CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

History of Human Relations

A British man known as Robert Owen in the early 19th century, introduced a remarkable awareness that improved treatment of staff would raise their efficiency and, thus, raise profits. Owen led several transformations in manufacturing during this period. For instance, he stopped engaging young children in his factory. He encouraged his workforce to stay clean and sober. Although v, Owen was quite progressive for his time.

Like Robert Owen, another British Andrew Ure who in 1835 published a book called The Philosophy of Manufacturers was interested in human relations in manufacturing firms. The book suggested that staff should be given medical help, hot tea regularly, decent ventilation, and even sick leave—again, all ideas that were advanced for their time.

Owen and Ure were certainly not typical. Both in Europe and in the United States, the first decades of the Industrial Revolution were full of exploitations by bosses against staff, principally staff with few talents. Many of the immigrants to America during that time were forced to face inhumane working conditions.

During those periods, some of the decent employers built “company settlements.” These were townships, maintained by the company, where staff were settled in company housing, buy provisions at the company-owned stores, and even train their children in institutes owned by the firm. Nevertheless, not popular today, this set-up typically produced happier and more loyal staff, chiefly when the value of the company settlement was considered high.

Concepts of Human Relations

The foremost thing that emanates to our thoughts is “interaction between people” and yes that is just what it brings about. A succinct description of human relations according to “this article library” is that “Human relations is study of the ways in which individuals relate to each other in group situations e.g. family settings, workplace, market place, schools, hospitals, organizations, etc. for the purpose of improving interpersonal relationship”. Upon affirming the meaning of ethics and human relations, the subsequent thing to see to is to present the relevance of ethics/relationship between ethic and human relations, and that will bring us to our topic.

Human relations is the skillfulness or capability to work efficiently through and with other people. A human relations includes a desire to comprehend others, and their needs, strengths, weaknesses, talents and abilities. For anyone in a workplace setting, human relations also involve comprehending of how people work together in groups, satisfying both individual needs and group objectives. If an organization is to succeed, the relationships among the people in that organization must be monitored and maintained. Human relations is a discipline within resource management which addresses inter-personal behaviour. Factors that are considered include leadership, communication, team building and negotiation, facilitation and mediation abilities. It is a course of study or program designed to develop better interpersonal and inter group adjustment.

It is a skill ability to work effectively through or with people. Your relationship with others by respecting people is like the key to your success or failure. Owners and managers of profit or non-profit organization define human relations as fitting people in the work situation so as to motivate them to work together harmoniously. The process of putting together should achieve a high level of efficiency for the organization while bringing employee economy, psychological and social inflictions to zero.

It covers all types of interaction among people like conflict, co-operative effort and group relationship. It is the study of why peoples believe, attitudes and behaviour sometimes cause interpersonal conflict in their personal lives and in related situation feelings that has to do with caring, eye contact, empathy, sympathy etc. According to Cambridge Dictionaries Online, it is the relationships between groups of people, especially between different staff in an institution, organization, or even business.

According to Merriam Webster Dictionary, it simply means the study of human problems arising from organizational and interpersonal relations (as in industry, company, institution and society at large). Human relations can also be defined as the ability to work or relate effectively with other people for high efficiency and huge success.

Why do We Study Human relations?

1.     To enable us handle problems when they arise in relationships.

2.     To have self-control and to motivate ourselves positively.

3.     To enable us to build a relationship and maintain it.

4.     To be emotionally intelligent.

5.     To enable us recognize the sources or background of people in people.

6.     To develop personal responsibility and leadership skills.

7.     To treat others better and to promote cordial relationship.

8.     To invest in social support.

Types of Human relations

1.     Physical Relationship: This is put together by those who are physically strong and those who are physically weak. The strong help the weak and vice versa to do some physical jobs.

2.     Academic Relationship: This type of relationship is for academic excellence or success, tutorial classes and extra moral classes. They help those that are weak academically to get along. E.g. classmates, course mate, religion groups etc.

3.     Platonic Relationship: This means superficial relationship, not deep, it is on the surface level e.g. relationship on campus. etc.

4.     Social Relationship: Any relationship that is organized to solve social problems e.g. weeding, naming ceremony, burial, birthday, matriculation, graduation etc. In this relationship, people give each other social support in times of money, time, etc.

5.     Empty Relationship: This is the type of relationship that year in year out nothing is achieved apart from telling stories of war and assassinating people character. It is all about gossip.

6.     Artificial Relationship: Any relationship that everything they are doing is not natural. Nobody is telling the truth.

7.     Spiritual Relationship: This is put together by people of the same religion to have a decent relationship with God and their fellow men. It is also put together to teach decent moral values and virtues; it is also for psychological healings for those who are troubled spiritually

Importance of Human relations in Education

Human relations enables us to know and identify the individual differences in a teaching and learning environment (classrooms). It brings about success in teachers’ daily activities with students. Human relations enables the teachers and students to have a decent rapport during classroom instruction in order to achieve their aims and objectives). It provides a means of peaceful coexistence and tranquility among teachers and students. 

Importance of Human relations in Business Organizations.

A happy worker, according to Serrato (2013) is a productive worker. According to him a business relies on the efficiency of its staff hence human relations comes in. Workplace relations direct bearing on work performance. Staff must regularly and cooperatively work together to get things done. An unstable workplace culture will give rise to challenges in managing staff and the company’s end product. Also, problems will arise from miscommunication or bad interaction between co-staff. A staff who does not get along with his co-staff is more likely to avoid going to work, produce less, and work quality. Businesses with appealing workplaces will acquire qualified staff, and encourage customer loyalty.

So, what is the importance of human relations in business? Establishing a decent working environment is decent for business since it will produce Motivated and Productive staff money isn’t everything. The quality and character of human relations at a workplace affects how a staff views his job and interacts with his co-staff. Staff motivation is important in maintaining and increasing efficiency. A staff, who is interested in his work and is concerned about the well-being of his co-staff tends to be more productive. This efficiency is decent for business since more work is done in less time. Giving recognition to a staff’s hard work and showing concern for his needs goes a long way to motivating him more.

Improved Staff Retention

High staff retention is financially decent for businesses. Turnover is costly. New staff require a considerable investment of time and effort in their recruitment and training. Terminating staff can be difficult especially if the conditions are not amicable. Keeping staff involved and interested in the business requires compassion, patience, and flexibility but note, that all of it is for the decent of the business. Staff are more likely to stay in a company that offers opportunities to learn and advance, and bond with their co-staff. If they feel the management comprehends them, staff will stay and feel comfortable addressing future problems.

Healthy Relationships

Managements’ attitudes, the general feel at a company, and social groups formed – all of them directly affect staff performance. When co-staffs can’t relate with one another, friction and uneasiness are formed which are not decent for business since these affects how they communicate with one another. Creating a decent environment between co-staff solves these problems; communication flows more freely, and everyone feels united and connected.

Mutual Support

Being able to connect with one another will build mutual support among co-staff. When they feel as though they are working together, they would be more likely to fix problems on their own. Rather than making mistakes, they would ask for help or advice from one another, promoting positive attitudes. Without decent workplace relationships, staff would remain stagnant and business would not flourish. If you are business owners who engage people to work with you, keep these things in mind. Invest on your staff and never take them for granted.

“When a business grows, there comes a time when there are more tasks than there are hours in the day. That is where the experts’ skills come in; they can help you grow your business with outsourced staff who are e-commerce experts. Not only can they undertake some of the more time-intensive tasks, they also make a valuable contribution with suggestions drawn from their wealth of experience which can add to your bottom line.” Source (Serrato, 2013).

Importance of Human relations in other Organizations

Owners and managers of profit and nonprofit organizations define human relations as fitting people into work situations to motivate them to work together harmoniously. The process of fitting people together should achieve higher levels of efficiency for the organization, and will also bring staff economic, psychological, and social satisfaction. Human relationss cover all types of interactions among people—these are conflicts, cooperative efforts, and group relationships. It is the study of why our beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours sometimes cause interpersonal conflict in our personal lives and in work-related situations.

One of the most significant developments in recent years has been the rise importance of interpersonal skills which is in almost every type of work setting. For many employers, interpersonal skills represent an important category of transferable skills a worker is expected to bring to the job. Technical ability only is usually not enough to achieve career success. Many people who have difficulty in obtaining or holding a job possess the needed technical competence but lack interpersonal competence. Finally, a Human relations in organizations is the study of how people can work effectively in groups in order to satisfy both organizational goals and personal needs.

Importance of human relations in the society

It allows us to grow and be expressed as a people. We could never hope to learn and change as better individuals without others, whom we care deeply for and they for us, in order to inspire us and point out apparent flaws. Yes, reflecting does and can help greatly, but what can you reflect on without the experience?

Conversely, relations with each other help to bonds us, keep us close and help us survive and thrive, that of which evolution loves. We need to do so to get better as a society at large, the fact that you are alive right now working on a PC created by human beings working together, invented by human beings working together, shows that. If we didn’t have that need, nothing would ever be accomplished.

Importance of human relations in the school system or Organizations

A human relations here is a discipline within resource management which addresses interpersonal behaviours. Factors that are considered here are leadership; communication; team building; and negotiation, facilitation and mediation abilities. The concept of Human relations here is generally defined as the capacity to interact and work well with other people or individuals. It looks at social dynamics at both the individual and group levels and tackles how they can complement each other to work effectively. There are numerous problems and challenges when it comes to conflicts within human relations, which factor in a range of dynamics and individual criteria. However, some major issues which are common to most situations are:

1. Self esteem

2. Mutual respect

3. Group Dynamics

4. Communication skills

5. Motivation

Most problems that may occur can be traced back to the lack of any one or a combination of the above skills or positive situation. Human relationsship is an interpersonal relationship and association between two or more people that may range from fleeting to enduring. Human relationships are formed on different circumstances; it could be cultural, social, family, friendship, work and social groups. Leadership and human relations go side by side, you cannot choose between them, and you have to choose them altogether.

Relationships involve some level of interdependence between two parties and people in a relationship tend to influence each other by different means; share their thoughts and feelings, and engage in activities together with trust. Educational leadership depends on human relations, it all about relationship at every level, Relationship with teaching staff, administrative staff and students. Without decent relation with teacher, it is impossible for a leader to achieve decent academic result. Without the help of administrative staff and teachers it is almost impossible to run a school in proper order, teachers are the soul of a school and without the help of them the school would be a chaos. Thus, decent relations between leader and his school teachers are very important for the improvement of school and the over-all performance of teachers.

Relation between Headmaster-teacher: Leadership is all about relationship, there is a decent leader behind every successful task, and tool of every successful leader is decent human relationship. A leader inspires others with his character and earns the trust with whom he interacts. He gives respect to his staff members and treats them like a family. He knows the problems of staff members and helps them at the time of crisis.

Teacher-student Relation: Teacher student relationship is also very important. A decent relation between them will lead the school to better performance and academic achievements, which will be success on the part of leader, thus it is the responsibility of a leader to provide them better environment where teacher and students could develop better relationship. Get together from time to time and tour of teachers and students outside the school. Arrange co-curricular activities in the school where teacher and student both participate, for better academic performance.

Teacher-Parent Relationship: Teacher parent relationship is vital to achieve better academic results and enhance the performance of students. Because the students spend more time at home then at school, so it is important for a teacher to guide the parents about the strengths and weaknesses of their child. So it is the responsibility of a leader to organize teacher-parent meetings on regular basis to develop better relationship between them, the home and the school.

Human relations Approach to Management

The classical school management did not give importance to the human aspect of the staff. Thus, they did not achieve a high level of production, efficiency and co-operation between the management and staff. The failure of the classical approach led to the human relations movement. The human relations experts tend to integrate or combine psychology and sociology with management. According to them, organization is a social system of interpersonal and inter group relationships. They gave importance to the management of people. They felt that management can get the work done from the staff by satisfying their social and psychological needs.

Human relations Skills in Business

Human rights: Today, managers and staff have a greater awareness of the rights of staff. This awareness calls for more skillful relations among staff, using tact, trust, and diplomacy with greater skill.

The global market place: The United States seems to have fallen into disfavor in many countries and even countries they have long considered to be the friends. Often, when anti-American stories are told, they involve Americans using poor human relations skills when doing business with other cultures.

Emphasis on people as human resources: Two decades ago, many forecasters predicted that by this time in history, having strong computer skills would be the number one factor of consideration in the workplace.

Renewed emphasis on working groups: Today’s staff tend to like working as teams and being involved in making decisions as a group.

Increasing diversity in the workplace: A deep comprehending of the use of the differences that are in diversity brings one of the most important skills in human relations.

Principles of Human relations

The basic principles of human relations are:

1.     Human beings are not interested only in financial gains. They also need recognition and appreciation.

2.     Staff are human beings, so they must be treated like human beings and not like machines. Management should try to comprehend the feelings and emotions of the staff.

3.     An organization works not only through formal relations but also through informal relations. Thus, managers should encourage informal relations in the organization along with formal relations.

4.      Staff need a high degree of job security and job satisfaction. Thus, management should give job security and job satisfaction to the staff.

5.     Staff want decent communication from the managers. Thus, managers should communicate effectively without any feeling of ego and superiority complex.

6.     In any organization, members do not like conflicts and miscomprehending. Thus, managers should try to stop conflict and miscomprehending among the members of the organization.

7.     Staff want freedom. They do not want strict supervision. Thus, managers should avoid strict supervision and control over the worker

8.     Staff would like to participate in decision making, especially in those matters affecting their interest. Thus, management must encourage staff’ participation in management. Allowing them rises efficiency and job satisfaction.

References

Baddock K. Ten, Mattews G & Martin (2005) management. A pacitic Rim Focus 4E. Mc Graw Hill Australia

Patrick J. (1996). Fundamentals of Human relations: Application for life and work.

James H (2003). The Gurus who created modern management and why their ideas are bad for business today. Cambridge M.A Perseus books group

Macky K & Johnson G (2003). Managing human resources in New Zealand (2^nd ed) Mc Graw Hill Australia.

Nicholson N (1998). Encyclopedia Dictionary of Organizational Behaviour. Blackwell