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 Whats 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!
Whats 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 = Its 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, workrelated/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
offices 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 1940s
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 1950s
Recognized as a discipline of its own by late 1970s

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 1800s early 1900s

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 1920s-30s

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
1930s
Great depression
Rise of unions workers gained strength in
organizing
Resulted in better working conditions higher
pay, shorter hours

1940s 1950s
Major research conducted at universities and
organizations
PETER DRUCKERS MANAGEMENT BY
OBJECTIVES became popular in 1950s

History of Human Relations

1960s

Sensitivity training became popular

Douglas McGregor published Theory X and
Theory Y - (Chapter 3)
Eric Berne introduced Transactional Analysis
(TA) (Chapter 7)

1970s

Interest in H.R. peaked

Quality circles were popular
Term Human Relations replaced by more common
term ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR

History of Human Relations

1980S
U.S. productivity much lower than Japans
WILLIAM OUCHIS research on

differences between U.S. and Japan

Developed Theory Z = it integrated
Japans methods and U.S. methods to
form framework useable in U.S.

History of Human Relations

1980s

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

1990s

Trend toward more employee participation

Resulting in employees 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 cant be likable to everyone
But there are some universal guidelines.

Likeability Guidelines
BE OPTIMISTIC

Is your glass half full or half empty?

Dont let failures keep you down

BE POSITIVE

Praise and encourage others dont criticize

Dont complain no one wants to hear it
Complaining is contagious & its 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 persons 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 dont like
people who dont pay attention or listen to us
Make an effort to learn specific pro-active
listening skills

HELP OTHERS

A basic law of success!

Dont 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 dont say things
youll regret later
Dont 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 someones 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
cant 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.