Developing Effective Employment Relationships - Essay Example

Developing Effective Employee Relationships BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE HERE Developing Effective Employment Relationships Introduction Businesses today face a great deal of challenges, ranging from international competition growth to changes in the technology market that impact business direction. One of the most fundamental challenges is establishing effective employment relationships, both in a recessionary environment and in a more conducive and stable economic climate. To build effective employee/manager relationships, there are several leadership models that provide valuable human resources-based outcomes. These include transformational leadership, laissez-faire leadership and transactional leadership. All three of these models have differing approaches to building successful employment relationships, either focusing on autonomy, inspiration and vision iteration, or establishing effective rewards for meeting performance targets. Whatever model utilised in the organisational environment, there are opportunities and challenges associated with how employees will respond in a recessionary environment and when economic conditions are more favourable for business growth and development. 2. The challenge of leadership During a recession, employees begin to find personal concern about their employment security. Job security, under respected models of psychology, is a fundamental need that must be fulfilled before the employee can achieve self-esteem, a sense of social belonging, or achieve full self-actualization; the process of reaching the pinnacle of motivation and self-expansion (Morris and Maisto 2005; Maslow 1998). When employees feel that their jobs are in jeopardy, they will be more resistant to enacting change processes and will be de-motivated toward meeting performance expectations (Ravlin et al. 2000). When employees feel that their job positions are in jeopardy due to economic recession or business slowdowns occurring as a result of the macro-level economic environment, they are less motivated to perform under Expectancy Theory. Under this theory, employees choose a certain behaviour based on the perceived desirability of the outcome of this behaviour (Montana and Charnov 2008). Economic recessions often lead to internal job reductions through layoffs, thus consolidating job roles until the recession has run its life cycle and business returns back to expected levels of profitability. Employees that have remained behind and witnessed job losses with important reference group colleagues and associates, issues of job security are fresh on the minds of the employee. When change management is required to alter dimensions of service or product that require new training imperatives or alterations to job role, actions under Expectancy Theory would tend to predict change resistance. Why is this? Performing according to management objectives and strategic goals in a change process would provide the business with significant advantages, however with little benefit for the employee. Expectancy theory would indicate that the most desired outcome of a behaviour would be self-protectionism when physiological concerns can be affected by impending job losses, two fundamental emotional needs that lead to motivation or de-motivation. There is also a theory in psychology referred to as Locus of Control. People in the organisation that have a high locus of control believe that they have mastery and control over their lives and cannot be impacted significantly by others or the environment in which they thrive (Morris and Maisto 2005). People with a low locus of control believe that external forces strongly contribute to whether an employee succeeds or fails, thus placing blame on a variety of stakeholders for de-motivated performance. During a recession when job loss is a constant concern, managers must come to identify whether employees are blaming external stakeholders or whether they have the capacity (the emotional resolve) to press forward and ride out the economic storm whilst still contributing effectively to job role function and goal attainment expectations. In any event, the employee will, in a recession, either maintain high or low locus of control that will significantly impact their willingness to change and perform according to expectations. 3. Management models for employee relationship development One very powerful management model that is known to create motivation in employees is the transformational leadership model. Transformational leadership is a liberal and progressive type of leadership philosophy where managers and/or executives take a more visible role in the social environment. They become teachers, coaches and mentors as a means of enhancing human capital development in individuals or groups (Fairholm 2009). Transformational leaders use vision and mission iterations, charisma and inspirational communications to gain commitment, loyalty and dedication to achieve corporate goals (Schlosberg 2006). The goal of transformational leadership is to create positive appeals to the psycho-social dimensions of behaviour and attitude, building trust in the leader and expressing trust in the competencies of workers. What transformational leadership accomplishes is creating a team-focused organisational culture. Trust under this definition is “the willingness to be vulnerable” (Kramer and Tyler 1996, p.54). Transformational leadership illustrates an empathic and emotionally intelligent leader that cares legitimately about the well-being and security of employees. Since during recession the employee is consistently concerned about fundamental job securities, establishing trust and legitimised relationships with employees will likely reduce much change resistance and resentment toward those who have reduced staffing levels and thereby removed trusted and respected colleagues from their social environment. Building a sense of social belonging illustrates that the business is concerned about employees and attempts to integrate them into a dedicated group culture that can supersede emotional concerns about recession-generated risks to their job and incomes. Managers can also utilise the laissez-faire leadership style, one in which there is virtually no management presence whatsoever. Under this model, the leader creates a series of task objectives for the employee, dictating them with expectations for autonomous performance to occur (Goodnight 2004). Leaders establish a set of rules and task completion objectives and then remove himself or herself from the environment to allow the employee to meet these goals without direct intervention and evaluation from the leader. “It is an absence and avoidance of leadership” (Bass and Avolio 2004, p.71). Why is this model effective for building better relationships during recession? When job loss concerns are paramount to the employee, they require some element of belonging within the organisation to alleviate these concerns. Laissez-faire leadership style promotes autonomous working function, thereby instilling to the employee that the business trusts in their own competencies, unmanaged, to complete a task according to specifications and strategic objectives. Autonomous working environments allow an employee to express their own creative problem-solving and business solutions without having to rely on management presence. Laissez-faire leadership provides a template for organisational inclusion that can supersede emotionally-driven concerns about potential job security. A third leadership model available is transactional leadership, the establishment of specific rewards and punishments for meeting or failing to meet performance goals in the job role. It is an unspoken contract between managers and employees where rewards are contingent on meeting a set of pre-discussed performance criteria (Antonakis et al. 2003). Transactional leadership provides incentives for employees to achieve goals that enhance motivation, a critical relationship development concern when employees are concerned about risks to their income and job security. By illustrating to the employee that there are opportunities to be recognised and rewarded, it shows that there is little concern about being injured by impending job loss. This model serves to establish trust in the employee to meet goals and focuses on efficiency rather than deficiency which could have positive, long-term emotional impact on employees that require such reassurances. There is no guarantee that choosing one of the three aforementioned models of leadership will achieve results, as worry about physiological health and job security are two fundamentally critical needs that will predict whether an employee is motivated. Leader in the organisation should conduct analyses of what is driving employee attitude during times of recession and then select which model would be considered most valuable and trustworthy to employees who are now sceptical about their positional security. Further research into the use of these models during times of recession and non-recession would assist in determining which model is most effective at building more positive employee relationships and removing apprehension and disquiet in employee groups about their longevity with the organisation. 4. Conclusion Whether selecting transformational leadership, transactional leadership or laissez-faire style will be dependent on gaining knowledge of what is concerning employees during times of recession. All models provide opportunities for employee self-expansion and will, in their own way, illustrate an inclusive set of values that iterate trust in the competencies of the employee. The transactional model, further, sets up reward-based strategy schemes for meeting business imperatives which incentivizes job role function to make it more motivational. These are critical constructs of leadership if there are concerns that there will be change resistance occurring in employee groups that have resentments and problems with how the business is adjusting according to economic conditions. It would seem that if leaders are able to reduce these largely unfounded perceptions of potential job loss, they can establish more effective relationships at a time where these are critical motivational elements needed in the business model. If the manager can remove negative self-concept about locus of control to internalise it for the employee, they can reduce their dependencies on the external environment and find internal motivation founded on belief in self-competency and self-regulation of job performance. References Antonakis, J., Avolio, B.J. and Sivasubramaniam, N. (2003). Context and leadership: An examination of the nine factor full-range leadership theory using the multifactor leadership questionnaire, The Leadership Quarterly, 14(1), pp.261-295. Bass, B.M. and Avolio, B.J. (2004). The Full Range Leadership Development Manual for the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Redwood City: Mindgarden Inc. Goodnight, R. (2004). Encyclopaedia of Leadership. Sage Publications. Fairholm, M. (2009). Leadership and Organizational Strategy, The Public Sector Innovation Journal, 14(1), pp.26-27. Kramer, R.M. and Tyler, T.R. (1996). Trust in Organisations: Frontiers of theory and research. London: Sage. Maslow, A. (1998). Maslow on Management. New York: Wiley. Montana, P.J. and Charnov, B.H. (2008). Management, 4th ed. Barron’s Educational Series, Inc. Morris, C. and Maisto, A. (2005). Psychology: An Introduction, 12th ed. Pearson Prentice Hall. Ravlin, E.C., Thomas, D.C. and Ilsev, A. (2000). Beliefs about values, status, and legitimacy in multicultural groups: Influences on intra-group conflict, in P.C. Earley and H.Singh (eds). Innovations in International and Cross-Cultural Management. Sayfa. Scholsberg, P.B. (2006). Transformational Leadership: A holistic view of organisational change. MagPro Publishing. Read More