Motivation, Stress and Communication

Sebena Foust
Dr. Kimberly Carter
Organizational Behavior
February 17, 2013

Job Title: Director of Human Resources, Central Region
Job Description: Create and maintain an effective approach to recruiting and selection throughout the region. Support Central Region managers in proper hiring and orientation of new employees. Work with managers to retain and develop employees through effective performance planning and review, supported by appropriate training and development and appropriate Employee Relations (ER) support. Support managers in making appropriate promotion and transition decisions, in order to help assure the right person is in the right job. Manage regional HR staff to fulfill their responsibilities and develop professionally. Work as full member of the regional senior team to fulfill the business goals.

Key Responsibilities: * Help managers identify personnel needs and create job descriptions for those needs. * Help managers select most appropriate candidates, based on interviews and experience. Support managers in creating clear performance agreements with new employees. * Work with managers and facilities to assure that new employees have all essential tools and resources when they begin work. * Support managers to make effective use of the performance review process. * Establish a system for employees to get needed training and or/coaching. * Support managers in identifying needs for change in employee status (promotion, firing, part-time to full-time, etc.). * Work with comp and benefits administrator to build equitable and consistent promotion and transition guidelines. * Provide ongoing feedback and coaching for each HR employee, including timely performance reviews and bonus discussions. * Create and maintain an environment of collaboration and mutual respect within the HR department. * Work with the regional senior team to create appropriate, simple, legal HR policies and procedures.

Skills and/ or Knowledge:

* Management and coaching skills * Communication skills (listening, feedback, presentation) * Interviewing skills * Collaboration/teambuilding skills * Writing skills * Strategic thinking * Ability to create and maintain HR systems and procedures * Current management and team theory and practice * Basic human psychology
(Anderson, 2006, p. 35)

Setting Goals
Hellriegel and Slocum describe goal setting in Organizational Behavior as the process of specifying desired outcomes toward which individuals, teams, departments, and organizations will strive and is intended to increase organization efficiency and effectiveness. (2011, p. 192)
By setting goal I will be motivated to study the job requirements and move forward with putting my skills to work to achieve the job objectives. I can prioritize and focus my attention on what is necessary to perform the job. Once I have a starting point I can began to check off different task. Setting goals will help me direct my efforts and be persistent in striving to complete the task at hand. Directing my efforts on a task and continue with it until it is finished will give me a sense of accomplishment and reward for my efforts. Knowing that I am making progress will motivate me to continue, tackling each task with enthusiasm because I can see progress.
According to Organizational Behavior the goal setting model has four motivational aspects: * Goals direct attention, they focus an employee’s attention on what is relevant and important. * Goals regulate effort, they motivate us to act. * Goals increase persistence, persistent people find ways to overcome obstacles and avoid making excuses if they fail. * Goals foster strategies and action programs, they encourage people to develop strategies and action programs that enable them to achieve their goals.
(Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, p. 193) My objective is to follow a path of learning that will increase my ability to bring my skills to the job while pushing my level of performance higher. I can do this by following the “Learning Path” outlined in Growing Great Employees: Turning Ordinary People into Extraordinary Performers, starts with awareness: the learner recognizes they can do this, motivation: the learner can say I see the personal benefit of doing this, skill/knowledge: the learner receives new skills and knowledge, behavior change: the learner applies the new skills or knowledge and the learner’s new behaviors prompt new cycles of learning, with broader awareness and the drive to go deeper.(Andersen, 2006, p. 68) Goal setting is a means of measuring the job importance, being focused on what has to be done; putting plans in action, putting the effort toward doing the job and being persistent no matter what obstacle are placed before me.
Stressful Situations Stress is the excitement, feeling of anxiety, and or physical tension that occurs when the demands or stressors placed on an individual are thought to exceed the person’s ability to cope. (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, p. 221) Twelve symptoms and warning signs of job stress are:
Apathy, negativism, low morale, boredom, anxiety, frustration, fatigue, depression, alienation, anger/irritability, physical problems (headaches, stomach problems) and absenteeism. At some point in time on new jobs I have experienced most of these symptoms and exhibited a lot of the warning signs that the job was causing me to experience unbearable stress. So when starting this new position there is sure to be stress that I will have to deal with. Just beginning a new job is a source of anxiousness. If the position has been open for a while or someone has been covering it that has other full time duties, there will be a backlog of work to catch up. This would cause me to experience anxiety, frustration and fatigue. If the person who held the position prior to me was thought of with affection then this could cause bad feelings for the new hire (me) from the other HR employees. This could result in their hesitant to accept me in the position. This would cause me to experience frustration and to feel alienated. Learning the company protocol and structure and not wanting to be considered incapable of handling the position would cause me to stress. All of these situations and others would cause me to experience the full range of symptoms followed by the warning signs that I need to make changes in order to handle them. Other work related stressors that Hellriegel and Slocum list are: * Workload – too much work and not enough time or resources to do it. * Job conditions – poor working conditions, excessive travel, and long hours * Role conflict and ambiguity – differing expectations and excessive demands along with uncertainty about job duties * Career development – job security, promotions and transfers * Interpersonal relations – working relationships and interaction with peers * Workplace aggression – bullying, sexual harassment, workplace violence * Conflict between work and life roles – juggling work, family and other activities (p.226)
I would manage these stressful situations by having realistic expectations and putting the work in perspective. This could be accomplished by planning and time management. I would fight through the clutter, starting with organizing my work space and creating a to-do list. Checking off each task as it is performed. Get time away from the work, by taking short breaks, maybe walking around the building learning my way around and learning more about the office. Also getting plenty of exercise, take advantage of company facilities if offered. I would talk it out with someone close to me, someone who can be objective. Practice relaxation techniques. Try not to take myself so seriously and find humor in the situation. Also I would find what worked for me to create balance between work and home life.
Nonverbal Cultural Barriers Nonverbal communication includes the process of sending “wordless” messages by means such as facial expressions, gestures, postures, emotional tones of voice, grooming, clothing, colors, and use or type of space. (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, p.267) PERCEIVE is the acronym derived from Proximity, Expressions, Relative orientation, Contact, Eyes, Individual gestures, Voice and Existence which are cues used by people to convey messages without words. * Proximity is the physical distance between individuals. * Expressions are observed on the face. * Relative orientation is the degree to which individuals face one another. * Contact refers to physical contact. * Eyes primarily show whom or what people are most interested in or like. * Individual gestures can convey an image in a person’s mind that is sometimes not spoken. * Voice or speech often provides information about the demographics of a speaker. * Existence of adapters is small behaviors that tend to occur when people are stressed or bored with a situation. (Hellriegel & Slocum, 2011, p. 268)
These gestures can mean different things depending on the culture receiving them. “Americans see eye contact as a sign of sincerity, interest and honesty. In Korea, however prolonged eye contact is considered rude. Arabs dislike talking to someone wearing dark glasses or while walking side by side; it is considered impolite not to face someone directly and in Muslim countries, women and men are not supposed to have eye contact.”(Donnelly, Gibson, Ivancevich, 1995, p. 419) Iranians have a manner of talking that involves flattery and deference thus translating into yes meaning maybe or no leaving the receiver to translate their sincerity. Colors, time and body language have different meanings in different cultures thus setting Americans up for disaster.
In the position of director of human resources it would be my job to learn the cultural barriers that exist and make sure that employees are crossed trained on the implications of nonverbal communication. For management that travel to and work in different countries HR would have to make sure they have extensive training in nonverbal gestures before going to these countries.

References
Hellriegel, Don & Slocum, John W. Jr. (2011). Organizational Behavior, 13th Edition. Mason, OH. South-Western, Cengage Learning.

Andersen, Erika (2006). Growing Great Employees: Turning ordinary people into extraordinary performers. New York, NY. Penguin Group.

Blanchard, Kenneth, Zigarmi, Patricia, Zigarmi, Drea (1985). Leadership and the One Minute Manager. New York, NY. William Morrow and Company, Inc.

Donnelly, James H. Jr., Gibson, James L., Ivancevich, John M. (1995). Fundamentals of Management, 9th Edition. Chicago, IL. Irwin.