                  4.  SUPERVISORS AND HUMAN RELATIONS PRACTICES
        
             Practicing good human relations means applying the "Golden
        Rule."  It is also the application of psychology to people; that
        is, winning friends and influencing people.  It can be considered
        an ethical approach to personnel problems.  In practicing good
        human relations supervisors work toward getting employees to work
        together harmoniously, productively, and cooperatively to achieve
        economic as well as social satisfaction.  The supervisor must
        motivate employees to want to do productive and satisfying jobs. 
        It is a key part of effective human relations - to motivate
        people.  
        
             Supervisors must remember employees who work for them are
        members of the organization for only part of their lives.  They
        are family members, members of churches, clubs, and citizens of a
        community.  Understanding this, the effective supervisor must
        recognize that he or she cannot change an employee merely by
        bringing him into a plant, having him punch a clock or sign in,
        and assigning him a place to work.  Even though he works for the
        organization, he still has his own personal problems and
        attitudes that come with him to job, and he will continue to be
        influenced by his associations with other organizations.  
        
             Individual differences affect the supervisor's role.  Each
        employee comes to the job with a predetermined set of
        requirements that the job may fulfill like status or the need to
        belong to a group.  Men and women sometimes look at a job
        differently.  Women may see employment as a transitory period in
        their lives as they prepare for married life and motherhood. 
        This was characteristic of women for the period of human history
        up until this past decade.  Womens' roles are rapidly changing
        and the previous statement does not seem to be currently
        accurate.  Most families now have two "bread winners."  
        
             Age influences individuals.  Older employees are more apt to
        be security-conscious than younger ones.  They are prone to
        maintain their present situations rather than transferring like
        younger employees to other positions with unknown opportunities. 
        
             George (1970) encouraged supervisors to remember several
        facts about individuals which make managing much easier and more
        effective:
        
             1.   Remember that all of us are different.  We each have
                  our own individual minds, our own thoughts, our own
                  ideas about life, our own wants.
        
             2.   Remember that when you are working with a person, you
                  are working with a whole person.  You might wish you
                  could employ him as a hired hand, but you can't.  As a
                  supervisor, you need to remember that every employee is
                  different and that you must work with him or her as
                  whole people.
        
             3.   Remember that all normal behavior by an individual is
                  caused behavior.  It is caused by individual needs or
                  wants.  Employees are not motivated by what you think
                  they ought to do and have but by what they think they
                  ought to do and have.  Often supervisors think that
                  things that another person wants and the reasons he
                  wants them may appear foolish.  To him, they are
                  important, real needs.  These needs cause the behavior
                  with which you will be dealing.
        
             4.   Remember that people are not machines to be knocked
                  about and thrown out when you are through with them. 
                  As human beings, people need and ought to be treated
                  with dignity and respect.  No matter what a person's
                  job is, no matter how "low" you may think it is, he or
                  she deserves to be and should be shown the proper
                  respect for his or her choice of jobs and his or her
                  own abilities (pp. 320-21).  
        
             Supervisors get things done through other people.  Thus, a
        supervisor's effectiveness will be measured by how productive his
        or her employees are.  To deny a supervisor's success is
        dependent upon employees is to deny reality.  Employees generally
        want to please their employee for a variety of reasons.  If a
        supervisor can discover what motivates each and every one of them
        and somehow provide each with whatever it takes, he or she will
        be eminently successful.  Remembering that the employee will only
        work as hard as he or she chooses to work, finding what makes him
        or her work harder is essential.  The effective supervisor is the
        one who can create a work climate in which the employee willingly
        strives to do his or her best, each and every day, throughout the
        duration of his or her employment with the organization.  
        
             In order to understand employees and create a human
        relations environment in which all differences are celebrated,
        the supervisor must first understand him or herself.
        
             Haney (1986) encouraged managers to develop an Exceptionally
        Realistic Self-Image (ERSI).  When a supervisor begins to know
        him or herself, he or she has taken the first step toward
        understanding "self."  The supervisor who realizes that he or she
        has certain attitudes about dress, working fast or slow, and how
        a supervisor should behave, soon realizes that others have
        similar ideas.  The supervisor with an ERSI will be in a better
        position to treat employees fairly and justly.
        
             Understanding self means looking at strengths as well as
        weaknesses.  It is often easy to see strong points, but the
        budding supervisor will have to work harder to see weak points. 
        In realizing shortcomings, the supervisor will be in a position
        to try and control them and thereby become a better one in the
        long run.  
        
             An effective supervisor must work at empathizing with his or
        her employees.  He or she needs to make this so much a part of
        him or herself that it comes as easily as shaking hands.  It
        should be so much a part of him or her that he or she will be
        able to quickly settle a dispute, prevent a grievance from
        arising, or shed new light on a tough problem.  
        
             The better a supervisor knows his or her employees, knows
        about the size of his family, the age of his children, what their
        names are, where they go to school, what their accomplishments
        are, the better he or she will know and understand the employee. 
        
             Supervisors often find they spend much of their time with a
        group of employees.  This may be a formal group, such as a
        clinical team of which the supervisor is a member, or it may be
        an informal group, such as a bowling team, or a group that gets
        together to play cards or watch movies on the weekends. 
        
             Groups differ greatly in their attraction they hold for
        members.  One peculiarity of groups that the supervisor should
        recognize is that the people who are most vocal and try hardest
        to influence the other members of the group are usually the ones
        who are most willing to accept the opinions of others.  This
        seems contradictory, but it is a characteristic of the behavior
        of employees in groups.  If one employee wants desperately to
        influence others, if he wants to be the leader and spokesman, the
        he will be willing to accept the views and suggestions of the
        other employees so that he can "lead them."  The stronger the
        ties of the group and the more cohesive it is, the more the rule
        holds true.  If it didn't work this way, then the employee who
        was vocal and said things the group did not agree with would soon
        be cut off from the group if he did not accept their views
        (George, 1970).
        
             All humans have certain basic needs that they want
        fulfilled.  Some basic human needs that are similar for all
        people are food, clothing, shelter, self-respect, recognition,
        and self-esteem.  Individual employees place different weight on
        different needs.  A starving man will place a greater emphasis on
        obtaining food.  A man with plenty of food but little clothing
        will seek out clothing to meet his needs.  If a supervisor knows
        what an employee's needs are, he or she will be much more
        successful in meeting those needs.  The simplest way to ascertain
        what an employee's needs are is to simply ask him or her.  It is
        not a complicated matter to be direct and inquire not once, but
        on an on-going basis.  Needs change, and what an employee needs,
        or wants today, may change tomorrow.  The effective supervisor
        considers the dynamic nature of his or her employees and stays
        tuned to the changing needs of employees.  
        
             George (1979) studied the basic wants and desires of the
        average employee and listed them as follows:
             1.   Fair pay.
             2.   Recognition as an individual.
             3.   Opportunity for advancement.
             4.   Interesting work in a good place to work.
             5.   Acceptance by the group.
             6.   Good and just leadership.
        
             What weight placed on these needs and desires by various
        workers will differ.  The effective supervisor will recognize
        these and other individual needs and the different weights that
        each employee places on them.  
        
             Practicing good human relations does not mean that everybody
        will be all smiles and happiness.  There will be problems, but
        practicing human relations enables the supervisor to work around
        the difficulties that the problems present.  George (1970)
        suggested the following human relations practices that the
        effective supervisor should aim for in his or her work:
             1.   Peace among your employees.
             2.   Openness and understanding.
             3.   A friendly air between workers.
             4.   Employees expecting and receiving a fair and just
                  hearing and decision (p. 23).
        
             In order to determine how successful a supervisor is in
        using human relations skills, George (1979) created the following
        Human Relations Scale to measure skill levels.  The scale can be
        found on the next page.
