Human Relations Management

HRM2018
Seminar 18

Human Relations Approach and groups & teams

Open Ended

The book Leading Outside the Lines (by Katzenbach and Khan) is about the informal organization. Watch video and answer following questions.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7DNRWgYT-Go

We will watch the video now. You may identify the answers to the questions in the activity sheet from the video.

Open Ended

What was the lesson from the navy example about the informal organization?

In the bell Canada example, why were some managers getting good results? What were they doing?

Open Ended

Statement 1- A leadership style that is more formal and hierarchical may create distance between leaders and employees, which can lead to feelings of disengagement and a lack of commitment.

Agree or Disagree? Why? Summarize your arguments!

Open Ended

What is your ideal Leader characteristics?

Open Ended

What do the authors mean by community of practice?

Quiz time!

Multiple Choice

According to Bratton (2015), how does a work team differ from a general group within an organization?

• A work team consists of individuals who do not interact with each other and have no common objectives.

• A work team and a group are the same in terms of interaction and accountability within an organization.

• A work team is a group of two or more people who interact, influence each other, are mutually accountable for achieving common objectives, and perceive themselves as a social entity within an organization.

• Only groups, not work teams, have a sense of shared identity and something in common within an organization.

Multiple Choice

Formal groups ________.

• are defined by an organization's structure

• include people who share a common interest

• include people who eat lunch together each day

• meet at a regular time and place

Multiple Choice

This kind of work group brings individuals together from different work disciplines with different knowledge and skills.

• self-managed team

• command group

• cross-functional team

• formal group

Multiple Choice

The only effective way to guard against social loafing is for managers to make special efforts to do this.

• be fair to all group members

• assess individual contributions of group members

• assess the group as a whole exclusively

• treat all group members equally

Multiple Choice

Which statement is most accurate?

• The main goal of work teams is to share information only.

• The main goal of work teams is collective performance.

• The main goal of a group is collective performance.

• The main goal of a group is synergy.

Open Ended

Junction hotel case study:

Read the case study and answer the questions

Reading time : 5 minutes

Access the material from Unihub week 18 folder- Seminar activity sheet

Junction hotel case study (adapted from King and Lawley, 2016)

Page 1
Read the case study and answer the questions below

 

Simon, a manager at Junction hotel, is concerned. He has been going through the figures with Phil (another manager) and he feels that productivity is not as high as it should be. The employees have in recent weeks been set targets to meet in terms of their efficiency and productivity, but they are nowhere near meeting them.

Phil presents to Simon a table with his calculations, breaking down each operation of the setting out process from the washing and polishing of glasses, the folding of napkins, and the laying out of the cutlery in great detail with a calculation for every operation and an overall total. “On paper this should be completed easily in 70-80 minutes”, Phil declares. However, regardless of whatever they try, and it seems almost whoever they put in place, the restaurant team take a total of 2 hours to complete the process. Phil says, “I just think that they are slackers and we should give them individual targets to get them to work harder and just follow my orders”.

 
Nina, the supervisor, on the other hand, is a lot more circumspect in her views. “Well yes”, she states, “it might be possible on paper to get it down to 80 minutes, but I don’t really think it is realistic”. Simon is a little shocked. He says: “Why ever not? Surely, we need to be pushing them to be quicker, as this way we can cut costs?”

Page 2

Nina says, “but people are not machines and do not like being treated as such. If we want to get the best out of people, then we have to try to understand them and try to work with them. We need to get them to feel more like a team and want to work together and with us so that collectively we can try to tackle this – rather than the antagonism that Phil’s approach induces”.

Simon is now unsure if he should listen to Nina or Phil.

Nina gathers all the waitresses and waiters together. “We are a restaurant team”, she says. “If we are going to move forward then we need to work as a team”. She opens the meeting asking for a “full and frank” discussion, and the employees start saying their views, while Nina listens attentively.

As the meeting ends and everyone walks out, Naomi, a waitress, said “It’s really nice to see management taking an interest in us as people. I mean, we do a good job here and it is nice to be noticed”. Saffron, another waitress, looked at her in a surprised manner and said “They just want us to work hard and produce more without paying us more. I’m not falling for that one. Do you think they’re really that interested in us?”

  

1.    How would a ‘Taylorist manager’ solve their problem?

2.    How would a manager drawing from the human relations school solve their problem?

3.    Do you agree with Naomi? Or do you think, like Saffron, that Nina is only interested in getting more out of the workers?

Open Ended

1.    How would a ‘Taylorist manager’ solve their problem?

2.    How would a manager drawing from the human relations school solve their problem?

Open Ended

3.    Do you agree with Naomi? Or do you think, like Saffron, that Nina is only interested in getting more out of the workers?

Activity 3- Discuss and clarify any doubts

 Think about your own work experience

5 minutes

1. How is your work managed?

2. Is there an influence of the Human Relations approach? Explain how.