The Influence of Good and Bad Leadership on Workplace Relationships - Coursework Example

The Influence of Good and Bad Leadership on Workplace Relationships ID Introduction An organisationalenvironment has a diversity of a workforce whose interaction leads to the establishment of relationships. The relationships in this context refer to the way people interact in the organisation. Therefore, organisations have the obligation to ensure that there is a mix of good relations between employees, executives and the management in general (Venkataramani, Labianca, & Grosser 2013). The underlying assumption is that effective relationships within the organisation lead to efficiency in performance of all workers (Chan, & Jepsen 2011). In this case, the human resource management as a department has an obligation to establish good employee relations. However, the top management influences the relationships within an organization. Employees relate to each other and the organization depending on the predominant leadership style that the management adopts. For instance, some organizations use authoritarian leadership while others may prefer transformational leadership. Therefore, this essay seeks to discuss how good or bad leadership has human relations within the hospitality context. Human relations at workplace The relationships that exist between workers and the executive management are very crucial for all organizations. Ways of fostering human relations in an organization include training, fulfilling promises, good workplace culture, and prompt conflict resolution (Dumazer, & Plane, 2012). Therefore, a deeper understanding on how human relations can affect competitiveness and influence costs is necessary for ensuring that the business becomes sustainable. The same approaches apply to the hospitality as a service industry whose success depends on the human relations; between employees and management, employees and customers and vice versa (Chan, & Jepsen 2011). Human relations is what makes the business work since employees must engage in group projects, exchange information through communicating ideas and providing motivation for good efforts. Therefore, workplace culture must be inviting since without this there are many challenges that can arise in the management of the employees (Robbins, & Judge 2012). A business with good and engaging workplace culture most likely retains its workforce because there is loyalty and also useful in meeting the needs of the frequent changing workplace. According to Chan and Jepsen (2011), good workplace relationships are the basis for employee motivation and also very crucial in maintaining business productivity. The underlying assumption is that employees are both interested in others’ well-being and they are always more productive than workers without such traits. The productivity is a good implication for the business and creates incentives for maintaining higher performance at lower costs. Nonetheless, the contemporary business environment is only favourable for flexible businesses that develop products to meet the changing needs of the modern consumers (Boella, & Goss-Turner 2013). A service industry like tourism is full of competition and success of businesses depend on the ability of the industry players to develop new products. However, researchers show that the social interaction influences creativity to a great deal (Baer 2010). Employee creativity depends on their willingness to communicate and share their ideas with other workers or the management. In this case, the quality of workplace relationship will influence the degree to which employees conform to offering alternative solutions to certain problems. Leadership and Human Relations Most managers fail not because they have technical incompetence but because they have poor people management skills. The modern business environment is highly competitive where business success depends on the ability of the management to foster good relationships within and beyond their premises (Boella, & Goss-Turner, 2013). Therefore, the contemporary business environment does not encourage leaders with poor relationship skills and show bad attitudes towards their employees. Modern industries require leaders who interact freely with their people and inspire talents. On the other hand, a leader must value good relationships among his or her employees. According to existing research, most employees who leave their jobs confirmed getting bad treatment from their employers (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). Others leave because the management does not appreciate their efforts. Nonetheless, the researchers confirm that the quality of relationships between managers and their employees influence job satisfaction. Thus, it is evident that leadership has a profound influence on employee relations and this may also affect the performance of the business entity. Managers in the hospitality industry, therefore, need to have general understanding of people or employees as the beginning of good leadership (Robbins, & Judge 2012). There is a distinct relationship between employee motivation and performance. However, good leadership motivates employees and in turn creates room for good relationships within the organization. Therefore, leaders have to take into account the various elements of human relations and leadership like earning trust of the employees, improving hiring and staffing decisions, building of employee competence and training, aligning priorities and coaching (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). A good leader must make sure that the employees trust him or her with crucial decisions. Trust is the basis of building good relationships within the team (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). On the other hand, hiring and staffing of employees should be just as one of the functions of a leader. Nonetheless, coaching is a good way of ensuring that employees are competent in handling their relationships. All measures that the leadership takes in ensuring good relationships revolve around employee retention (Boella, & Goss-Turner, 2013). In most cases, employees quit because they cannot withstand working with certain leaders. On the contrary, frontline leaders have the responsibility of retaining employees thus leadership has everything to do with relations at workplace. Good leadership and human relations Good leadership traits such as transparency foster good relations within an organization (Boella, & Goss-Turner 2013). A trustworthy leader earns respect from others and sets a good example for the employees to follow. However, most leaders fear going transparent because they believe that their followers will perceive them as being in less control of situations. On the other hand, others presume that by being transparent, one loses his or authority as a leader. However, a good leader is the one who is aware of the truth behind certain issues and matters. The leader should understand the role that workplace relationships play in the performance of the workforce (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). Nonetheless, good leaders should understand that the digital age has changed the way people relate with their leaders. For instance, hospitality industry involves the provision of services that entails interactions with the customers (Boella, & Goss-Turner 2013). A leader should be able to understand the dynamics of such relations. The same relationship affects the workplace since employees also target direct contact with the customers they serve. Therefore, a good leader is the one who understands how relationships can have impacts on employees and customers as well as productivity levels (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). Good leadership is a prerequisite for team building and commitment (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). A good leader unites the team and encourages them to work towards shared values. Team building encourages flexibility in the workplace and makes employees less bureaucratic and develops an urge to become more action oriented. Nonetheless, good leadership ensures that the employees share the same vision which eventually enhances the team’s performance. Sharing values helps in building trust within the team. Msanjila and Afsarmanesh (2011) recommend that trust is the foundation of all relationships. A good leadership centres on shared values and takes them into consideration when making certain decisions. By valuing shared values, the management builds commitment and trust of all workers in the organisation. The main focus of good leadership is building trust (Msanjila, & Afsarmanesh 2011). There are certain legislations that demand that organisations should consider certain levels of individual accountability. The management should, therefore, focus on issues like public expectations and labour concerns. Employees and the public should regard the executive management with a certain level of trust and respect. Lack of trust makes employees lose faith in the executive management implying that it leads to a bad relationship. A good leader should be able to instil respect and trust as some of the elements of ensuring accountability (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). One way of building trust within the organisation is respecting the views of the employees in all decision-making processes. In the long run, employees feel valued and swear loyalty to work with the firm. On the contrary, there have been some cases in history on how trust and leadership may influence business performance. Scandals like Enron and the likes happened as a result of the management’s failure to show a good example of good leadership. A good leader stimulates visionary thinking and inspires others to success (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). In this case, a good leader builds good relationships by encouraging others to make their vision become reality. The implication is that visionary thinking is a perfect way of ensuring good relationships by encouraging employees to work towards achieving their shared visions with the organization. A good leader, therefore, focuses on development and growth of the employees (Ciulla, 2013). By helping individuals to achieve their personal visions through training and development, good leadership builds good relationship between employees and the executive management team. In the hospitality industry for instance, a good leader should encourage employees to develop their inner talents and competencies like being tech savvy. An employee working in the hospitality industry may have a good knowledge on database management that can transform the business. By nurturing such talents, the leadership creates good relationships with their employees that translate to high morale in handling tasks. Briefly, all attributes of good leadership lead to the establishment of good relations and have positive effects on employee performance since they improve morale and motivate workers (Ciulla, 2013). There are many good leadership styles that managers in the hotel and hospitality industry can borrow from. For instance, a good leader should be change-oriented and apply transformational leadership skills to initiate changes in the organization. Change in this context is very crucial since competition in modern business environment is highly volatile. On the other hand, good leaders should be charismatic and influence others to follow good examples to the organisation and the public (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). A charismatic leader who imposes good ideologies to his followers can steer an organisation to greater achievement. Therefore, a good leader has many options of effective leadership styles. However, the best approach to good leadership is focusing on the people or employees. Bad Leadership and employee relationships Bad leadership wreaks havoc on the organisation. Recent studies show that employees feel that their performance is poor because the executive management lacks good leadership. A leadership with poor communication, for instance, creates a work environment with co-ordination problems (Peterson et al. 2012). In such situations, there is poor channelling of commands from the top to bottom and vice versa. Communication is always unreliable during bad leadership and this has a negative effect on the organisation performance (Schyns, & Schilling, 2013). Bad leaders are unpopular among their followers because they lack self-awareness and empathy which are some of the elements of building good relationships. On the other hand, bad leadership rewards employees unfairly and this has negative effects on their moral (Peterson et al. 2012). Bad leadership frustrates employees and may sometimes cause depression among individuals. A depressed employee has a poor work performance level and is most likely to leave the organisation. Though bad leadership may not be concerned about employee exodus, an organisation loses special skills when employees leave (Schyns, & Schilling 2013). It is always difficult to fill the gap that employees leave and firms have recorded low-performance levels few months after letting their workers go. Bad leadership leads to poor industrial relations has negative effects on work tempo (Schyns, & Schilling 2013). In such situations, workers perform below their optimum levels. The implication is that the organisation spends high on inputs but the output or productivity reduces. Bad leadership is the main cause of workplace problems like labour turnover and absenteeism (Peterson et al. 2012). High employee turnover rate reduces daily productivity target. Bad leadership leads to poor relationships where employees break the rules frequently. However, the bad leadership ought to understand that employee-workplace problems affect quantity and quality of production. Bad leadership creates an environment where employees are resistant to changes (Peterson et al. 2012). The implication is that bad leadership does not nurture talents among employees and they become accustomed to resistance. Even if they have good ideas on how to improve productivity, the bad relationship between workers and the executive management implies that the employees keep to themselves. Schyns and Schilling (2013) argue that bad leadership does not consider needs and expectations of the employees. An individual who goes to work on a daily basis has certain needs and expectations that he or she requires the organization to fulfil. Bad leadership does not put employees at heart and has no incentives for inspiring and motivating workers (Schyns, & Schilling 2013). Therefore, bad leadership may affect an industry like hospitality negatively since it focuses on service provision. Some of the products and services in hospitality like accommodation is intangible thus require good and quality service from the management (Cunliffe, & Eriksen 2011). If workers are on the go slow due to differences with the administration, many customers will most definitely not come back for a repeat experience. Eventually, the organisation loses its revenue collection as productivity shrinks. Conclusion In summary, both good and bad leadership has effects on the organisation productivity and performance. Good leadership, for instance, has many positive effects on the organisation. For one, good leadership is the basis for building trust. A team that trusts each other definitely has good relations. Nonetheless, good leadership respects, motivates, and inspires the team. Employees thus feel that the organisation values them and is committed to ensuring that the workplace is favourable. On the contrary, bad leadership is the main source of workplace problems like employee exodus, high work turnover, and absenteeism. On the other hand, a leadership with no incentive to build respect and trust among employees impacts negatively on its productivity and performance. For the hospitality industry that focuses on service provision, elements of good leadership are the basis for success and growth since the competition in the sector is highly volatile. 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