PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT AND HUMAN
RELATIONS
PERSONAL QUALITIES
Personality is the total make-up of an individual. There are essential features
in measuring personal effectiveness. They are intangible substances which
cannot be seen and held. An employee’s personal qualities can be judged by
people based on the impressions he makes on them. It is therefore important for
individuals to understand, develop and improve all aspects of their personal
qualities to produce favourable effect on those with whom they work. The
following essential points should be in building up the qualities of a good
personality:-
i. Character: this embraces moral principles and a proper sense of
values. It leads to self-confidence, self-reliance, honesty, courage and
forthrightness in all dealings and contacts with other people.
ii. Honesty/Sincerity: honesty is said to be the best policy. Employees
must be truthful and sincere in all their dealings with fellow workers as
well as visitors or customers to the organization.
iii. Courtesy/Tactfulness: employees must respect all visitors or
customers and fellow workers. They should serve them with much
politeness. With courtesy and tact other people’s problems can
adequately be catered for without necessarily being injurious to their
feelings.
iv. Respectfulness: the ability to respect and give regard to others will
create an atmosphere of tolerance and friendship.
v. Co-operation/Gratitude: the ability to appreciate other’s assistance,
kindness and co-operation and give praise or express gratitude when
necessary, is another contributory factor to a sound personal
development.
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vi. Listening/Speaking: one must be a good listener if one wants to
understand the message in a speech. Good listening cannot take pale if
the attentions is divided, or it there is lack of interest.
Personal and Social Habits
Good Work Habits
i. Punctuality: punctuality is the soul of business. Workers should
always be on time for work, appointments and for completion of jobs.
ii. Hardwork: this is the most important factor for success. It is the
ability to rise early for work to spend extra hours in the office during a
rush period of emergencies and the take up extra responsibilities
without complaint.
iii. Neatness and Accuracy: the primary goal of productivity is neatness
and accuracy. One should therefore bear in mind that speed is in vain if
the product cannot be used.
iv. Loyalty: the slogan usually emphasized to employees is that “keep
office secrets secret”. Employees are expected to do the normal work
assigned faithfully and should not leak any confidential information to
friends, callers or others who are not expected to have knowledge of
such information.
v. Initiative and Resourcefulness: workers should try to get into the
habit of thinking for themselves at work. The prosperity of any
business depends upon the creative ability of its workers. Suggestions
and new ideas for a better and more effective control of the business
could be made.
vi. Care of tools and equipment: proper care must be taken during their
use and when they are not in use. If there is any fault which cannot be
put right, an immediate report should be made and a repair man
contacted.
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vii. Getting along with people: to be productive and efficient in the office,
each employee should be able to get along well with others.
Appearance
Though appearance can sometimes be deceptive, generally, the first
impression matters a lot. Once a good impression has been created, every
attempt should be made to sustain it. It is important to emphasize here that,
appearance is one of the factors to be considered when looking for future
employment.
Daily appearance, the way things are said and done in the office will also count
in consideration for promotion. The following factors should be given a
thorough consideration to be able to maintain a good/pleasing appearance:-
i. Good Health: a sick person will not be able to cope with the normal
office work, not to speak of additional strain of rush hours or of
overtime. Constant attendance to hospital will result in waste of money
and paralyze the work of at the office.
ii. Sleep: the body needs enough sleep and rest after each full day’s work.
A deep undisturbed rest will refresh the body and equip it for the next
day’s work. Every worker needs at least six undisturbed hours of rest.
iii. Body Cleanliness: a good wash is needed every morning to free the
body of dirt and bad odour. A smell-free, fresh and healthy body
enhances the personal appearance of an employee.
iv. Dressing: one should dress to suit the occasion. Good and appropriate
dressing is one of the factors of a pleasing personal appearance.
v. Food/Drink: a good and balance diet gives health, strength and
warmth. A hungry worker tends to look pale, ruffled and lacks the
stamina to carry out an efficient job.
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HUMAN RELATIONS
The success of any business ultimately depends upon the efforts of human
beings, hence all management also depends upon the successful management of
people. Pitfield (1977) immediately suggests that this statement implies building
good human relationships between people in an organization. Failure to take
cognizance of human behaviour and attitude will definitely make management
ineffective. As management can simply be said to be getting a work done
through people, it therefore means that human relations in business is a vital
discipline. Without a well constructed human relations, work in an organization
cannot go on smoothly and the establishment would find it difficult to achieve
objectives. Managerial activities would go off track if proper human relations is
not established. Human relations means the integration of people of various
backgrounds and expertise or considerate knowledge and skills into a work
place, in a manner that motivates them to teamly work productively and co-
operatively for social satisfaction to all.
Workers should be prepared to meet all sorts of people and to create goodwill in
customers by being as tactful as possible. This will ensure the growth of the
business, more chance of profit making and possible future expansion.
In order to discharge these duties with great efficiency, workers should take note
of the following steps:
When a visitor comes in, the normal greeting and brief introduction
should begin. This is sometimes accompanied by a warm handshake.
Offer the visitor a seat where applicable, and listen to his message.
Take appropriate action without asking for any gratification.
Address people by surname and prefix the surname appropriately with
either Mr., Miss, Mallam, Mrs., Dr., or Alhaji.
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If you are attending to one person while you have one or two others
sitting, glance and smile at them occasionally and say “sorry to keep
you waiting”.
After finishing with a visitor, say ‘thank you’, ‘good bye’ or ‘see you
again’
You must always be co-operative and give everything the necessary
attention, even if it means a little extra work or extra time being spent
in the office.
Types of Relations
There are so many types of relations in business but for our purpose, we shall
consider the following:
1. Management – Worker Relations: the relations that exist between
management and workers usually involve disputes. This is because as
management tries to beat down cost of production by offering a small
wage/salary, workers on the other side try to agitate for higher wages.
Any time such opposing interests do no match, then there is a sour
relations between the two different groups.
2. Customer – Worker Relations: every customer is considered as an
asset to the business. It is therefore necessary that the relations that
exist between the customer and the business are cordial. The way
telephonists, receptionist, secretaries and public relations officers
interact with the consumer, goes a long way to influence the activities
of the business. The etiquette and general development of the above
personnel are expected to be of the highest order. The use of certain
words like ‘He is polite’, ‘He is very rude’, ‘He is intolerant’ etc. have
human relations implications.
3. Supervisor – Worker Relations: the success of every business entity
depends solely on the relations between these two groups of people.
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There is therefore the need for an adequate human relations training for
these people. Poor relations between them can therefore be eradicated
by measures like reprimanding and suspension, guidance on counseling,
waste control measure etc. It is necessary that the supervisor
recognizes the worker as a person like him.
Human Relations Skills
Sensitive to the needs and feelings of others
Respect for the feelings of others
Ability to communicate and encourage others to communicate
Ability to learn how to help others
Ability to understand a person’s attitude towards other people and to
improve this attitude when they are harmful
Ability to learn how to help other people become leaders.
Ability to learn or become aware of being part of a group.
Importance of Human Relations
It reduces conflicts among workers of an organization.
It enhances and promotes team spirit and co-operation among workers.
It motivates and improves morale of workers.
Subordinates are more prepared and more willing to accept delegation
of authority.
It makes it easy for supervisors to direct and control subordinates.
It induces workers to obey rules and regulations. It helps in the
administration of discipline.
It leads to an increase in productivity.
It boosts the morale of workers to work hard.
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PUBLIC RELATIONS
Public relations is a means of personal communication that is image-directed. It
is a planned effort by an organization to influence a group’s attitude or opinion
towards that organization. Public relations efforts include institutional
advertising, publicity and personal appearances to enhance a firm’s image.
The public relations department in an organization is the connecting link
between the organization and its various publics. The department deals with the
news media to reach the public. Public relations people must be especially good
in communication or journalism, rather than in marketing.
In essence the job of public relations is to project a positive image of the
company to the public. Public relations people are responsible for telling the
public about the company, its products, community activities, social
programmes, environmental improvement activities, labour policies, views
regarding controversial issues, and so on. The company’s position must be
stated in clear, understandable, and above all, in a trusted fashion.
Public relations departments perform the following activities:
1) Press Release: the aim of press release is to place newsworthy
information about product or service into the news to attract attention to
a customer.
2) Product Publicity: involves various efforts to publicize specific
products in the appropriate news media.
3) Corporate Communication: this activity covers internal and external
communications regarding the corporate status of the company.
4) Lobbying involves dealing with legislators and government officials to
promote or defeat legislation and regulation in the interest of the
company. (Cole, 1990).
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Public Relations efforts concern the following publics (i) customers (ii)
employees (iii) investors (vi) dealers or channel members (v) government
authorities or agencies (vi) members of educational institutions (vii) colleagues,
and (viii) the community at large.
The relationship between these target markets and the public relations officer or
department is a reciprocal one, with considerable give and take by both parties.
While some members of these groups may be in the position to demand more
from the business than they are able to contribute to it. Others may be more
interested in what they can do for the company than what the company can do
for them. The only way to ensure that such relationships will prove to be
mutually beneficial and lasting is to consistently pursue a policy of fair dealing
and open communication.
1. Channel Members: the public relations manager has a responsibility
towards the channel members and the need to project a favourable
image among them. The channel-relations-minded manager seeks to
project and maintain a progressive and competitive posture in the
supplier community so that the input required for his manufacturing or
merchandising function will be available when needed and on
favourable terms. Accordingly, favourable relations with distributors
and other independent selling agencies are normally desirable from the
standpoint of securing interest, whole-hearted co-operation and
aggressive promotion of the firm’s product line.
2. Government: the public relations manager’s concern with good
relations with those who represent the various agencies i.e. local, state,
and federal government extends into two major areas. The first pertains
to the host of laws, rules, and regulations which constitute the legal
environment in which business organizations must learn to operate.
Secondly, through political action, businessmen can influence the legal
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environment, and by invoking the laws which exist, they can obtain
protection form abuses that government regulation is designed to
prevent.
3. Educational Institutions: the public relations manager has virtually
unlimited opportunities for improving a firm’s image in the community
through favourable relations with students and teachers of local schools.
Close collaboration between educators and businessmen on matters of
mutual interest can produce significant benefits for all concerned.
4. Colleagues: a business organization has many opportunities to cultivate
mutual relations with its colleagues, by sharing similar beneficial
experiences and problems.
5. The Community: the power of public opinion is most evident when we
consider the extent to which people are concerned about anything that
affects their home, there school, their church, or any other facet of
community life. People expect business to fulfill its legal, social and
economic responsibilities and to show a certain amount of genuine
interest in the welfare of its surrounding community. They also like to
be kept informed about what businessmen are thinking, planning, and
doing for the locality. The businessman who fulfills his responsibilities
and, in addition, makes an attempt to compile a good tract of civic
participation will soon earn a well-deserved reputation for being
progressive and cooperative. (Andrews and Andrews, 1988).
6. Customers: good customer relations depend on the small
businessman’s knowledge of his markets, products and his own
capabilities to match specific products or services with individual
customer needs. This should be done within the limits of the firm’s
capacity that produces customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is
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the single most important factor in determining both company
profitability and company image. Customers expect businessmen to
have the technical skills and product knowledge appropriate to a given
line of business, especially in the industrial market. They also expect,
however, to receive courteous and personal service, to be treated and
respected as individual human beings.
7. Employees: employees expect to be kept informed about their
company’s market position, financial status, and the strategic plan for
the future. They have a stake in the company since their jobs depend
mainly on what is happening in production and sales. More
importantly, however, is the feeling of trust and pride that a policy or
open communication with employees can foster. If employees feel that
they are sharing privileged information pertaining to their company,
each worker will become public relations man for his company whether
he realizes it or not. This relationship fosters an upward and downward
communication, which intend aids employees’ desire for personal
growth and development.
8. Investors: the purpose of good investor relations is twofold. First, to
maintain goodwill among those who are currently providing financial
assistance toward the firm’s growth and survival. Second, to maintain a
competitive posture in the financial community so that future efforts to
secure additional funds will be successful. The means of attaining these
objectives involve two types of information i.e. what investors need to
know and what investors want to know.
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