Self-Awareness and Stress Management
Our life is impossible without stress, and it is necessary for maintaining vital functions. However, if stress is frequent and prolonged, it has a negative impact on the psychological state and physical health of a person. Therefore, an essential factor of high-quality life activity is the stress resistance of the individual. It is defined as a group of personal characteristics that enable a person to withstand significant intellectual, volitional, and emotional loads without causing harm to the activities or health (Tran, 2020). According to scientists, stress resistance is characteristic of physically healthy, emotionally stable individuals with an active lifestyle, low anxiety, and adequate self-esteem. Accessibility is mainly distinctive of passive, dependent, highly anxious or prone to depressive and hypochondriac reactions of individuals.
External and internal aspects influence the stress resistance of the manager. However, interaction with the outside world through the information flow, the scale of activities, the number of projects performed, and external contacts have a considerable impact on the leader (Tran, 2020). On the other hand, it affects the volume of perception and the nature of the emphasis on external subjects. Two aspects are important: an increase in information flows and a decrease in psychological confidence in the present and future of the project (Tran, 2020). The stronger the threat experienced by a modern manager, the lower the stress resistance. Nevertheless, a decrease in stress resistance encourages finding shades of threat in each new piece of information in subjective perception.
When talking about stress management methods, it is helpful to think about the positive aspects extracted from negative situations. When a person manages to realize this ability in practice, they overcome the most significant obstacle on the way to gaining stress resistance. Having learned to control unpleasant situations that people suddenly find themselves in, they turn them into valuable life experiences. It can be reasonably noted that stress allows demonstrate people’s best qualities and makes our life more productive and fulfilling (Tran, 2020). Thus, our choice is as follows: will people allow events to prevail over them, or will they control themselves, and, accordingly, will they be able to accept it as an opportunity that can be used effectively? This adjustment of the pressure attitude is the first principle underlying stress management methods.
Communication
Modern communications in management is a device for connecting a company with the market environment. The main task of the manager is to promote the maintenance of partnership relations with market participants. Communications in management have a multidirectional character. Promotion is the main component of communication and consists of transferring information from the enterprise to the environment (Falkheimer, 2017). It would be best to work on relationships, whomever you are – a customer or a contractor. This is more relevant today than ever before. This is because the market has reached the point of development when it is challenging to compete only at the level of a product or service; relationships decide a lot. One of the priority tasks of the business and the competence of each of the employees at the same time is the ability to build effective relationships in all directions: horizontally and vertically, external and internal, with suppliers, contractors, and customers.
The manager’s sociability is the ability to find a common language with different people. This skill can be achieved based on psychological knowledge of different social groups and rich practice, and mastering this skill gives the manager significant advantages in many aspects of their activity (Falkheimer, 2017). The basis of successful communication is a sincere interest in people. People around them are always impressed by a genuine interest in them and care about their personal successes and professional concerns. In addition, showing interest in others causes a response. This brings constructiveness, trust, and positive emotions to communication. Business communication is a professional interaction between people to exchange information and joint activities. It is a complex, multi-faceted process of contact between people in the official sphere. Its participants perform in official statuses and are focused on achieving specific tasks. A particular feature of this process is regularity, and compliance with the established rules, which are determined by national and cultural traditions, and professional, ethical principles.
Problem Solving and Ethics
Ethical problems are, in fact, also managerial dilemmas since they are a conflict between the economic activity of an organization measured by income, costs, and profit and the social reflection of its activities manifested in obligations to people both inside and outside the organization. The nature of these obligations can be interpreted in different ways, but most often, they include measures to protect employees loyal to the organization, create competitive markets, and produce products and services that are useful and safe for community members.
Managers are faced with the fact that the sequence of decisions becomes the decisive factor in classifying an alternative as ethical or unethical. Several approaches have been formed in theoretical philosophy and management practice (Lim, 2019):
- Utilitarian, consisting in assessing the impact of specific decisions on the people involved in the process. The target is the production of the greatest benefits for the most significant number of individuals. However, the minority’s interests may be compromised. The utilitarian approach focuses on the actions themselves rather than the motives behind them. The potentially negative and potentially positive results of actions are contrasted. If the positive ones outweigh, then the manager is very likely to implement actions, and the negative ones will be considered acceptable and inevitable.
- Moral and legal, assessing the compliance of decisions and actions with the content of primary group and civil rights and privileges. The sources of these rights are international, state, and local agreements and other normative legal acts. For example, such fundamental universal human rights as the right to life and personal security, freedom of conscience and speech, the right to privacy, and freedom of private property are considered.
- An approach of social justice based on the assessment of fairness and impartiality in the distribution of values between groups and individuals. It is based on two principles – the principle of disagreement and the principle of freedom. The essence of the principle of freedom is that a person has a particular set of choices compatible with the same rights as other people (Lim, 2019). The essence of the principle of disagreement is that if there are doubts about the correctness of a particular decision, it is necessary to eliminate social and economic injustices. So that the distribution of goods and services becomes as fair as possible.
Motivation
Labor motivation is a person’s impulse to industrial or non-industrial activities to meet their material and household needs and requests, which is achieved at the expense of their labor. The term defines the process of stimulating an executive or a group of people to activities aimed at achieving the organization’s goals, to the productive implementation of decisions made or planned work (Rožman, 2017). In the theoretical aspect, the development of motivation issues is carried out in two main directions. Firstly, it appears in developing the theory of job satisfaction, which determines the factors that encourage and stimulate work. Secondly, it is shown in developing process theories that focus on the choice of behavior that can provide the desired results. All people are different by nature, which means that their views on power, recognition, success, responsibility, promotion, and financial remuneration are also different.
Understanding the content of motivation is the primary indicator of the professional skills of the head of the organization. Knowing why people do what they do is necessary to help them realize their motives and prevent cases when the lack of motives can cause certain complications. The way to an effective professional activity of people lies through understanding their motivation. Only by knowing what motivates a person, motivates to activity, what motives underlie the actions, a leader can develop an effective system of forms and methods of managing (Rožman, 2017). It is essential to note the use of such forms and methods of stimulating the personality, which contribute to the high efficiency of its work. Real needs condition all human activity, so people strive either to achieve or to avoid something.
Performance Management
Personnel efficiency management is one of the functions of management and an essential factor of business success. With good planning and implementation, the performance management system turns into an effective way to achieve results. Company performance management is a list of processes that help develop and implement a business strategy, analyze processes, track results, make informed decisions and draw the correct conclusions. The main task of these processes is to control employees’ work so that individual contributions help achieve the company’s overall goals (Helmold & Samara, 2019). Individual efforts should be consistent with the organization’s objectives. Managers need to link individual activity with a common business goal, set productivity metrics, and help employees understand how successfully they are acting. To do this, managers use such tools and incentives as incentives, bonus and evaluation systems, personal growth plans, and discussion of critical indicators. Analytical tools are also used to achieve this goal, such as time tracking, productivity analysis, and evaluation of key indicators.
Other tools and techniques such as KPI, strategic planning, budget planning, forecasting, project management, reporting management, and budget planning and forecasting are also used (Helmold & Samara, 2019). Regardless of the scale and scope of activity, organizations need to develop, implement, and improve performance management processes – this is important for both startups and multinational corporations, non-profit organizations, and government departments. No matter what sector or industry manager works in, performance management becomes more important as business competition increases (Helmold & Samara, 2019). At every level of the company’s organization, a highly productive culture must be developed. Each employee understands how their efforts relate to the organization’s overall strategy, and the management, in turn, should know that the chosen strategy brings results. Without this, even the most unique performance management systems and processes will be useless.
Power and Influence
Influence is defined as the behavior of one individual that makes changes in the behavior, attitudes, and feelings of another individual. The specific means by which one person can influence another are diverse: a request and a threat of dismissal. One person can influence another with the help of ideas alone. Managers should influence in a way that is easy to predict and that leads not just to the adoption of this idea but to action — the work necessary to achieve the organization’s goals (Baker, 2019). In order to make their leadership and influence effective, the manager must strengthen and apply power.
The capacity to affect others’ conduct is referred to as power. In addition to traditional skills, managers need power since they always depend on people who are not subordinate to the manager, such as employees of other departments and organizations, clients (Baker, 2019). In addition, most employees in modern organizations will not fully obey all orders just because the boss gives them. In order to achieve the effective functioning of the organization, the proper use of power is necessary. If a manager does not have enough power to influence those on whom the effectiveness of their activities depends, they will not be able to manage the organization effectively.
Leadership
Leadership in the general sense is usually understood as the status (position) of an individual in a group or community, which allows an individual to influence other people, thus directing their efforts to achieve specific goals. In management, it is also customary to understand a leader as a member of an organized group (collective), for whom it recognizes certain rights in terms of decision-making in situations of any level (Neelam, 2017). This is an authoritative person in the group assigned a system-forming role in joint activities and the regulation of group relationships. The basis of leadership is the position of authority, influence, and subordination to the leader of interpersonal group relationships in their organized, ordered totality.
The very phenomenon of leadership is impossible without the influence between people who are part of a group (organization). Such influence is multidirectional and organized. In management, leadership is focused primarily on organizing team members and correcting their actions (Neelam, 2017). The duties of a leader traditionally include setting clear goals, coordinating the team’s overall efforts, and presenting results. The second fundamental function is the motivation of subordinates – members of the team. This function assumes the need to inspire the group members to achieve their goals and instill confidence in their abilities. In practice, it is often implemented by achieving group synergy. The third essential function of a manager’s leadership is to represent and defend the interests of the group outside the team. It implies the need to determine the prospects for the further activities of the group and its development and maintain a balance between the needs of the group and the possibilities of meeting them.
Team Effectiveness and Diversity
According to the study, highly effective teams gush with ideas if they are sure they will not be punished, ridiculed, or condemned. This is called psychological security. The realization that the risk will not lead to punishment creates a safe space for generating new ideas, experiments, and creativity (Tasheva, 2019). In teams with high psychological security, it is easy for participants to ask uncomfortable questions, try something new and admit their mistakes. All this happen without a shadow of embarrassment and psychological discomfort. This atmosphere encourages employees with hidden talents to be creative, giving out non-trivial ideas that can become brilliant solutions with teamwork and promotion.
Cultural diversity is significant, reflecting the difference of views, approaches, points of opinion on phenomena, objects, aims. Teams that consist of employees who have different points of view and cultural values and come from different social groups are able to create a wide range of valuable ideas, which encourages even cautious people to express their opinions (Tasheva, 2019). In addition, diversity encourages constructive conflicts, enhancing creativity and increasing the efficiency and quality of decisions made.
Creating psychological security for team members is a rather responsible and challenging task of a leader. A well-built strategy for creating trust within the team is the key to the team’s effectiveness. The leader should transmit this value (Tasheva, 2019):
- Solve conflicts with win-win positions. Look for a way to mutually beneficial conflict resolution.
- Communicate with employees and colleagues as a person and not from a position of administrative dominance. Show respect for the individual, listen to the person. Remember that a true leader is able to receive unpleasant information without creating problems for the one who brings it.
- Calculate several possible reactions of others to your words and actions. Prepare a constructive response for each of them.
- In any situation, direct your efforts to find solutions to the problem, not the perpetrators.
- Ask for feedback from the team after meaningful and difficult conversations. Teach employees how to request and give feedback
- Create team rituals or a tradition when the whole team gathers. Everyone should share any ideas, thoughts, and arguments on crucial issues: innovations, problems of an organization, wishes. Everyone should speak out and be sure that they will not be punished for their opinion and vision.
- Regularly run a survey to measure the level of psychological security.
Conflict and Negotiation
The capacity to successfully settle and avoid disputes is a professional skill for every manager at any level, and in developed businesses, the ability to establish a constructive conflict appears among the corporate values at all. Knowing the signals of a conflict condition, the patterns of conflict development, and understanding the conflict participants’ motives and aims is an important skill (Soliku, 2018). The manager deals with complicated management challenges far more successfully when they recognize their genuine interests in a situation, know how to analyze a conflict situation, and organize a collaborative search for answers.
A collapse of connections, a loss of psychological stability, and emotional imbalance are all linked to organizational conflict. On the other hand, a disagreement may be beneficial to both the warring parties and the organization. The goal is to guarantee that the dispute does not spill over into personal relationships, that it does not devolve into mutual discrediting, and that the compatibility developed over time is not shattered.
The so-called positional conflict, in which opposing, competitive goals are intentionally established for divisions in the organization’s structure, resulting in an objective confrontation, is an example of a beneficial conflict to a company (Soliku, 2018). Since they seek more substantial reasons for their solvency in the clash, creating new technologies, positional conflict allows management to analyze the units’ activities objectively. To put it another way, a positional conflict produces a positive tension that benefits the company.
Making Changes
Changes in an organization are commonly referred to as a transformation process, which is focused on incorporating new technologies into the workflow. Changes are unavoidable in every company, and there are several reasons for this. It aids in the adaptation of new information and technology to the demands of external and internal contexts, which is especially essential in a market economy (Brunsson & Olsen, 2018). The amount of knowledge that a person receives and develops doubles every seven years according to approximate calculations. With the increase of it, the number of new situations in the market that need to be solved quickly and adequately also growing. Therefore, the tasks of managing changes in the organization are becoming more and more important.
Changes are inevitable in the course of the organization’s work since objective circumstances stimulate their appearance. At the same time, the modifications themselves are not the primary goal but a method of achieving goals (Brunsson & Olsen, 2018). It is strengthening the position in the market, solving problems, developing new areas of activity. Change management can be analyzed from two points of view: tactical and strategic. The tactical approach implies that change management will allow changes on time, achieve goals, reduce resistance to changes, and improve personnel adaptation to them. The strategic approach implies that change management is included in the daily management process. Changes become habitual, so their absence can provoke alarm among the staff. A strategic approach to change can significantly strengthen the competitive position of an organization in the market.
References
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Brunsson, N., & Olsen, J. P. (2018). The reforming organization: Making sense of administrative change. Routledge.
Falkheimer, J. (2017). Is strategic communication too important to be left to communication professionals?: Managers’ and coworkers’ attitudes towards strategic communication and communication professionals. Public Relations Review, 43(1), 91-101. Web.
Helmold, M., & Samara, W. (2019). Progress in performance management: Industry insights and case studies on principles, application tools, and practice. Springer.
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Tasheva, S. (2019). Integrating diversity at different levels: Multilevel human capital, social capital, and demographic diversity and their implications for team effectiveness. Academy of Management Review, 44(4), 1-16. Web.
Tran, C. (2020). Stress management in the modern workplace and the role of human resource professionals. Business Ethics and Leadership, 4(2), 26-40.