Leadership and Human relationship

Leadership is an important trait in the managers to guide the teams. Various human relation theories
have identified following types of leadership styles. Some of the styles are many common traits. However, the
situations where each style of leadership work differ.

• Transformational leadership: As the name itself suggests, this is a visionary leadership style
where the leader inspires the team towards a major change. Generally, a transformational leader
has the vision and is assisted by a team of expert managers who work the details of vision and
execute the plans of the leader. This style is suitable for highest level management of big
organization so as to guide the organization to new heights.
• Transactional Leadership: As the name itself suggests, this style of leadership involves a sort of
give and take transaction. Good work is rewarded, satisfactory work is encouraged to improve
and bad work is punished. This type of leadership is suitable for short term tasks involving routine
repetitive work. Generally middle level management like shop floor or construction site etc.
• Autocratic Leadership: This Is also called iron fisted leadership where all the authority rests with
leader. The team members have no role in policy decision making. The style is suitable for small
enterprises like sole proprietorship companies. The leadership success solely depends on the
talent and creativity of the leader.
• Democratic Leadership: This style encourages participation of team members in the decision
making. The leader discusses organizational issues with team members and takes their opinion.
But the final decision and the responsibility of that decision is of the leader. This type of
leadership is suitable when the team’s morale is high and the tasks are somewhat novel and
many open-ended problems need to be addressed and procedures are to be evolved.
• Laissez-Faire Leadership: Laissez-Faire stands for “free for all”. In this type of leadership, the
team is highly knowledgeable, motivated and focused towards goals. The leader has confidence
in the team and delegates the majority decision making to the team members. This type of
leadership is suitable in research organizations.
• Servant Leadership: Some times, it becomes to delegate leadership to workers at bottom rung
to overcome ground level working problems. The worker with experience is assigned leadership
authority to guide a team of equals. The success of this type leadership rests on the confidence
of the group on the leader from amongst themselves.
• Bureaucratic Leadership: In highly regulated organizations like government / semi government
setups, the leadership authority comes through a set of rules. The entire functioning of the
 organization is controlled by set codes of conduct. The style generally promotes administration
rather than management. There is limited scope for creativity and out of the box ideas.
• Charismatic Leadership: In this type of leadership, the Charisma of the leader is the inspirational
factor. The leader’s Charisma may not be exactly in the field of work. The success of the
leadership is dependent on the presence of leader in the work scene. As soon as the leader
disappears, chaos develops hampering the work progress.
• Situational Leadership: Situation springs surprise leaders who may not fit in the protocol of
democratic or bureaucratic leadership. New situations may result is emergence of new leaders
who fit it to the scheme of things in the changed situation. Such leadership may create a new
wave or may cause some uneasy environment of the organization.

Desirable qualities of leadership for effective execution of construction work:

Construction work involves large amount of resources. The sites are exposed to challenging situations.
The time frames are challenging. The leadership in construction work needs to exhibit varied qualities to be
effective. Some of the important qualities needed to lead construction work are as under;

• Communicate effectively and clearly so as to drive the point to convince either the superiors or the
followers.
• Identify capable personnel in the team to delegate responsibility so as to have sufficient time and energy
to address important leadership challenges.
• Quick and correct Decision making in the interest of the organization.
• Ability to listen to subordinates and grasp the work-related issues.
• Ability to grasp from the instruction received from superiors and realize the course of action needed to
be taken.
• Evaluate the progress of project at regular intervals to ensure adherence to deadlines and reprioritize
tasks to match the altered targets.
• Anticipate problems and exhibit problem solving skills and spontaneity to address anticipated problems
and also unforeseen problems.
• Capability to maintain healthy environment at work place by directing skills.
• Ability to take calculated risk to get possible benefits at work.
Functions of Leader in Construction Industry:

Leader in construction works need to wear different hats to effectively perform in different situations.
Hence the functions of a leader in construction Industry can be broadly summarized as;

• Communicate effectively with superiors and subordinates by adopting the tone and lingo that suits the
situation.
• Plan at macro and micro level to execute the assigned work.
• Negotiate with related agencies to get the best bargain in the interest of the organizational goals.
• Exercise strict control over the jurisdiction of work to achieve obligatory goals and at the same time
delegate sufficient authority to capable subordinates to resolve the issues and keep unhindered progress
of work.
• Lead from front by working with own hands in situations necessitating experimenting in new areas.
• Decide on strategies for short- and medium-term goals.
• Involve and suggest strategy for long term goals.
• Coordinate with line and staff personnel while performing at mid and top level management.

Human Relation

Human relation is a complex psychological area which studies, interprets behavior of human in relation
to another human. It also deals with the study of how people integrate in work situation to form group and
cooperate to achieve organizational goals of the group. Construction industry employs large and diversified
human resource in its work area. Hence human relation is an important aspect in the effective functioning of
Civil Engineering Industry.

Need for human relations in Construction Industry

A detailed study of human relations is essential for construction industry in order to address following
issues;

• Understanding the psychology of individuals, their interaction with other members of the group and
outside the group at work place. Such an understanding can help in grooming the individual and groups
for effective work.
• Understanding the beliefs, prejudices, attitudes and behaviors of individuals and work group which may
influence the work environment. Such an understanding helps in identifying the positive and negative
influences and encourage the positive and discouraging the negative influences to improve productivity
and maintain high morale at the work place.
• Evolving strategies to mitigate interpersonal relationship problems and inter group tussles at the work
place.
• Implementing steps to enhance and maintain healthy relationship at work place to achieve goals and
progress with smooth approach.

Human Needs

The needs of human beings are multilayered and they influence the attitude, outlook
and the morale of the person. Various theories have been put forward to analyze Human needs. Maslow’s
Hierarchy of needs is a well-accepted theory in analysis of human needs.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

American psychologist Abraham Maslow presented the Hierarchy of needs to represent

the human need analysis. Maslow identified human needs in five levels. The bottom two levels contribute
to the basic needs, Middle two levels accounting for Psychological needs and the top level representing the
self-fulfillment. Maslow’s model is highly useful in designing human resource management strategies to
keep the work force in upbeat mood with high morale and level of dedication.

Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs

Physiological Needs: This being the first level of Need accounts for the existence of human being. It covers
food, clothing, shelter, physical rest for the individual. Human being finds it difficult to survive if the
physiological needs are not fulfilled.
 Safety or Security Needs: Once the physiological needs are fulfilled, the natural tendency of human being is
to aspire for security. The security of physiological needs influences the human being to take up saving,
storing, constructing shelter and such related activities. Such plans for future need security assurances and
protections. The needs which cater to the safety and security of the human beings form the second level of
need in the hierarchy.

Belongingness and Love needs or Social needs or Affiliation needs: Human being is a social animal. Once
the physiological and security needs are fulfilled, it is natural for human beings to aspire for belonging to a
comfortable group, having own family etc. Such needs fall under social needs or affiliation needs category.
A sense of belongingness and settlement prevails in the minds of human being on fulfillment of this level of
need.

Esteem needs: After attaining the first three levels of needs, human beings aspire to attain such goals in life
about which they can boast as achievement. Achievement of these goals give them a sense of
accomplishment. This sense motivates the human being to perform better in their life and career.

Self-actualization needs: The human beings reach a stage after fulfilling their esteem needs, that they get
feeling of reaching their full potential. At this stage they start feeling like giving back to the society. At this
stage human beings take up activities like philanthropy (Charity), Training younger generation, Motivating
youngsters etc.

Motivation:

Motivation is a psychological phenomenon which is ensconced under the management function

“Directing”. Motivation is derived from the word motive which stands for desires, wants, drives etc. Desire may
be for money, success, recognition etc.

Importance of motivation:

Motivation at work place is very important to maintain high morale amongst the employees. Motivated
work force improves productivity, efficiency, safety and reliability. Motivation brings about turn around in
poorly performing organization.

Need of Motivation:

Organizations motivate employees for many reasons like;

• Improving productivity.
• Ensuring safe work environment.
 • Maintaining a healthy environment in work place.
• Maintaining high morale amongst employees.
• Retaining experienced employees.
• Attracting efficient and experienced employees from market.
• Maintaining reputation in the market.

Functions of motivation:

Motivation being a psychological phenomenon, functions in an abstract manner. The functions of

motivation are noticed through indicators like;

• To encourage the team to perform better.

• To reward the outperformers and reprimand the under performers to improve.
• To develop a sense of belongingness in the team members.
• To make the workforce to go extra distance without any extra returns.
• To make the team members to come forward to shoulder the responsibilities.

Hygiene and Motivation factors:

Management researchers and experts analyzing the work conditions and the behaviors of individual and
group of employees have come up with various theories. Frederick Irving Herzberg, an American Psychologist
has put forward a theory to analyze behavior of workers at work place. According to Herzberg, there are two
factors to explain the behavior of employees. These factors are;

• Hygiene Factors.
• Motivators.

Hygiene factors are those which when not satisfied will create dissatisfaction. Hence, they are also called as
dissatisfiers. Examples of Hygiene factors are working condition, salary, insurance cover, Job security,
conveyance to and from work, staying / worker quarter arrangement, medical facilities etc. The absence of these
factors results in unrest among the workers resulting in low productivity and low morale amongst the workers.

Motivators are those factors which motivate the employees to perform better. Examples of motivators are Job
satisfaction, Opportunity for career growth, Challenging job, Perks and incentives, involvement in decision
making etc. The motivation level of employees shoots up with motivators and they perform better.

The work place may have any of the following four situations as under;
➢ High Hygiene & High Motivation – where the workers have very little complaints and are full of energy
and zest to perform better. This is an ideal situation for organization. This situation does not involve
exploitation of either workers or management.
➢ High Hygiene & Low Motivation – Where the workers have very little complaints but are not motivated
to perform. The workers have a tendency to put personal interest before the organizational interests.
They look towards job for its pay cheque, facilities and perks etc. This is a very objectionable situation at
work place as the productivity is low and the costs are high. It indicates that the workers are exploiting
the management. This is also an indicator of inefficient management which is not exhibiting proper
control.
➢ Low Hygiene & High Motivation – Where the workers have lot of complaints but still, they are highly
motivated towards work. The project is such that the management is not in a position to provide hygienic
factors but the workers are motivated to do works.
OR
The workers are desperate to get work and the management is taking advantage of this surplus supply
of workers by cutting costs.
This situation is an indicator of startup with humble beginnings or Exploitation by management.
➢ Low hygiene and low motivation – Where the workers have lot of complaints and motivation is at its
lowest level. This is a very discouraging situation indicating sick industry.