Drastic shift from blue to white-collar jobs, technology and temporary employment has led to an emphasis on employee’s intrapersonal skills. Managers and business individuals are now concerned with the ability of employees to communicate, collaborate and acquire soft skills or people skills. The skills entail a range of individual’s social considerations, habits, qualities and distinctive attitudes that make an employee compatible with the job they perform. Soft skills also called people skills, interpersonal or transferable skills, are effective in communication (Vasanthakumari, 2019, 1). Power is the ability of an individual’s influential abilities over others mentally or emotionally through communication or action. (Gupta, Singhal, and Chauhan, 2021,1). Communication at the workplace plays a decisive role in ensuring effective management and achievement of organizational goals (Dai and Deng, 2022,1). The paper discusses power in communication as a component of developing people skills at the workplace based on Bar-on’s (2002)theory of power.
Work Place Situation: An incident involving a CEO, Mr. Tylor and a junior employee, Ms. Nancy
Mr. Tylor, our textile company’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), enjoyed legitimate reward and informational power. He was a mean and coercive man who would order or say any word to employees. The CEO never considered how emotionally and mentally his acts affected the employees.One afternoon, he arrived at the shop and started scolding Ms. Nancy, a fellow employee, in front of customers.
Mr. Tylor accused her of being a lazy employee because he found Nancy beside a customer on a phone call. Unknown to him, the customer who had asked Nancy to stand by was making a call about the order needed by his client. Nancy broke into uncontrollable tears as the CEO walked into his office. I held Nancy’s hand and led her next to the ablution block, comforted and asked her to remain strong. As a human resource manager, I respectfully requested a general meeting between workers and Mr. Tylor to discuss this incident and other related earlier occurrences.
At first, the CEO refused to attend the meeting as he had sensed the meeting would involve the earlier incident. I persuaded him that the meeting was in the company’s best interest, which was to improve labour relations. I informed him that some customers who witnessed the incident were offended, which was bad for our business. Eventually, he agreed to attend the meeting together with all the employees. The meeting, which began in an agitated mode, was successful. Nancy and other employees who had suffered such humiliation narrated how they were affected emotionally. Mr. Tylor apologized to the employees and asked them not to leave the firm. In addition, he promised to establish an employee welfare scheme as the worker’s representative, Mr Smith, asked. Mr. Tylor also agreed to meet with employee representatives to discuss grievances regularly.
Reflection and Analysis
The above incident profoundly identifies with the course theme. The incident brings out the theoretical concept of Bar-on (2002)theory of power. The theory observes that power which occurs in social relationships is dynamic. Further, the theory asserts that power can be practised through inducements and persuasions (Bar-on, A., 2002, 1). As the human resource manager, I solved the issue by comforting Ms. Nancy and arranging the meeting.
I managed to comfort Ms Nancy by understanding the nature of the problem and being emotionally conscious of her. I employed soft and interpersonal skills to communicate with her, calming her down. While communicating with her, I did not consider her to be of the opposite gender. What mattered was that she was an employee and a colleague despite our differences in the ranks. Nancy felt valued and recognized by a senior employee when I told her I would talk to the CEO about the matter. Employees will always feel motivated when they feel recognized, thus, promoting employee engagement (Saks, 2022, 2).
I further employed Bar-on’s (2002) leadership theory in approaching her. The theory that emphasizes the importance of social relations with one another was instrumental. Leaders are obligated to create a conducive environment for effective communication and interaction. After comforting Nancy, I asked other employees who had experienced similar frustrations to inform me. The employees brought forward their grievances, which formed the basis for requesting a general meeting.
I asked for the meeting because it would promote good communication and relationships at the firm. Developing our communication and relational engagement with others in the workplace is fundamental to this course. The scenario presented an opportunity to enhance good industrial relations at the workplace. Social work practices enhance well-being through social exchange and the solving of problems (Hughes, 2019, 1).
Having that meeting was going to help curb future incidences. Once the issue was solved, Nancy would feel like part and parcel of the organization and not neglected. Handling other grievances amicably through the establishment of an employee welfare scheme would lead to a peaceful and harmonious relationship. Employees would feel motivated towards their work once the management starts supporting and valuing them (Ismail, Majid, Jibrin-Bida and Joarder, 2021.1)
There was a need to reassure customers that our firm valued the welfare and rights of employees. Some customers who witnessed the incident threatened to stop purchasing materials from us. The decision would hurt our business operations and reduce the firm’s profit margin. Therefore, it was prudent to solve the issue and reassure our customers of our commitment to exemplary care of our employees and their needs.
Managers are required to come up with conflict resolution mechanisms at the workplace. As a manager, setting standards and establishing approaches to solve conflicts that would lead to emotional disengagement was important. I intended to show the management and employees that labour relations can be handled peacefully by involving key stakeholders (Doherty and Franca, 2020, 1). The CEO agreed to meet the employee representatives regularly to discuss and debate on issues affecting them.
Female employees, having witnessed what happened to their fellow, felt that they were discriminated against based on gender. I arranged the meeting to reassure them that our firm did not discriminate based on gender or other factors. Gender inequality is prohibited in all workplaces, and it is the mandate of employers to oversee it. Gender inequality can be managed through equal compensation and social dialogue (Bilan, Mishchuk, Samoliuk and Mishchuk, 2020, 2).
Developing people skills aims to reduce stressful experiences at the workplace and promote a productive work life. Employees will have enjoyable working relations if they are empowered with people skills. Through the meeting, the worker representative pushed for the establishment of an employee welfare scheme. Employees would feel recognized, more productive, and motivated (Alam, Hassan, Bowyer and Reaz, 2020, 4).
I was propelled by the urge to promote employee loyalty and commitment towards our firm. Employees’ Organizational commitment involves an employee’s mental connection to the organization. Employee commitment entails the emotional bonding of the employee to the firm. Job satisfaction and employee loyalty are essential to an organization (Saputra and Mahaputra, 2022, 3). Therefore, it was crucial to have the meeting to curb any element of turnover as they had been demoralized by the incident.
My emotional intelligence also informed my decision to comfort Ms. Nancy. Having the courage to identify other people’s emotions is paramount in the workplace. Emotional intelligence is a critical skill in managing cases related to social work (Matthews, 2022,1). After managing to comfort Ms. Nancy and having a successful meeting, I felt satisfied to have productively utilized my social skills.
Lessons Learnt and Future Engagement.
Acquainting myself with the Bar-on (2002)theory of power was instrumental in informing my course of action. The theory highlights the interrelationship that exists between emotional intelligence and social competencies. The leadership model allows individuals to express themselves (Bar-On, 2006, 2). The model focuses on how people can effectively relate and cope with others. Through this I could sense and empathize with Nancy and other employees.
The application of the model also proved effective in enabling the CEO to understand the grievances of the junior employees. By apologizing, the employees viewed him as a humble leader who could realize and correct his mistakes. The demoralized and embarrassed Nancy regained her self-confidence from her comfort. The bond between the CEO and employees improved, strengthening the firm’s harmonious relationship. However, we could not meet with the customers who had witnessed the incident.
The new understanding that has arisen from the reflection is that there should be continuous empowerment in developing people skills for managers. Cultivation of emotional intelligence, and promotion of self-awareness are vital aspects to embrace at workplace. Self-control enhancement and people skills are essential in ensuring smooth integration in the community (Papoutsi, Drigas and Skianis, 2021,1). If the CEO had been sensitive enough about emotional intelligence, he could have engaged Ms. Nancy appropriately.
The spirit of teamwork and collectivity leads to fruitful outcomes in the workplace. Direct collective bargaining or through representatives present a collective voice. Through this, employees are able to communicate their grievances to their superiors (Doellgast and Benassi, 2020, 2). In the incident, employees could ask for better terms and conditions through their representative, Mr. Smith. Therefore, employees should be encouraged to form trade unions that can help them communicate effectively with their employers.
Social workers can utilize productive power modes to solve problems. Productive power protects and safeguards vulnerable people and gives room for advancement. Employees are supposed to be encouraged to exploit the power of the corporation. Workers must share their challenges and find amicable solutions to handle their atrocities. The employees are to support each other by valuing commonality among them and the differences that may exist (Tew, 2006, 41). Taking action as the human resource manager to solve the situation is a true example of properly utilising productive power.
Workplace communication is essential for effective relationships and the organisation’s success. Employees and their leaders need to be in seamless communication regarding work related activities. They can discuss, debate, converse, provide and receive feedback on issues that influence the workplace (Valo and Mikkola, 2019, 3).The incident made me understand the need to establish an effective mode of communication at the workplace to achieve employee satisfaction.
The valuable lessons I learned in this situation have increased my understanding of the importance of sound leadership. Managers in leadership positions should use their influence to impact the organisation’s well-being positively. I will ensure that I establish policies and procedures that protect the employees in the workplace. I will create more platforms to allow junior workers to freely and regularly interact with their seniors.
Based on my lessons, I intend to study and attend training on organizational behaviour. Organizational behaviour will enable me to understand every collogue’s strengths and weaknesses. Organizational behaviour will help me to acquire skills to identify the emotions of other employees. I will also be able to appreciate the diversity of other employees’ workplaces and customer satisfaction preferences.
In conclusion, the development of people skills has become an essential phenomenon in the workplace today. The intrapersonal relationship has remarkable impact on organizational performance along with employee performance. Communication is an important powerful component in the corporate World that must be effectively utilized (Prayogi, Lesmana and Siregar, 2019, 1). Good communication will create a positive work atmosphere and strengthen the motivation of employees. Emotions influence social interactions, human relationships and organisational decision-making (Skordoulis, Liagkis, Sidiropoulos and Drosos, 2020, 4). Managers are required to train employees to use emotional intelligence in managing anxiety and overcoming issues. People skills development is critical in helping employees solve problems, communicate effectively, empathize and manage conflicts. Leaders play a significant role in promoting employees to exhibit productive organisational behaviours. Positive behaviours encourage employee productivity and organizational performance (Budur and Poturak, 2021, 2).
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