Working with Employees - Essay Example

Working with Employees An introduction  Bureau Veritas is a well-known departmental store chain in Saudi Arabia. Its HR manager, Meshal Al Ruhaimi, at the Riyadh branch was very hospitable in giving me his 30 minutes for an interview. Mr. Meshal Al Ruhaimi has been handling the human resource of the company for several years and knows the ups and downs of his jobs very well. The interview proved highly productive and gave me useful insight into the management side of the company. The interview was also useful in describing organizational psychology in practical terms. There is a tremendous influence of organizational psychology on the decisions of an HR manager. The interview questions and their answers can be found in the appendix section given at the end. Manager’s Position Mr. Meshal Al Ruhaimi has spent the most part of his life managing human resources. Handling employees, motivating them and sometimes terminating them are the primary experiences of his job. Changing times, technology, individual differences and financial problems are just some of the difficulties that an HR manager has to face. Summary The interview specifically targeted two problems that are part of Industrial/Organizational I/O psychology; employee motivation and conflict management. These are not the easiest tasks to handle. They demand extraordinary management skills from an HR manager to gracefully resolve such matters. These matters also incorporate I/O psychology in their solution. During financial crunch where the company is looking to downsize, it is very difficult to keep the employees motivated. When they are expecting the axe to fall on anyone’s head, it is not easy to motivate them. Similarly, when there are conflicts the HR manager becomes a judge of the situation. A party to the conflict looks forward to the decision of the HR manager with respect. This situation puts extra responsibility on the HR manager. The administrator keeps a record of the changing trends affecting the organizational culture. Moreover, the research on conflict management and motivating employees has largely been based on studies conducted on a narrow group of people. It is better to indulge into a particular industry/organization to comprehensively grasp its issues and resolve conflicts. By remaining updated, a manager is better equipped with dealing with unprecedented situations. Scholarly Commentary Problems and issues An HR manager performs under certain goals set by the organization’s vision. Goals are internal representations of desires (James & Jeffrey, 1996). The HR processes such as recruitment, interview, promotion, motivation, conflict resolution, etc. are governed by these goals. This is how organizational psychology ensues and governs the organization. The field of I/O psychology sheds light on how such decisions are made. The field also guides in case of complications and problems. As mentioned by HR manager, a person that holds such a responsibility needs play an all-rounder in different scenarios. For instance, an organization’s overall performance depends on employee motivation. Research suggests that among many variables, the following three are crucial in influencing motivational level of the employee; psychological state of the employee, job characteristics and the individual’s attributes (Hackman & Oldham, 1976). An HR manager must have the talent to master and command in such departments. It has been mentioned by the manager that a manager needs to empathize with the employee to be able to motivate him effectively. The changing work environment also affects organizational psychology. Consequently, an HR manager needs to understand the changing trends in order to communicate and motivate people. The contemporary changes in the work environment impact all aspects of organizational psychology. Another study suggests; dispositions, volitions, organizational influences, strategies and characteristics of the task, as the broad categories that affect contemporary work (Ruth, 1990). Without understanding these types one cannot influence employees in a good way. The recruitment process can also get affected due to this supposed lack of understanding the changing work environment. The interview had also been fruitful because the manager revealed some unorthodox or unprecedented plans. There is no one size fits all solution to manage matters of organizational psychology. Each company has a different visions and a different team that takes it towards the fulfillment of its mission under the direction of the mission. It is noteworthy that organizational psychology is a vast field, and every practice does not portray a text book example. The practice of researchers had been choosing a handful of research strategies and relied on massive speculations, then later calling for greater diversity in the future (Sackette, Larson & James, 1990). Under such a situation, it becomes vital for the manager to react according to the situation instead of finding a textbook example of how to resolve the conflict. Manager need to keep pace with the changing trends in the international business. Striking changes are affecting the workplace. Some examples would be intense global competition, the influence of information technology, the re-engineering of business developments, smaller companies with a small staff, the move from making product industry to a service-oriented style of corporate evolution, and the concept of "the job" as a rigid list of tasks becoming obsolete Cascio, 1995). These changing trends affect the work place directly and organizational psychology indirectly. Recommendations I suggest the manager to modify the existing models for motivating employees and in conflict resolution. It is certainly an irrefutable fact that the manager has handled the problems of his department very carefully in the past. My suggestions might not dramatically improve the speed of resolving conflicts, but they will undoubtedly enhance the productivity of the manager’s tasks. References Cascio, W. F. (1995) Whither industrial and organizational psychology in a changing world of work? American Psychologist. Vol. 50(11), pp. 928-939 Hackman, J. R. & Oldham, G. R. (1976) Motivation through the design of work: test of a theory. Organizational Behavior and Human Performance. Volume 16, Issue 2, Pages 250–279 James T. A. & Jeffrey, B. V. (1996) Goal constructs in psychology: Structure, process, and content. Psychological Bulletin, Vol. 120 (3),s 338-375 Ruth K., (1990). Motivation theory and industrial and organizational psychology. Handbook of industrial and organizational psychology, Vol. 1 (2nd ed.) pp. 75-170. Sackett, P. R., Larson & James, R. (1990). Research strategies and tactics in industrial and organizational psychology. Handbook of industrial and orsganizational psychology, Vol. 1 (2nd ed.), (pp. 419-489) Appendix What are some of the joint problems that you have experienced with employees? Individual has different problems. Sometimes it is bad timing that makes my job difficult with motivating my employees. I like what I do, which gives me the strength to be spontaneous with my methods. Employees can have any kind of problem going in their lives. Can you tell me about two major problems that you have faced in your job? I have faced a lot of challenging situations on my job. I remember two distinct problems. One time after the financial crunch of 2008, our company had to get rid of 20 employees. It was my job to select the unfortunate ones. I used statistics to analyze performance. The one who were in the bottom 20 had to go. It was difficult, but I gathered them out in the conference room and explained that we had to let them go. But I remember that it had a negative impact on the other employees as they were all thinking that they would get terminated next. In this scenario, it was hard to keep them motivated for work. The company needed better productivity, and the employees were thinking more about their termination letter than their work. Similarly at another occasion our department had a problem; one of the training coaches developed a psychological problem. Other employees complained about verbal abuse by this person. The coach was going through a phase in life, and he had developed clinical problems. The other employees demanded that the person should be terminated as per company policy. It was a conflict, a dilemma because the company needed his skills. What solutions have you tried as a manager? Have those solutions worked? To motivate the employees I had to announce in a happy tone that there would not be any more terminations. I had to relieve the employees of their fear. It was tough to do because it was not indeed true. The company had decided to wait and see if the company can afford to keep the same number of staff by the end of the next month. If everything runs according to plan then, there won’t be any more terminations but if need be then more people will be leaving the company. Gladly the tactic worked, and I got to keep my promise with my team. The conflict resolution was not an easy task because I asked for the higher management’s approval to admit our employee at the rehab center. Upon my recommendation and due to the previous productivity of the employee, the company decided to arrange for the rehab. Read More