COUNSELING

Meaning
Counseling is a dyadic relationship between two persons; a manager who is offering help(counselor) and an employee
whom such help is given (counselee). It may be formal or informal. Formal counseling is a planned and
systematic way of offering help to subordinates by expert counselors. Informal counseling is concerned
with day today relationship between the manager and his subordinates where help is readily offered
without any formal plan. Every manager has a responsibility to counsel his subordinates. When individual managers are
unable to deal with specific problems, the counseling services of a professional body is required. An organization can
either offer the services of a full-time in-house counselor or refer the employee to a community counseling service.
Counseling occasionally is necessary for employees due to job and personal problems that subject them to
excessive stress. Counseling seeks to improve employees mental health. People feel
Comfortable about themselves and about other people and able to meet the demands of life when they are
good in mental health. The counseling need not be limited to work-related issues. Marital problems, problems
with children, financial difficulties or general psychiatric problems may not be directly related to the job,
however, we recognize that individuals cannot completely separate their life away from the job from their
life on the job. Therefore personal problems do affect a workers job performance. So counseling is also necessary for
personal problems along with work- related issues.
Definition
According to Jonlen DeSa Counseling is a support process in which a counselor holds face to face talks
with another person to help him or her solve a personal problem, or help improve that person's attitude,
behavior, or character.
Objectives
2. Provide empathic atmosphere of genuine concern about his difficulties, tensions, worries, problems, etc., so
that he can freely discuss and share his views with counselor;
3. Understand himself better and to gain knowledge about his potential, strengths and weaknesses
4. Gain an insight into the dynamics of his behavior by providing necessaryfeedback;4.
5. Have better understanding of the environment in which he functions
6.Increase his personal and interpersonal effectiveness by assisting him in analyzing his interpersonal
competence
7. Prepare alternate action plans for improving on his performance and behavior.
Characteristics of Counseling
1. Counseling is an exchange of ideas and feelings between two people.
2. It tries to improve organizational performance by helping the employees to cope with the problems.
3. It makes organization be more human and considerate with peoples problems.
4. Counseling may be performed by both professionals and non-professionals.5.
5. Counseling is usually confidential in order to have free talk and discussions.6.
6. It involves both job and personal problems.

Functions of Counseling
1. Advice- One of the important functions of counseling is offering advice to the counselee. Thecounsellor has to
understand the problem of the counselee completely, before offering advice and suggesting a course of
action.
2. Reassurance- In order to give courage to face a problem confidently, counseling provides employees
with reassurance. Normally reassurance is not acceptable to the counselee. However, it is useful in some situations.
3. Communication- Counseling will improve both upward and downward communication abilities
of the counselees.
4. Release of Emotional Tension- Releasing emotional tension is an important function of counseling. People feel
emotional release from their frustration after counseling. Release of tension may not solve the entire
problem, but run over mental blocks to the solution.
5. Clarified Thinking-Release of tension and thereby removal of mental blocks to the solution
through counseling allows the counselee to think freely and objectively. Thus, clarified thinking
tends to be the result of emotional release.
6. Reorientation-Reorientation is not just emotional release or clear thinking, but it involves a change in the counselees
psychic self through a change in the basic goals and values.
Benefits
1. He learns to respond and adjust more positively to people and situations2.
2. He is able to improve his personal effectiveness3.
3. He is able to clear the mind of emotional irritants; overcome his personal weaknesses and work more
effectively.
4. He feels more relaxed when he is able to share his concerns and problems with a trusted friend, the
counselor who assures confidentiality and extends a helping hand readily.
Types of Counseling
1. Directive Counseling
It is full counseling. It is the process of listening to an employees problem, deciding with the employee
what should be done and telling and motivating the employee to do it . This type of counseling mostly
does the function of advice, reassurance and communication. It may also perform other functions of
counseling.
2. Nondirective Counseling
In nondirective counseling, the employee is permitted to have maximum freedom in determining the course of the
interview. It is the process of skillfully listening and encouraging a counselee to explain troublesome
problems, understand them and determine appropriate solutions. Fundamentally, the approach is to listen,
with understanding and without criticism or appraisal, to the problem as it is described by the employee.
the employee is encouraged, through the managers attitude and reaction to what is said or not said, to
express feelings without fear of shame, embarrassment, or reprisal. The free expression that is encouraged
in the nondirective approach tends to reduce tensions and frustrations. The employee who has had an

opportunity to release pent-up feelings is usually in a better position to view the problem more objectively
and with a problem-solving attitude.
3. Participative Counseling
Both directive and non-directive methods suffer from limitations. While the former is often not accepted
by independent employees, the latter needs professionals to operate and hence is costly. Hence, the counseling
used in most situations is in between these two. This middle path is known as participative counseling.
Participative is a counselor-counselee relationship that establishes a cooperative exchange of ideas to
help solve an employees problems. It is neither wholly counselor centered nor wholly counselee-centered.
Counselor and counselee mutually apply their different knowledge, perceptions, skills, perspectives and values to
problem into the problems and find solutions. These methods of counseling can be used depending upon the problem,
employee, situation, availability and ability to employ professional counselors.