A JOURNAL OF SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND MATHEMATICS

EDUCATION (JOSTMED) (1),1, 2008, 40-46

HUMAN RELATIONS IN EDUCATIONAL MANAGEMENT: A WAY OF

ACHIEVING GOALS OF TECHNOLOGY EDUCATION

Abstract
Since the early 1980’s, the public has shown increased interest in learning
about what constitutes effective management and successful organizations.
This paper recognizes that the achievement of the goals of Technology
education will require that human beings, who are the ‘real wealth’ of
successful organizations, their motivations and activities be effectively
coordinated and managed. Management theories which have been
successfully applied and tested in industries and other big establishments are
being borrowed by educational administrators and in this paper one of such
theories – the Human relations is discussed as a way of achieving goals of
technology education. Human relations is advocated for effective technology
education because it recognizes individual differences and promote unity,
cooperation and maximization of individual abilities, talents, skills and
knowledge for corporate achievement.

Introduction
An organization is a formal set up comprising both physical and human
resources. These resources are geared towards the achievement of a pre-
determined set goals and objectives. In every organization, human beings are
employed in order to make use of available physical and material resources
to translate organizational goals into reality. These human beings are
different in their nature, motivation, desire, ability, interest, potential, skills,
experience, intelligence, socio-economic status, educational background etc
(Chike-Okoli, 2002). School is an organization and effectiveness in
Educational Management demands sound knowledge of human nature.
Management is being in charge or being in control. Educational management
is therefore, being able to handle efficiently and effectively what goes on in
the process of educating people so that nothing goes out of hand (Babalola,
2006).
Educational Management is a concept that goes along with the quest to put
formal education system under control, regulation or supervision, in its
attempts to use carefully (that is, to manage or economize) available scarce
resources through cooperative efforts when establishing institutions of
learning, enrolling learners, attracting best staff, conducting teaching,
learning and research, as well as graduating learners at all levels of
education in an effective and efficient manner (NAEAP, 2006). According
to Osborne (1990) “educational management is an applied concept that
derives from industrial and business management”. It is in fact a very good
example of attempting to ape industrial and commercial practice in the past.
It is evident from the above that efficient and effective educational
management would involve all stake holders ranging from parents, school
officials, ministries, departments etc. The major task is effective
management of material and human resources. But recognizing that the
human resource is the manager of material resources, emphasis is more on
the coordination of the activities of the human resource. As earlier noted, the
workers and officials who are involved differ in their age, experience,
ability, knowledge, skills and motivations. The individual differences within
the human resource demands that the theory of human relations be applied to
 encourage unity, cooperation, tolerance and maximization of individual
talents, knowledge, skills and attitudes.
Ogunsola (2001) observed that where administration is regarded as merely
to “hold down” an administrative job, to give orders or to show who is boss,
requires nothing beyond a certain natural aptitude. But to inspire the use of
all the powers of each member of the group while maintaining that unity in
the direction of effort is a true discipline is an advanced art. For the great
mass of administrators, this art must be learnt if it is to be mastered.
According to Smith (1999), “it is possible to live a whole life inside a human
skin and know little or nothing of the true nature of man”.

Human relations:
Recognizing the existence of individual differences in every human gathering as
well as the need for efficient and effective realization of organizational goals, we
must understand the nature of interactions within and around the organization
especially in relation to their influence on the achievement of set objectives
(Chike-Okoli, 2002).
According to Ukeje (1992), we need to understand the nature of organizations, the
ways in which the behavior and performance of individual organizational members
influence the performance and effectiveness of the entire organization. It was Kieth
Davis who, in the preface to his book, told his own story as follows, ‘it may
interest you to know that this book had its beginning twenty years ago. At that time
I had my first supervisory job and one day my personnel mailed me a letter telling
me how they realized that my intentions were good and that I knew my job, but
they wished I could treat them more like people’. What could be deduced from this
quote is that Mr. Davis was thoroughly efficient but probably lacked skills in
human relations.
Garfield and Whyte in Chike-Okoli (2002) use the following case to illustrate the
importance of understanding human nature and human relations. The President of a
small, unorganized company believed and encouraged unions. He was therefore,
gratified when he was notified that his employees were forming a union. Their
negotiating committee submitted a list of demands in advance. The President
studied them carefully and found them reasonable, so he decided to surprise all his
workers and to grant all their needs in full at the first meeting of the negotiating
committee. This magnanimous attitude would, he thought set a firm basis for good
union relations. At the first meeting, he granted all demands as he had planned but
much to his own surprise, the representatives were not at all pleased. The contract
was duly signed but relations deteriorated.
What had happened in this case? The union arose out of dissatisfaction, and its
members expected to fight to remove their dissatisfactions. Committee members
took their tasks seriously and prepared long and hard. Their emotions were built
up. Then management conceded everything they wanted they went away from
negotiations with their pent-up emotions still awaiting expression.
They were frustrated. They felt insufficient – if the president could grant these
demands so easily, surely they had failed to demand enough. New emotions
therefore piled up while the old ones were still unexpressed. Garfield and Whyte
observed that in such a situation, the administrator had failed to recognize that
“bargaining deals in the emotions of people as well as logic and economic
interests”.
Human relations can therefore be defined as “the integration of people into a work
situation in a way that motivates them to work together productively, co-
operatively and with economic, psychological and social satisfaction”. This
definition makes it evident that the motivation of people is an important part of
human relations. Much as the study of human relations is itself interdisciplinary,
the main discussion here will be limited to that of motivation.

Educational Technology:
Technology according to Adewoyin (1991) refers to the application of scientific
and other organized knowledge (using relevant tools) in the solution of problems
as well as the improvement of the society. Technology in its various forms, and
especially as tools for curriculum and instruction, has always been part of
education. In recent years, developments in telecommunications technology
centering around computing, and involving techniques for collection, analyzing
processing and interpreting data have significantly influenced and increased the
interest of educationists in the application of technology in education.
Education as a primary agent of socialization and overall societal development can
best be described as ‘human engineering’ because of its role in preparing or
nurturing individuals to live in society and therefore being able to perform specific
functions for society. It equips the individual with knowledge, skills, attitude and
values that will make him live and play his role effectively in the society (Palemo,
2002). The significance of education in the whole process of human development
is such that if there is any field that requires the application of technology,
education is first and foremost.
Ukeje (1995) opined that, without good teachers for instance, we cannot have good
education and without good education we cannot meet successfully the challenges
of ever changing Nigerian world. This explains the relevance of educational
management in achieving efficiency and effectiveness in any educational
programme. An educational administrator is prepared to be highly skilled in the
management of men, machines, ideas and procedures.
The concept of educational technology according to Agun and Imogie (1988) can
be viewed in two broad ways. First, it is a tools technology in which hardware or
equipment and related materials are used to aid instruction. Secondly, it can be
described as a systematic way of designing, carrying out and evaluating the total
process of learning in terms of specific objectives based on research on human and
non-human resources to bring about more effective instruction. It is in this second
sense that educational management plays a major role. This is so because
educational administrators are trained as managers of educational institutions and
organizations.
This relationship between educational management and educational technology is
best summarized in the comprehensive definition given by the Association for
Educational Communication and Technology (AECT) of the United States. The
association perceived educational technology as a complex, integrated process
involving people, procedures, ideas, devices and organization for analyzing
problems involved in all aspects of human learning (Adewoyin, 1991). Besides
this, the systems approach sees educational technology as a systematic process of
managing ideas, resources, people, hardware and software, facilities and the
environment in identifying and solving educational problems (Mkpa, 1992).
Effective management of people as human resources demands motivation and
human relations.
Motivation and Human Relations:
With human relations and behavioral science approaches to management, new
concepts like motivation, reinforcement, inducement and staff morale became the
interest of management. This development attracted researches on the concept of
motivation. In modern systems, one of the major problems confronting
management is that of motivating workers to perform assigned tasks to meet
predetermined standards, set goals and objectives (Chike-Okoli, 2002). Motivation
 here is important because group desires and need influence the behavior of
individuals and vice versa. Motivation is a tool used by management to ensure
positive group behavior.
Human behavior is goal directed and motivation serves as an energizing force that
induces or compels and maintains behavior. It is not easy to motivate an individual
in an organization. This is because the success of any motivational effort depends
on the extent to which the motivation meets the needs of the individual employee
for which it is intended. Each man however, is different from another and the
individual members in an organization vary widely among themselves. Positive
human relations improve worker motivation.
Motivation is therefore seen as involving a chain of reaction starting with felt
needs which leads to wants which result in tension, then a chain of reactions
starting with felt needs which lead to wants which result in tension. Then causing
action towards achieving goals and finally satisfying wants. Motivation is a
management function. It stimulates people to accomplish institutional goals. The
motivation process aims at gaining desired results through human effort and
cooperation or relationship. In bringing this about, the administrator has two
categories of action producing methods which take the form of positive and
negative incentives.
a. Positive incentive to action
This is commonly called positive motivation. It involves the cultivation of a
cooperative attitude among subordinates so that organizational goals will be striven
for with whole-hearted acceptance and approval. Numerous techniques promote
positive motivation. Two obvious ones are participation and democratic leadership.
b. Negative incentive to action.
This is called negative motivation. It is stimulating people to action through fear.
This type of motivation is based on the fact that often people will work towards the
stated organizational objective because they have no other reasonable alternatives
because they are convinced of the goals inherent good or value. The fear of
disciplinary action ranging from a simple reprimand to loss of a job may be
sufficient negative motivating force to cause the individual to move in the direction
established by the institution.

The question of which to choose from either negative or positive motivational

method will very much depend in the results the institution seeks and on the
criterion used for measuring the success of one motivational method vis-à-vis the
other. If the criteria are human happiness and job satisfaction, it would be fair to
say that positive motivation is appropriate in most situations. If effectiveness
however, is measured in terms of productivity and efficiency, the selection of
motivational method is merely a practical matter. The technique must be the one
which produces the greatest output through positive human relations.

Numerous studies indicate that positive motivational policies and techniques

produce not only greater human satisfaction but also higher productivity.
Management, however, has but two ways to motivate a person: it can get him to
see that a desired action will increase his need for satisfaction or it can convince
him that he must follow a course of satisfaction to avoid a decreased need
satisfaction.

Firstly, there should be situational analysis. An administrator faced with a specific

human problem must use human means for solving it (Ogunsola, 2001). Keith
Davis gave what can be regarded as an apt illustration in the following story: On
the plains of Texas at the beginning of World War II, one of the first ‘black out’
aircraft factories was constructed. As was the pattern in those days, this factory had
no windows or skylights so that it could be operated at night without showing
lights to attract enemy aircraft. The building was air conditioned by the latest
equipment to control temperature, humidity and air circulation. Since the ceiling
was over 50 feet high, most of the air exits were high on the walls and ceilings.

As soon as the first group of employees started work, they began to complain about
the inadequacy of the air conditioning. It was too humid, too hot, and too “close
feeling”. The air – conditioning was excellent providing exactly the conditions
which scientific study showed the human body needed. Still the complaints
persisted. In fact they grew worse until they were definitely undermining morale
and productivity.

Finally, an alert manager recognized the problem. He reasoned that most of the
workers were rural people who were new to both industry and air conditioning.
They were used to an outdoor lie and felt “cooped up” in a windowless plant where
they could neither feel a breeze nor see it blowing. Since the vents were too high
for employees to feel the air, they needed to see that it was stirring . this manager
simply had tissues streamers tied to the ventilators high on the walls. Anyone who
felt uncomfortable would look up and see the paper fluttering in the breeze and be
assured that he was getting plenty of air. The result was that employee complaints
soon became negligible. The deduction here is that, that which was technically
right had also been made humanly right.

According to William Scott, the following chart is a form of situational analysis

and human relations problem solving:

Identification of the problem Employee Attitude and motives

 personal feeling of the problem
solver about the situation

A human relation Approach to Manner of handling the

Situation problem the problem problem

Outside organization

Group influence Factors in the work influence on the problem

Situation which affect

the problem

The flow chart clearly indicates that in approaching a particular problem several
factors must be taken into consideration. First and foremost, the problem itself
must be properly identified. It must also be recognized that several other factors
could have some bearing on the problem-personal feeling of the problem solver,
attitudes and motives of the employee, group influence and factors in the work
situation. These are good indicators to help the administrators to handle the
problem in an appropriate manner.

Secondly, all studies of personal wants show that people desire to be treated with
respect and dignity-to be treated as human beings. The philosophy of human
dignity recognizes that the whole man is being employed, rather than just his
physical strength or skill. In recognition of this simple human psychology, it is
important to recognize that people weigh external evidence of success heavily.
Hence administrators must recognize the place of status symbols (Chike-Okoli,
2004).
Conclusion.

In every school organization, human beings are employed in order to make use of
available physical and material resources to translate educational goals into reality.

Technology in its various forms and especially as tools for curriculum and
instruction has always been part of education and in recent years developments in
telecommunications technology have significantly influenced and increased the
interest of educationists and administrators in the application of technology in
education. Technology education is described as a systematic way of designing,
implementing and evaluating the total process of learning in terms of specific
objectives based on human and non-human resources to bring about more effective
instruction. Effective educational management therefore ensures that people who
are the ‘real wealth’ of every successful programme or organization are well
coordinated and utilized to ensure achievement of set goals and objectives. This is
done by the educational administrator through motivation and human relations
such that individual difference, abilities, skills, attitude and knowledge are
harnessed for corporate achievement.

Recommendations

For efficient, effective and corporate achievement of goals and objectives of

technology education, it is recommended that the educational administrator should:

1. Understand and accept people as individuals.

2. Be willing to understand and to respond to the feelings and attitudes of
others which might not be purely logical for his own frame of reference.
3. Be realistic about his authority and status and aware of how they affect
others.

These will promote good working relationship and stimulate enough motivation for
each staff to contribute his best towards achievement of goals and objectives.

References
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