Understanding Behavior, Human

Relations, & Performance

Matthew Eisenhard, Psy.D.
Week 1: Psychology for Business & Industry
Syllabus/
Textbook
Self-Assessment
• Lussier pg. 17-20
▫ 43 statements
▫ 1 = low skill/ability
▫ 7 = high/skill ability
1. Intrapersonal Skills
2. Interpersonal Skills
3. Leadership Skills
Human Relations – What’s in it for me?
 Getting to know yourself better
 Understanding others better
 Gaining better human relations skills
◦ (a.k.a. People skills – soft skills)
 Learning how to apply the concepts and knowledge
to your personal and professional life
 The better you know and work with people the more
successful you will be
 This is all about relationships!
 What’s “in it” is what you put in it!
 Dr. Raymond Hamden http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nDLczkWbqRk
Common Myths of Human Relations
 MYTH = Technical skills are more important than
people skills
◦ TRUTH = Job recruiters are looking for people with
communication & interpersonal skills (89%)who are
team players (87%)
 MYTH = It’s all just common sense
◦ TRUTH = “People” issues are prominent concerns in
business – high quality relationships are important to
success
 MYTH = Leaders are born not made
◦ TRUTH = Research tells us leadership skills can be
learned – millions of dollars are spent by corporations
on leadership training
Human Relations means “interactions
with people”
• What kinds of interactions?
▫ One-on-one, groups, telephones,
other technology
• What kinds of situations?
▫ Formal/informal, old/new, work-
related/personal, emergencies,
school
• What kind of people?
▫ Family, friends, co-workers, bosses,
strangers, classmates, enemies,
community officials
Goal of Human Relations
• To create a win-win situation by satisfying
employee needs while achieving organizational
objectives.
▫ What does this mean?
▫ Can this “business”
definition be applied
to personal life?
Win-Win Scenarios
• 1. You have just been promoted to be the supervisor for about 15 people. The prior supervisor
was known to very aloof and totally unavailable to his staff. This caused the office to very
dysfunctional and to operate in a very inefficient manner because the staff did not know what was
expected of them. You have been asked to get the office operating efficiently again. This, of course,
will require work because people are late to work, do not complete projects on time, spend a lot of
time on the phone for personal reasons, etc. Discuss how you would go about changing the office’s
environment. In addition you are younger than all of the people in the office and you are the only
one with a college degree.

• 2. Your employer used to have a tuition reimbursement plan for employees. The plan was
discontinued due to lack of interest. You would like to continue your education and would like
your employer to pay for some of it. What steps would you take to persuade the employer to bring
back the tuition plan? (Hint: You may use some of the other employees to help you.)

• 3. You have been asked to start a youth program in your neighborhood. You have background in
youth counseling, but are not quite sure how to organize such a program. How would you go
about setting up the program? There is money available for the program, but a formal document
must be submitted to get the money.
Total Person Approach
• Realizes that an organization employs the whole
person, not just his/her job skills
▫ People play many roles in their lives, indeed
throughout each day.
▫ It is important to acknowledge that people cannot
completely discard personal roles and that they
affect their professional lives and vice versa.
 Examples: if your spouse or child is ill, if you have to
work overtime
Levels of Behavior
 INDIVIDUAL BEHAVIOR
◦ What people say and do
◦ Basic psychology & communication principles
◦ Individual behavior influences group behaviors
 GROUP-LEVEL BEHAVIOR
◦ Consists of the things two or more people say and
do as they interact
 ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR
◦ A group of people working to achieve one or more
objectives
◦ The collective behavior of the individuals and
groups within the organization
Performance
 Is the extent to which expectations
or objectives have been met
 Therefore – relationships between individuals and groups affect the
overall performance of any organization
 SYSTEMS EFFECT
◦ SYSTEM = a set of two or more interactive elements
◦ All people in an organization are affected by at least one
other person & each person affects the whole group or
organization
◦ Challenge to organizations is to develop high-performance
individuals & groups as they are the foundation of any
organization
◦ If they are not effective then the organization cannot
succeed or survive
Human Relations –
Multidisciplinary Science
 Roots in the behavioral sciences
 Began development in late 1940’s
 Primarily based on psychology
◦ Why people behave the way they do
 Sociology
◦ How group dynamics apply to organizations
 Social psychology – economics – political science,
also contributed
 Research through 1950’s
 Recognized as a discipline of it’s own by late 1970’s
History of Human Relations
• As early America moved from agriculture base to
industry base individual goal was survival
▫ No welfare – sink or swim
• Emphasis was on profits not people
• Sweat shops – no concern for working
conditions, health, and/or safety of employees
Pioneers of Change
 FREDERICK TAYLOR – late 1800’s – early 1900’s
◦ Father of SCIENTIFIC MANAGEMENT
◦ Led to concept of mass production
◦ No concern for social needs of employees
◦ Assumed all were motivated by money
 ROBERT OWEN – same era as Taylor
◦ Known as the “real father” of PERSONNEL
ADMINISTRATION
◦ Believed profit would be increased if people
had better pay, working conditions, and
adequate food and housing
◦ Refused to hire children under age 11
 Most children worked full time by age 9
◦ Not all followed his example, but it was a beginning
Pioneers of Change
 ELTON MAYO – mid 1920’s-30’s
◦ “FATHER OF HUMAN RELATIONS”
◦ Conducted famous Hawthorne
Studies
 HAWTHORNE EFFECT
 An increase in performance caused by the special
attention given to workers, rather than tangible change in
the work
 All they did was change the lights & ventilation – but
workers felt “special” and performance increased
 A happy worker is a productive worker
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W7RHjwmVGhs
History of Human
Relations
• 1930’s
▫ Great depression
▫ Rise of unions – workers gained strength in
organizing
▫ Resulted in better working conditions – higher
pay, shorter hours
• 1940’s – 1950’s
▫ Major research conducted at universities and
organizations
▫ PETER DRUCKER’S – “MANAGEMENT BY
OBJECTIVES” became popular in 1950’s
History of Human Relations
 1960’s
◦ Sensitivity training became popular
◦ Douglas McGregor published Theory X and
Theory Y - (Chapter 3)
◦ Eric Berne introduced Transactional Analysis
(TA) – (Chapter 7)
 1970’s
◦ Interest in H.R. peaked
◦ Quality circles were popular
◦ Term “Human Relations” replaced by more common
term “ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR”
History of Human Relations
• 1980’S
▫ U.S. productivity much lower than Japan’s
▫ WILLIAM OUCHI’S research on
differences between U.S. and Japan
 Developed Theory Z = it integrated
Japan’s methods and U.S. methods to
form framework useable in U.S.
History of Human Relations
 1980’s
◦ PETERSON AND WATERMAN research what
makes a successful organization
◦ Their work is criticized because top companies began
to have problems
◦ Total quality management most popular
 1990’s
◦ Trend toward more employee participation
◦ Resulting in employee’s having more input into how
they do their jobs
◦ Use of groups became popular and continue today
21st Century Challenges
◦ Changing the speed and way we do
business
◦ Outsourcing – what do you think??
 TECHNOLOGY
◦ Enables rapid innovation
◦ Speed of transactions
◦ No hint of slowing & a must have to compete
◦ Created by people – Help or hindrance? Can you imagine
the world before computers?
 DIVERSITY
◦ Because of expanding globalization – diversity becomes
more important than ever
◦ We must understand how to work with people from all
around the world
21st Century Challenges
 LEARNING & KNOWLEDGE
◦ The key to success will be using knowledge effectively to
spur innovations in order to keep up with competition
 ETHICS
◦ Enron, Madoff, Wall Street & banking, auto industry
bailouts – et. al.
◦ What role should Gov. play?
 CRISIS
◦ Since 9-11 – safety and security issues have become more
prominent
◦ How secure are we??
 Physically – bombs – germ warfare
 Technology hackers
Developing Your Human Relations Skills
 Knowing yourself and reasons for your behavior
helps you understand others and increases your
ability to interact in a positive and productive way
 Knowing yourself helps you to prepare for possible
problems and gives you tools for avoiding and/or
eliminating them
 But “knowing” is not enough – we must be able to
“apply what we learn”
• CLASS DISCUSSION….
▫ Why do you like someone?
▫ Why do you dislike someone?
Likeability
• Complete quiz on pg. 11
• How important is it?
▫ Many “qualified” people get passed over because
they are not “likable”
▫ No one can tell you exactly how to be “likable”
▫ And you can’t be “likable” to everyone
 But there are some universal guidelines….
Likeability Guidelines
• BE OPTIMISTIC
▫ Is your glass half full or half empty?
▫ Don’t let failures keep you down
• BE POSITIVE
▫ Praise and encourage others – don’t criticize
▫ Don’t complain – no one wants to hear it
▫ Complaining is contagious & it’s depressing
• BE GENUINELY INTERESTED IN OTHERS
▫ No one likes someone who is self-centered
▫ And no one likes a phony
• SMILE & DEVELOP A SENSE OF HUMOR
▫ It takes more work to frown than to smile
▫ Relax and learn to laugh at yourself
▫ True humor is never at the expense of others
Likeability Guidelines
• CALL PEOPLE BY NAME
▫ A person’s name is the most important sound to them
▫ But remember cultural standards
▫ If you use their name it makes them feel significant and validated
▫ Make an effort and practice learning names
• LISTEN TO PEOPLE
▫ Encourage others to talk about themselves – ask appropriate
questions – listening shows your interest – we generally don’t like
people who don’t pay attention or listen to us
▫ Make an effort to learn specific pro-active
listening skills
• HELP OTHERS
▫ A basic law of success!
▫ Don’t use others – be open and honest
▫ Remember what goes around comes around
Likeability Guidelines
 THINK FIRST BEFORE YOU ACT OR TALK
◦ Engage your brain before opening your mouth – don’t say things
you’ll regret later
◦ Don’t use offensive language
◦ Ok to feel your emotions – but control your behavior
◦ Remember how you say things is as important as what you say
◦ How important is it to be right if you harm others
 APOLOGIZE
◦ We are all capable of hurting someone’s feelings
◦ We are sometimes reluctant to apologize (men more than women)
◦ A sincere apology (even if you think you were right) can help
repair and create more satisfactory relationships
 CREATE WIN-WIN SITUATIONS
◦ The best way to get what you want is to help others get what they
want and vice versa – “quid pro quo”
Handling Problems
 NOTHING IS PERFECT - there will always be problems arising
 How you handle them is the key to your success
 A PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACT is the shared expectations between people – we all
have them
 When problems arise you must decide whether to avoid or solve them – solving is usually best
 There are three ways to resolve problems
◦ 1. CHANGE THE OTHER PERSON
 Remember it takes two to tango – blaming others usually makes matters worse – you
can’t force someone to change
◦ 2. CHANGE THE SITUATION
 Remove yourself from the environment
 Work together or with some neutral entity to change the situation
◦ 3. CHANGE YOURSELF
 Remember – your own behavior is the only thing you really have any control over
 Examine others behavior to determine why they are behaving the way they are – try
to understand – empathize
 Remain assertive but not aggressive
 Amazingly when you change, others usually do also
Chapter Summary
• Define human relations and
why human relation skills are
so important
• What is the goal of human
relations?
• Relationship between
individual and group behavior
and organizational
performance
• Brief history of human
relations
• Trends and challenges in
human relations
• 10 guidelines for effective
human relations
• Your personal low and high
human relation skills and
abilities
▫ Set goals for yourself to make
positive changes as you learn
over the course of the
semester!
Assignments for Next Class
• Read Chapter 2
• Complete the following self-assessments
▫ “Your Locus of Control”, pg. 31
▫ Your Big Five Personality Profile”, pg. 32
▫ “MBTI Personality Preference,” pg. 36
▫ “Your Stress Personality Type,” pg. 37-38.
▫ “Your Learning Style,” pg. 42-43.