Organizational Culture and Workplace

Human Resources is an important part of any organization: it serves as the oil that helps the business's engine come to life. The parts all depend on the guidance, training, foresight, initiative, and diligence that HR staff exercise. HR is responsible for new hires, making sure the right persons are placed in the right roles, overseeing training, and providing assistance to employees seeking to discuss issues at the workplace.

HR puts a human face and human touch on what can otherwise seem like a mechanical, highly impersonal and formalistic business world. Stress can be caused by impersonal factors -- such as disconnect between workers and management, or multigenerational outlooks that conflict and lead to negative feelings and will. However, stress does not have to been as an obstacle because it often points to underlying issues that need to be addressed, and in this sense should be viewed as an opportunity for change.

Stress in the workplace can act as a window on areas that are ripe for change and development so that a better, more positive workplace can emerge. The most important component of communication is transparency: it is what builds trust, truthfulness, and openness regarding the exchange of ideas. This component is essential for any organization to succeed and touches upon a number of areas that can become stressful if transparency and honesty are not implemented.

The three most critical changes I will be implementing as the new Director of HR will be based on this component in the sense that they work towards creating a more communicative workplace; they will be: 1) reducing negligent hiring, 2) developing appropriately effective training programs for new hires, and 3) training HR staff in developing Emotional Intelligence (EI) skills.

The potential sources of conflict and consequences of each are that -- first, negligent hiring leads to high turnover rates, which is costly for an organization; the main conflict with this issue, however, is ensuring that no prejudicial choices are made with regard to job candidates based on prior history (such as criminal background). HR must be careful to avoid allegations of prejudice and mitigate the risk of lawsuit by acting fairly and within legal guidelines (Ryan, Laser, 1991; Petersen, 2015).

Second, developing the right kind of training program for new hires helps departments to function smoothly and for the appropriate organizational culture values to be seeded and grown in the new hires. The potential conflict involved in this issue is that departments will want to have a say in how training is developed and conducted -- but this can be addressed by inviting department heads to work with HR staff on how training should transpire to meet both organizational aims and department needs.

Third, HR staff should be trained in EI because this can help them foster better relationship building skills and provide employees with the kind of care and attention they need to progress and grow as workers. The conflict here is that workers can feel disconnected from management as a result of multigenerational differences (now common in the workplace). EI can help managers and HR effectively address these differences and bring multigenerational groups together into working teams (Schyns, Schilling, 2013; Schullery, 2013; Butts, 2015; Stewart, Oliver, Cravens, Oishi, 2017).

By addressing the underlying conflicts described here, HR can more effectively help the overall organization operate at optimum levels. Utilizing the appropriate traditional and contemporary leadership approaches will be part of the solution. The traditional and contemporary leadership approaches used transactional leadership -- a type of leadership style that promotes the quid pro quo idea (something in exchange for something else).

This can be used to help bring multigenerational groups together in a team (for instance, with the younger generation helping the older generation learn technology skills and the older generation helping the younger generation learn experiential knowledge). Transactional leadership is a traditional leadership style. Servant leadership is a contemporary type of leadership style that can be used to help workers identify their needs and then assist them in achieving their objectives.

Servant leadership places the employee first -- and EI can be a great tool in this type of leadership approach, as it can be used by HR staff and managers to empathize, sympathize and work with the employee so that he or she feels welcome, involved, appreciated, and part of the team. The role of culture in organizational change is also very important because it helps to maintain a positive workplace environment through the promotion of values that correspond with the organization's objectives.

The organizational culture allows workers to conform to a standard that reflects real positive growth and supports team work, camaraderie, personal and professional development, work ethic and loyalty. In short, culture is what keeps the organization in line with the principles of its mission and value statement. How to manage change effectively starts with the organizational culture.

First, the groundwork for a positive organizational culture has to be laid: that means the principles and values that the organization wants to promote have to be clearly defined and taught to workers; in their training, they should be educated on the importance of adopting these values and principles as their own. Second, managing change effectively depends upon setting clear defined goals and identifying the pathways to reaching those goals.

The objectives should be known by all and progress should be monitored, assessed and rewarded through incentives that motivate workers to want to achieve success both for themselves and the company. Finally, once change is achieved the organization must evaluate the outcomes to see if the change is actually beneficial and producing the effects desired by the company. If not, interventions may be needed. If the change is effective, a strategy for maintaining the development needs to be implemented so that the organization stays the course.

In conclusion, recommendations for ways to reduce and prevent conflict in the workplace are, first, to identify issues that can lead to conflict. These can include multigenerational issues, such as a younger generation's outlook differing and conflicting with an older generation's outlook and behavior. It can include workers feeling disconnected from management.

In both cases, managers can use EI to help overcome these obstacles and implement a number of different leadership styles, such as transactional leadership or servant leadership to help workers feel more connected with management and more effective as part of a diverse team where individual traits and skills are recognized and respected instead of viewed as obstacles.

HR can also reduce conflict associated with negligent hiring and employee turnover by adopting a strategy of hiring the right person for the right job while also being careful not to deny applicants an opportunity to find success if their past history is less than stellar. HR can further reduce conflict by working with departments to develop adequate training programs and by teaching its own staff how to use EI effectively to interact with and engage employees so that the organizational operations flow smoothly and efficiently. References Butts, D. (2015).

Generations united: Because we are stronger together. AI Practitioner, 17(2), 47-49. doi:10.12781/978-1-907549-23-6-5 Petersen, I. (2015). Toward true fair-chance hiring: Balancing stakeholder interests and reality in regulating criminal background checks. Texas Law Review, 94: 175-200. Ryan, A., Laser, M. (1991). Negligent hiring and defamation: Areas of liability related to pre-employment inquiries. Personnel Psychology, 44(2): 293-319. Schullery, N. (2013). Workplace engagement and generational differences in values. Business Communication Quarterly, 76(2), 252-265. doi:10.1177/1080569913476543 Schyns, B., Schilling, J. (2013). How bad are the effects of bad leaders? A meta- analysis of destructive leadership and its outcomes.

The Leadership Quarterly, 24: 138-158. Stewart, J., Oliver, E., Cravens, K., Oishi, S. (2017). Managing millennials: Embracing generational differences. Business Horizons, 60(1): 45-54. Annotated Bibliography Butts, D. (2015). Generations united: Because we are stronger together. AI Practitioner, 17(2), 47-49. doi:10.12781/978-1-907549-23-6-5 This article discusses the ways in which multigenerational challenges can be overcome by highlighting the individual skills that each generation in the workplace possesses and how they can be used to help bring the generations together in a spirit of respect and appreciation.

The focus of this study is on the need to recognize individual talents among the diverse age group so that workers do not foster resentment or ill will for the colleagues based on generation prejudices. This study is helpful in showing some of potential conflicts that can arise as a result of these different groups and how to address the issues positively. Petersen, I. (2015). Toward true fair-chance hiring: Balancing stakeholder interests and reality in regulating criminal background checks. Texas Law Review, 94: 175-200.

This study focuses on the need of HR to pursue both organizational and social interests in hiring workers. It shows that organizations need to hire the best person for the job but also that they have a responsibility.