these against the organisational whole, and then determines how to best reinforce the organisation’s mission on the situation and make those within the group return to more accomplished discussion. There is a strong reliance on understanding primal leadership skills, with some of these involving much less mentoring function and more of a controller. In some instances, this would be beneficial in a small business that did not have resources for a HR manager but relied on these skills in a multicultural production or labour-intensive environment. Future planning would also include consulting with different theoretical perspectives on the role of HR and culture to find commonalities associated with different research studies to create a negotiation diffusement model for different personalities that can be distributed throughout the organisation in manager or executive training packages. This would be suited for a HR role as well as a line manager role with expectations for both sides of human relations. References Armstrong, M. (2006). A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. London: Kogan Page. Kadden, R.M. (2008). [internet] Cognitive-Behavior Therapy for Substance dependence: coping skills training. Connecticut School of medicine. [accessed 12.11.2010] [available at http://www.bhrm.org/guidelines/CBT-Kadden.pdf] Litvin, D. & Betters-Reed, B. (2005). The personal map: a lesson in similarities, differences and the invisible, Journal of Management Education. 29, 2, pp.199-208. Price, A. (2007). Human Resource Management in a Business Context. 3rd ed. Thomson Learning. Shriberg, A. & Kumari, R. (2008). Why culture matters: leveraging cultural differences to create a business advantage, The Business Review. 10, 1, pp.19-25. Singh, J., Goolsby, J. & Rhoads, G. (1994). Behavioral and psychological consequences of boundary spanning burnout for customer service, Journal of Marketing Research. 31, 4, pp.558-569. Treven, S. & Potocan, V. (2005). Training programmes for stress management in small business, Education & Training. London. 47, 8/9, pp.640-653. Read More