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Management Practices

Lecture-19

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Recap

• Personality Traits• The Big Five Traits• Traits and Managers– Values– Moods

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Today’s Lecture

• Career Development• Career Stages• Career Management• Stress & Performance• Managing Conflict

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Career DevelopmentCareer Development– Career: sum total of the work-related experiences

through a person’s life.• Linear career: person moves through a sequence of jobs

of higher levels.– Can build different experience in different positions.

• Steady State career: worker chooses to keep the same kind of job over much of a career.– Become highly skilled in a given area.

• Spiral Career: worker holds fundamentally different jobs that still build on each other.– Worker gains wide experience yet skills continue to build.

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Career StagesCareer Stages

Preparationfor Work

Preparationfor Work

OrganizationEntry

OrganizationEntry

Early Mid-career

Early Mid-career

Mid-careerMid-

career

LateCareerLate

Career

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Career StagesCareer Stages– Preparation for Work: decide on kind of career,

determine qualifications needed.– Organizational entry: find a “first” job.

– Managers usually start in a functional area first.– Early career: establishes person in the firm and

begins achievement.– Worker learns firm’s values and duties.– Also begins to achieve noteworthy results in the job.– Worker tries to stand out as a good performer.

• Mentors (experienced manager who shows you the ropes) are valuable during this stage.

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Stages, cont.Stages, cont.

– Mid-career: usually have been in workforce 20-35 years.

– Usually provides major accomplishments.• Career plateaus can occur as chances for further

promotion dwindle.– Plateau managers can still enjoy a fruitful career.

– Late career: continues as long as the manager works and is active.• Many managers choose to stay active well past normal

retirement.

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Career ManagementCareer Management

Managers need to consider both personal career management as well as the careers of other workers in the firm.• Ethical practice: managers need to ensure worker

promotions are based on outcomes, not friendships.– This means all workers are treated equally.

• Accommodation of other demands: Workers have many things in their lives besides work. Managers need to consider these issues as well.– The dual career couple is the norm.– Workers have family commitments.

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StressStress Results when people face important opportunity or

threats they are uncertain can be handled.– Managers almost always face stress.

• Physiological issues: stress can result in sleep problems, headaches, and other issues.– Long-term levels of stress can result in heart attack, and high

blood pressure.– Different people experience stress differently.

• Psychological issues: stress can result in bad moods, anger, nervousness.– Can result in lower work output and frustration.

• Behavioral issues: stress can actually enhance job performance as well as impair it.

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Stress & PerformanceStress & PerformanceHigh

Low

Leve

l of

Perf

orm

ance

Low HighPositive Stress Negative Stress

Level of Stress

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Sources of StressSources of Stress

Role Conflict: results from conflict between managerial roles.• Conflict can result when managers want to present a

problem with the firm but still want to present firm in best possible light.

• Role Overload: managers have too many duties and activities.

• Most managers have several roles but they can become over-powering.

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Coping with stressCoping with stress

• Problem-focused: actions taken to directly deal with stress.

• Emotion-focused: actions taken to deal with stressful feelings.

Time Management: allows people to accomplish more with less wasted time.

Mentoring: mentor shows how to deal with stress.Exercise: can reduce stressful feelings.Meditation: puts current cares aside.Social support: can come from family or other

workers.

Organizational Conflict

• Organizational Conflict– The discord that arises when goals, interests or

values of different individuals or groups are incompatible and those people block or thwart each other’s efforts to achieve their objectives.

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The Effect of Conflict on Organizational Performance

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Types of Conflict

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Sources of Conflict

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Top 4 Causes of Conflict in the Workplace

Conflict has a bad reputation. Most often, conflict is associated with raised voices, heated debates, and high frustration.

1. Personality Differences

The workplace brings together a wide array of personalities. In the myriad of different backgrounds, genders, cultures, political and religious beliefs, there are countless opportunities for ruffled feathers.

• The best cure is communication. Whether the issue involves an offense to core values or simply the irritation of pet peeves, it is important to establish boundaries immediately.

• Too often, people avoid difficult conversations in hopes that a problem will just go away, which of course it rarely does. By addressing an issue promptly, it improves the chances for a peaceful resolution and common understanding. But if it’s put on the back burner, emotions may surface when anger levels are high, and increase the chances of an unproductive, high volume blowout.

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Top 4 Causes of Conflict in the Workplace

2. Non-Compliance with Rules and Policies

Whether you are pestered by another’s disregard for company policy, or are rebelling against a rule yourself, non-compliance is a common gateway to office conflict. Rules are usually in place for a reason; so whichever side of a policy dispute you may find yourself, you should be clear about why a rule is in place, and what the consequences are for slip-ups. If agreement cannot be reached between differing parties or the rules themselves, it may be a good idea to look for a helpful mediator to resolve the issue. Just remember to keep the focus on the issue, not the person.

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Top 4 Causes of Conflict in the Workplace

3. Misunderstandings

Botched communication is one of the top reasons for conflict in and out of the office. A great way to proactively decrease the potential for crossed wires is to employ effective listening techniques: give full attention, be genuinely interested, catch non-verbal messages, paraphrase, and collaborate. Keeping thorough records of communications can be a safety net when dealing with frequent mis-communicators.

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Top 4 Causes of Conflict in the Workplace

4. Competition

Sometimes quotas and incentives can make it easy to forget the big picture. We stop seeing others as team members and start to see them as competitors. Healthy competition is a good motivator, but sometimes it inspires anti-productive behavior and unsavory results. The best defense in a highly competitive environment is managing your own emotions. Accept what emotions arise and deal with them positively. Tired of always coming in second or third? Start focusing on competing with yourself rather than others. Remember that one person’s success is good for the team on a whole

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Summary

Career DevelopmentCareer StagesCareer ManagementStress & PerformanceManaging Conflict

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Next Lecture

Conflict Management StrategiesNegotiationPolitical Strategies for Increasing Power