4. SUPERVISORS AND HUMAN RELATIONS PRACTICES Practicing good human relations means applying the "Golden Rule." It is also the application of psychology to people; that is, winning friends and influencing people. It can be considered an ethical approach to personnel problems. In practicing good human relations supervisors work toward getting employees to work together harmoniously, productively, and cooperatively to achieve economic as well as social satisfaction. The supervisor must motivate employees to want to do productive and satisfying jobs. It is a key part of effective human relations - to motivate people. Supervisors must remember employees who work for them are members of the organization for only part of their lives. They are family members, members of churches, clubs, and citizens of a community. Understanding this, the effective supervisor must recognize that he or she cannot change an employee merely by bringing him into a plant, having him punch a clock or sign in, and assigning him a place to work. Even though he works for the organization, he still has his own personal problems and attitudes that come with him to job, and he will continue to be influenced by his associations with other organizations. Individual differences affect the supervisor's role. Each employee comes to the job with a predetermined set of requirements that the job may fulfill like status or the need to belong to a group. Men and women sometimes look at a job differently. Women may see employment as a transitory period in their lives as they prepare for married life and motherhood. This was characteristic of women for the period of human history up until this past decade. Womens' roles are rapidly changing and the previous statement does not seem to be currently accurate. Most families now have two "bread winners." Age influences individuals. Older employees are more apt to be security-conscious than younger ones. They are prone to maintain their present situations rather than transferring like younger employees to other positions with unknown opportunities. George (1970) encouraged supervisors to remember several facts about individuals which make managing much easier and more effective: 1. Remember that all of us are different. We each have our own individual minds, our own thoughts, our own ideas about life, our own wants. 2. Remember that when you are working with a person, you are working with a whole person. You might wish you could employ him as a hired hand, but you can't. As a supervisor, you need to remember that every employee is different and that you must work with him or her as whole people. 3. Remember that all normal behavior by an individual is caused behavior. It is caused by individual needs or wants. Employees are not motivated by what you think they ought to do and have but by what they think they ought to do and have. Often supervisors think that things that another person wants and the reasons he wants them may appear foolish. To him, they are important, real needs. These needs cause the behavior with which you will be dealing. 4. Remember that people are not machines to be knocked about and thrown out when you are through with them. As human beings, people need and ought to be treated with dignity and respect. No matter what a person's job is, no matter how "low" you may think it is, he or she deserves to be and should be shown the proper respect for his or her choice of jobs and his or her own abilities (pp. 320-21). Supervisors get things done through other people. Thus, a supervisor's effectiveness will be measured by how productive his or her employees are. To deny a supervisor's success is dependent upon employees is to deny reality. Employees generally want to please their employee for a variety of reasons. If a supervisor can discover what motivates each and every one of them and somehow provide each with whatever it takes, he or she will be eminently successful. Remembering that the employee will only work as hard as he or she chooses to work, finding what makes him or her work harder is essential. The effective supervisor is the one who can create a work climate in which the employee willingly strives to do his or her best, each and every day, throughout the duration of his or her employment with the organization. In order to understand employees and create a human relations environment in which all differences are celebrated, the supervisor must first understand him or herself. Haney (1986) encouraged managers to develop an Exceptionally Realistic Self-Image (ERSI). When a supervisor begins to know him or herself, he or she has taken the first step toward understanding "self." The supervisor who realizes that he or she has certain attitudes about dress, working fast or slow, and how a supervisor should behave, soon realizes that others have similar ideas. The supervisor with an ERSI will be in a better position to treat employees fairly and justly. Understanding self means looking at strengths as well as weaknesses. It is often easy to see strong points, but the budding supervisor will have to work harder to see weak points. In realizing shortcomings, the supervisor will be in a position to try and control them and thereby become a better one in the long run. An effective supervisor must work at empathizing with his or her employees. He or she needs to make this so much a part of him or herself that it comes as easily as shaking hands. It should be so much a part of him or her that he or she will be able to quickly settle a dispute, prevent a grievance from arising, or shed new light on a tough problem. The better a supervisor knows his or her employees, knows about the size of his family, the age of his children, what their names are, where they go to school, what their accomplishments are, the better he or she will know and understand the employee. Supervisors often find they spend much of their time with a group of employees. This may be a formal group, such as a clinical team of which the supervisor is a member, or it may be an informal group, such as a bowling team, or a group that gets together to play cards or watch movies on the weekends. Groups differ greatly in their attraction they hold for members. One peculiarity of groups that the supervisor should recognize is that the people who are most vocal and try hardest to influence the other members of the group are usually the ones who are most willing to accept the opinions of others. This seems contradictory, but it is a characteristic of the behavior of employees in groups. If one employee wants desperately to influence others, if he wants to be the leader and spokesman, the he will be willing to accept the views and suggestions of the other employees so that he can "lead them." The stronger the ties of the group and the more cohesive it is, the more the rule holds true. If it didn't work this way, then the employee who was vocal and said things the group did not agree with would soon be cut off from the group if he did not accept their views (George, 1970). All humans have certain basic needs that they want fulfilled. Some basic human needs that are similar for all people are food, clothing, shelter, self-respect, recognition, and self-esteem. Individual employees place different weight on different needs. A starving man will place a greater emphasis on obtaining food. A man with plenty of food but little clothing will seek out clothing to meet his needs. If a supervisor knows what an employee's needs are, he or she will be much more successful in meeting those needs. The simplest way to ascertain what an employee's needs are is to simply ask him or her. It is not a complicated matter to be direct and inquire not once, but on an on-going basis. Needs change, and what an employee needs, or wants today, may change tomorrow. The effective supervisor considers the dynamic nature of his or her employees and stays tuned to the changing needs of employees. George (1979) studied the basic wants and desires of the average employee and listed them as follows: 1. Fair pay. 2. Recognition as an individual. 3. Opportunity for advancement. 4. Interesting work in a good place to work. 5. Acceptance by the group. 6. Good and just leadership. What weight placed on these needs and desires by various workers will differ. The effective supervisor will recognize these and other individual needs and the different weights that each employee places on them. Practicing good human relations does not mean that everybody will be all smiles and happiness. There will be problems, but practicing human relations enables the supervisor to work around the difficulties that the problems present. George (1970) suggested the following human relations practices that the effective supervisor should aim for in his or her work: 1. Peace among your employees. 2. Openness and understanding. 3. A friendly air between workers. 4. Employees expecting and receiving a fair and just hearing and decision (p. 23). In order to determine how successful a supervisor is in using human relations skills, George (1979) created the following Human Relations Scale to measure skill levels. The scale can be found on the next page.