Modern Human Relations at Work - Essay Example

Challenges in management of employees Name Professor Institution Course Date Challenges in management Introduction Management is the act of harmonizing exertions of people in order to achieve anticipated aims and objectives of the firm using existing resources competently and effectively. This is an activity which involves numerous steps functions. It ranges from organization, directing, controlling and even employee supervision. All business at one point through their management team applies most or all the above in their work. Management of employees is one of the main challenge managers in today’s organizations face. In any organization, managers deals with employees of different characters and diverse background; and it is a mandate for them as leaders to mobilize them to ensure that the organization achieve their set goals. It is through this need to meet the firm’s missions and objectives that managers encounter these challengers from employees (Liff 2007 pg.19). This is a constant issue in any organization globally as the need for each one is almost the same. It is true that all firms have the desire of meeting their goals which is to realize as much returns as possible. This is a challenge that requires hard work and determination to achieve which in itself put a lot of pressure on employees, making their management a constant issue (Liff 2007 pg.19). There is no one point that a firm can stand and declare they are satisfied with they have, so mobilizing employees to always produce is the challenge faced by all managers. It is the responsibility of any organization to achieve some stretch goals. This is the primary duty of any manager, and to attain this, employees in the firm must be fully incorporated. This ranges from acquiring extensive market for products of the firm, developing a new product, improving the product and other business process (Ferrell et al 2008 pg. 292). This increases pressure in the manager leading to high demands and expectations from employees. However to manage employees to attain all this has proved to be a hard task for managers since they are dealing with different kind of people whom all of them must work hand in hand towards meeting the firms goals (Liff 2007 pg. 19). Getting the best out of each employee is another challenge that has greatly affected the performance of any manager. It is important to have all employees focused on their roles. To motivate all of them to perform on the same level which is desired to attain the company’s objectives is a hard task for any manager (Armstrong 2008 pg.36). This is mainly achieved through other means like employee protection, appreciating their work and motivating them. This hinders the progress of the firm since finance is needed to enhance all it. In case of a small firm which is not strong financially, the manager is expected to handle this. Their productivity may not be the same for all workers as others work well under the mentioned above practices. This becomes a real issue of concern to any manager to understand how to acquire the best from each of his/her workforce (Murray et al 2008 pg.107). Competition has greatly intensified as time move on (Hodgetts & Hegar 2008 pg.3). Several industries producing the same products have come up making life of any manager challenging. Each of them wants to perform better than the other in scramble to dominate in the market. This increases the pressure on management as the manager passes it to employees. Some of these firms even porch the best workers from others by offering them better wages than where they came from, making it hard to retain your laborers. Diversity and globalization have also played a crucial role in making management difficult. (Hodgetts & Hegar 2008 pg.3). Workers currently understand what is happening across the world, and when they feel they are not taken as part of the company or that they are not appreciated, their performance deepens or some even move out of the company. The world has become dynamic, and employees in the current market are not the same with those who grazed the industry in 19th century. Technology has played a crucial role, and it is difficult to handle them unlike in the past. The needs of employees affect performance of the firm. As a manager, one should balance the organizational needs and those of employees. In most cases, workers are not contended with remuneration they receive for the work they are doing. This may be due to continuous increase in cost of living across the world; they tend to protest for increase in their pay. Some employees are also not performing to the desired level, and mangers must be able to ensure they work well to attain firm’s objectives. Dealing with such employees is usually a challenge, especially those who require pay rise since several factors need to be considered before deciding to adjust their income (Hodgetts & Hegar 2008 pg.3). Dealing with special group of staff is also not an easy thing for managers to look at. This is common in case where some workers perform better than others. This collection of employees expects special treatment from management of the organization in recognition of great efforts they have put in their work (Creasey & Hiatt 2003 pg.10). Managers have to recognize this in order to keep them performing in the same level and still remain in the company. Those who are underperforming need also special attention and maybe even direction regarding what they should do. Recruiting of employees by the manager has never been a difficult job, but getting the right personnel is the real challenge for any manager. Some people attending interviews maybe very good, but when it comes to actual job, they may not be as good as they first look, understanding who is right for the vacant post to be filled is thus a challenge facing almost all the managers in the world. No matter how good the company could be performing, at one point, change is imminent. Managers must be able to identify the best employees to be able to sustain performance of the company (Bohlander& Snell 2010 pg. 27). Employee crisis is a common thing in management. Irrespective of how good the plan made by a manager, at one point crisis occurs. This may be sickness of crucial employee, death or even disruption of firm’s facilities, harming some important documents (Kusluvan 2003 pg.358). This may be natural disasters, and may cause serious damage to the company. As a manager, one should be able to navigate through this since employee follows their lead. The need for continuous improvement is a pressure that most managers may not withstand. Irrespective of how good the firm performs, it is known that it can still do better. These improvements are recognized through employee involvement, and when they fail to participate, the firm may never recognize them. Managers are tasked with responsibility of en ensuring the company keeps performing, at the same time keep improving while there is still chance of improving (Creasey & Hiatt 2003 pg.10). Commitment from employees to the firms set missions and vision is another problem encountered by the managers (Kusluvan 2003 pg.358). Some employees may only be interested with the job since they earn a living from it. It is a responsibility of any manager to ensure that all employees are committed to the firm’s goals, and all of them work towards achieving it. This may not be an easy thing as the manager is dealing with different types of workforce. It is believed that for every challenge, there must be a corresponding solution. Likewise to any other problem also, the challenges facing managers in today’s management also has solution. Each manager can solve most of the challenges if not all facing them in management through the following ways; Achieving set goals in the organization is the manager’s main aim, and is a challenge that every manager must achieve (Joia 202 pg.124). This is done through active involvement of employees, and ensuring that they are doing right things within the company. The manager should be able to pick the right employees with correct mindset of performing. Motivating the employees to enhance good performance is essential for every leader. This not only ensures employees performs best, it also reduces the need for close supervision of employees since they will give their best to attainment of the firms goals (Armstrong 2008 pg.36). To get the best out of the workers, managers need to look at what they are doing closely. They must ensure they play their game well, and ensure that all working staff in the organization is happy. The manager must be thoughtful about the type of assignment that is giving an employee since everyone must be tasked with what they can perform best. This is the only way they can produce what is expected from them. As a leader in the firm, one should treat all employees equally, and allow them freedom to express what they are feeling. Understand their workers goals regarding their carrier and help them to align these goals with those of the organization (Kusluvan 2003 pg.358). This ensures both the firm and the worker benefits from working, enhancing productivity of both. Leaders must be clear in articulating what workers have done wrong. (Murray et al 2008 pg.107). As painful as it is, workers must be clearly informed as this makes them keener and cannot repeat the same mistakes in future when they are well informed. Good managers are those well-equipped who look at the problem, take immediate responsibility of solving it. The best way to act upon it is by first informing the person who did. The needs of employees are also other factors that are worth considering. Remuneration is what comes to mind in this sect, of which they must be given accordingly. They should be allowed to air their grievances and when they have a genuine issue, it must be responded to. Managers should help them to overcome personal problems also. Guidance and counseling unit should be set up in any organization that helps employees undergoing stress. Managers must take into account employee’s needs, but still balance with objectives of the firm (Murray et al 2008 pg.107). Special recognition of performing staff is essential in order to motivate them to keep up with the same spirit also. The leader has to make them aware that they part of long term plans of the company, and that their efforts are highly appreciated. Offering them motivation in forms of allowances, trips or even hosting them for meals and giving them strategies of the firm is crucial in ensuring they are maintained in the company (Sims 2002 pg.23). For those underperforming, the manager should also try motivate them, organize for them training sessions and get a deep understanding as to why they are not performing. This can be achieved through asking them what they feel about the company in form of questionnaires and responding to feedback they obtain (Jackson et al 2012 pg.19). The management of the company should set up a strong interviewing committee. It has come to attention of most leaders that ability of an employee to perform or even to conduct themselves in an appropriate way is not only based on qualifications (Ford et al 2012 pg.22). The interview panel must understand the type of people in the interview, and be able to scrutinize in detail how they can perform. This reduces the need for closer supervision by the manager on workers when correct persons are identified. A leader in the organization must respond to crisis when they hit employees. A manager should have a good plan in place to minimize this crisis as much as possible, but should be able to change them also when need arises. This is the only way a manager can successfully get out of a crisis when it affects his/her company. This should be done in a calm manner, without necessarily involving employees and the manager must avoid being overwhelmed by stress during this period (Sims 2002 pg.23). Continuous improvement is a process that may not always achieved. To maintain these desired results, the manager can change a continuous process if it has yielded the same results for some time, so reverting to a new one may be important (Ford et al 2012 pg. 22). Ensuring that employees have a better environment to work in helps in this and more emphasis on essential things that need to be done ensures they keep improving on production. It is also important to ensure employees are committed to attaining missions of the firm. From their pledge to keep working in the company is where the manager can trust them to keep working for them. People who are committed are much more productive and easy to manage as compared to those contemplating weather to move on (Jackson et al 2012 pg.19). In modern work stations, managing people has become a real task affecting today’s managers. This is an issue of concern as the current business has undergone a lot of evolution. Outsourcing of employees by bigger companies has become a real threat to managers trying to hold onto their best workers. Workers are now able to move abroad and work in any part of the world as long as they meet requirements of that firm, so when they find that they are not appreciated in their parent company, they just move out. Shortage of talented employees also means the few available will attract plenty of interest from other organizations (Bohlander& Snell 2010 pg. 27). New labor regulations do not help also. When employee feels their rights are being violated, most of them end up with frustrations, and others move out of the company (Barth & Hayes 2009 pg. 183). Changes in company’s cultural structures have also facilitated these challenges of managing employees. Increase in pressure laid on human resource managers to performs means the pressure is shifted from the manager to employees. This makes work of managers more difficult as they need to constantly check what employees are doing (Liao-Troth 2008 pg.126) The need to compare performance of one company to other increases difficulty in managing employees. Benchmarking has become something common in current management world, and expectations have significantly increased (Gitman & Mcdaniel 2009 pg.138). It is understood that performance of all managers can never be the same, but owners of the business in most organizations expect their business entities to excel like the most successful ones. This leads to human resource managers finding hard to match other business, making their management work more difficult. Management theories have been in existence for a long time, and these theories help the managers by a great means in their management. For success of any firm, need to follow example of these theories is therefore important. Elton Mayo in his book Hawthorn Studies, explains how human relation is important in the theory; Human relation theories. He stresses how motivation and good leadership enhances performance of organizations (Levoy 2007 pg.114). Classical theory was apprehensive with structure and contrivance of organization. Managers could learn how to incorporate good structure and mechanism of organizations to ensure employees have favorable conditions to work in. System theory focuses on difficulty and interdependency of affiliations. As systems are part of management, managers learn also how to meet objectives of the firm with enhancing employee awareness on systems. Contingency theory on the other hand allows leaders to choose the best alternative means of management among the available ones. It is therefore important for current managing team to understand these theories and use them for efficient management (Levoy 2007 pg.114). As evident in the entire essay above, it is important for managers to understand and practice good management. To be able to determine where the business is heading, organize resources required for success in the business and be able to control and manage employees efficiently is important for success of the company. This enhances good relationship among employees and management of the firm, ensuring management becomes easy for leaders (Arthur 2001 pg.331). Conclusion In conclusion management of employees has proven to be a hard task for managers. It is hard when managers choose to make it difficult for themselves. Ensuring employee’s welfare, that they feel they are needed in the organization and appreciated is important in making any manager’s job easy. It is a complicated job which not only skills and motivation makes it easier, but adhering to good management ethics and having good and committed leaders plays a great role in attaining success of the organization. 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