21928 Proficiency of Line Manager Assignment Sample

• Subject Code : 21928
• University : University of Technology Sydney My Assignment Services is not sponsored or endorsed by this college or university.
• Subject Name : Management

People, Work and Employment

Table of Contents

Reflective essay

Reflection of tutorials

References

Reflective Essay

Proficiency of A Line Manager in Dealing with Tactical People, Work and Employment Issues

A line manager is person who is responsible for the management of main activities of an organization. Dealing with the performance problems of the employees mainly tactical employees had always been a major problem for managers. Moreover, line managers are commonly involved in the workplace conflicts without any trainings, which affects their confidence(Currie, 2017). I believe that shifting of human resource responsibilities to the line managers is a growing trend. Workplace conflicts can be inevitable, but if managed properly with proficiency they can be managed. However, working with coordination with the HR team of the line manager of the company can improve the proficiency in dealing with tactical people. According to me, conflicts at furthermore, open communication and transparent working style can enhance the relationship of employees with the line manager. Workplace occurs mainly due to diverse cultures, working style, beliefs and individual personality. Associating line managers in conflict management can bring positive outcomes for an organization(Erasmus, Naidoo, & Joubert, 2017). As a line manager, my responsibilities include performance assessment, routine management, conflict management and training. These all commitment-oriented HR practices have been adopted by most of the organizations.

Conflict can be managed efficiently by turning them into agreements. This can be done either by allowing employees to discover the best way to solve a problem or by developing confidence in them. This gives better outcomes. The topic “Workplace Conflict” resonated me the most because it explained the ways to deal with conflicts in a workplace. Furthermore, it also explains the responses as per different conflicts. A line manager follows three approaches for resolving conflicts at workplace, they are win-lose approach, lose-win approach and win-win attitude(Currie, 2017). Win-lose approach is an aggressive and competitive approach and usually results in compliance and resentment, rather than cooperation. As per my understanding, applying this approach to conflict management can be very challenging as it can even lead to termination of an employee(Abdin, 2018). On other hand, lose-win approach is a passive and accommodating approach which can create difficulties at workplace as tactical employees can take advantage of my good will. So, as an outcome this approach will not solve the issue rather it will build resentment leading to a passive-aggressive explosion(Erasmus, Naidoo, & Joubert, 2017).

According to me the third approach, that is, win-win approach is the best way to solve conflicts as it satisfies both the parties and turns conflicts into agreements(Haddon, 2018). A line manager has to deal with the performance problems of the employees, this can be prohibited by proper hiring process and allocating clear responsibilities. Moreover, frequent evaluation and feedback can improve the behaviour of an employee towards his work. Avoiding open communication or discipline process, increases the issue for line managers, eventually leading to lower confidence and other psychological issue. As a line manager, I believe in making decisions according to my instinct, how I would feel reading this decision for me? However, everything has some consequences, best way to deal with them is to learn from your mistakes. If an employee fount behaving unethically at the workplace, the issue should be directly conveyed to the HR team. Tactical people often try to convince the line managers according to their ideology and knowledge(Abdin, 2018). Having an open communication, discussing ideas, and their point of views can help line managers in dealing with tactical people.

While working in a team, conflicts often occurs between the team members, this puts the manager in an awkward situation. So, it is very important to differentiate between personal and professional conflicts at workplace. Personal conflicts between the team members should be immediately handled as this can cause damage to the organization also(Frazier et al., 2018). According to the learning module of week-10, as a line manager I can give common responses to the conflicts which hurts the employee feelings. This can be related to apologising inappropriately, negativity, aggression, lack of empathy and personal attacks. As a line manager, I can give helping responses like clarifying the goals, agreements on shared outcomes using win-win approach, empathy, active listening and responding, and remaining positive and respectful towards the employees. There are five ways to manage a conflict accommodate, avoid, collaborate, compete and compromise. Compromising deals with the collaboration of all these four ways of management and put efforts in satisfying the employee concerns. Competing follows win-lose approach while accommodating follows lose-win approach(Erasmus, Naidoo, & Joubert, 2017).

These ways often satisfy your own concern and even worsen the situation if it hurts sentiments of an employee. Subsequently, avoiding deals with the lose-lose approach and collaboration deals with win-win approach. These ways do not harm any anyone, rather creates an agreement between the employees to solve the conflict(Haddon, 2018).According to me, for a line manager to reach an agreement, there are four steps: open discussion, adequate information, gather good information and solving the problem. A line manager has to often deal with poor work performance of the employees. According to me, most of the issue can be resolved if addressed properly and promptly. If not addressed on time, it can affect the morale of employees and my own credibility of the team members on me.

And if the problem worsens, it can lower my confidence and can lead to my termination(Frazier et al., 2018). Avoiding negative feedbacks like sarcastic comments, harsh words, criticising someone etc. can help in improving an employee’s work performance. For managing employee poor performance issue, giving positive, correct and constructive information is the responsibility of a leader-manager(Currie, 2017). Furthermore, speaking up when improvement is required can build empathy of employees towards me. Before rushing into performance evaluation, a line manager has to clearly understand the issue, rather than assuming that it is his/her fault. Tactical people often regress when asked about any performance evaluation at workplace. This problem can be dealt through brainstorm solutions and showing faith towards the tactical employee(Haddon, 2018).

Furthermore, for a line manager it is essential to understand the exact reason for the underperformance of an employee. His performance may be affected due to lack of knowledge, poor working environment or the design of the job role. Sometimes an alteration in discernment or wanting to do two contradictory activities lies as the main cause of underperformance. Furthermore, interpersonal and intrapersonal conflicts can also affect the work performance. Counselling unsatisfactory performance of employees can be understood by task-readiness level according to his performance gap and suggesting the type of leadership style it demands(Haddon, 2018).According to me, there are six steps to improve the work performance of employees, they are, analysing the information, adequate data, gathering positive points, solving the problem, agreement of the significant other a following-up. A line manager should always take feedback and follow-ups for his decision as it can improve the morale of employees. As a manager, it is important to document the discussions, as it helps in proper evaluation of the problems and understanding the performance gap. Often due to employment issue, unlawful terminations happen in an organization. Reasons like maternity or paternity leave, whistlebowling, membership of a union, or temporary absence from work (Gray, 2019).

A line manager differentiates these reasons on the basis of organization’s conflict rationale which includes workplace related issue, personal-inside reasons and personal-outside reasons. As per my belief, termination of an employee due to his poor performance should be done in three steps, verbal warning, written warning and final written warning. This shows procedural fairness of an organization, failing to do so, can expose the company towards a dismissal claim from the terminated employee. So, a line manager has to consider valid points and proper procedure to deal with tactical people, work and employment issues in an organization. Following proper guidelines and proper management skills can improve the confidence levels and understanding of a line manager. However, in case of an instant dismissal of an employee due to serious misconduct, physical violence, abusing and blatantly unsafe behaviour, it is not necessary to follow the guidelines and proper procedure(Gray, 2019). According to me, when an employee’s work performance is affected due to personal issue, it’s the duty of a line manager to ease the work pressure and reduce his stress.

But it is also essential to make a note of his past performance which will decide the duration of this accommodation. Moreover, a line manager can also ask the employee to refer a counsellor through employee assistance program (EAP) or HR department. When it’s a serious psychological problem, it can even affect the surrounding people. In that case, a line manager can seek legal advice based on the concerns of other employees’ safety. However, not all conflicts at a workplace are bad, some are healthy for team work(Abdin, 2018). I believe that it’s always a challenge for a line manager to leave his comfort zone and feel incompetent all over again. Moreover, for a line manager it is vital to be satisfied with his job as it can lead to burn outs at times. Strategic planning and managing the conflicts with the HR team can assist the line managers to solve the work and employment issues in a better way(Frazier et al., 2018). Furthermore, dealing with tactical people can improve the communication skill, knowledge and patience in a line manager. A line manager has to be specific and empathetic. Employment engagement activities, motivates the employees and ensure their commitment towards the organization.

Reflection of Tutorials

Psychological safety of the employees of an organization is very important. Anybody from the organization such as employees, juniors, peons etc. can be at a risk of mental safety.People can suffer psychological problems at the workplace because of harassment, religions or race. According to me, these workplace hazards should be monitored and treated in the same manner as physical hazards. These problems lower the self-confidence of an individual and affects his/her performance and enjoyment at workplace. I feel that this can even lead to depression in some severe cases. I believe that due to lack of understanding of organizational policies and human rights, most of the victims do not come forward to speak-up about their harassment at workplace.According to me, a person's feeling of mental wellbeing in the working environment is probably going to be moulded by continuous relational communications among close associates.

Despite the fact that words and activities of top administration may add to impression of mental security. I feel that controlling employees at work place can negatively impact their health. Furthermore, low social support and isolation of employees can also lead to pressure and lower their productivity.Maslach Burnout Inventory describes three dimensions of employee wellbeing, they are exhaustion, cynicism and accomplishment(Erasmus, Naidoo, & Joubert, 2017). Organizations should help their employees in making life balance as this can relieve their stress. Subsequently, the poor performance of employees can be resolved when addressed promptly and properly. If not addressed on time, this affects the employee morale and in some worse cases, it can lead to psychological issues due to increased stress levels(Frazier et al., 2018). According to me, it’s the responsibility of a manager to positively evaluate the performance and correct the problem efficiently. In order to deal with the employees who, regress, brainstorm solutions and acknowledging the performance change can be helpful. I believe that counselling unsatisfactory performance of employees can be understood by task-readiness level according to his performance gap and suggesting the type of leadership style it demands.

Line managers engagement in conflict management at workplace is related with a number of organizational outcomes. I understood that line managers turn conflicts into agreements by applying win-lose, lose-win or win-win approaches. This results in better working ways. However, in case of serious issue like harassment, abusing, misconduct or violence, an employee can be unlawfully terminated. Also, there are employee assistance program (EAP), to help the employee dealing with psychological stress either in professional life or personal life. According to my understanding of the topic, termination of an employee due to his poor performance should be done in three steps, verbal warning, written warning and final written warning. This shows procedural fairness of an organization, failing to do so, can expose the company towards a dismissal claim from the terminated employee.

References for People, Work and Employment

Abdin, S., Welch, R. K., Byron-Daniel, J., & Meyrick, J. (2018). The effectiveness of physical activity interventions in improving well-being across office-based workplace settings: a systematic review. Public Health, 160, 70-76.

Casebeer, K. M. (2017). It's Not Just the Contract, It's Capitalism: Inequality and the Restatement of Employment Law Chapter on Termination. Emp. Rts. & Emp. Pol'y J., 21, 325.

Currie, D., Gormley, T., Roche, B., & Teague, P. (2017). The management of workplace conflict: Contrasting pathways in the HRM literature. International Journal of Management Reviews, 19(4), 492-509.

Erasmus, B., Naidoo, L., & Joubert, P. (2017). Talent management implementation at an open distance e-learning higher educational institution: the views of senior line managers. International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(3), 83-98.

Frazier, M. L., Fainshmidt, S., Klinger, R. L., Pezeshkan, A., & Vracheva, V. (2017). Psychological safety: A meta‐analytic review and extension. Personnel Psychology, 70(1), 113-165.

Gray, A. (2019). The lawfulness of the dismissal/termination of an employee who has expressed'unwelcome'religious views. Australian Business Law Review, 47(4), 260-280.

Haddon, J. (2018). The impact of employees’ well-being on performance in the workplace. Strategic HR Review.

Jimmieson, N. L., Tucker, M. K., & Campbell, J. L. (2017). Task conflict leads to relationship conflict when employees are low in trait self-control: Implications for employee strain. Personality and Individual Differences, 113, 209-218.

López-Fernández, M., Romero-Fernández, P. M., & Aust, I. (2018). Socially Responsible Human Resource Management and Employee Perception: The Influence of Manager and Line Managers. Sustainability, 10(12), 4614.

Newman, A., Donohue, R., & Eva, N. (2017). Psychological safety: A systematic review of the literature. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 521-535.

Potterton, D. (2018). Managing conflict through workplace civility. Industrial Management, 1, 21-24.

Quade, M. J., Greenbaum, R. L., & Petrenko, O. V. (2017). “I don't want to be near you, unless…”: The interactive effect of unethical behavior and performance onto relationship conflict and workplace ostracism. Personnel Psychology, 70(3), 675-709.

Raja, U., Javed, Y., & Abbas, M. (2018). A time lagged study of burnout as a mediator in the relationship between workplace bullying and work–family conflict. International journal of stress management, 25(4), 377.

Salazar, L. R. (2018). Workplace bullying in digital environments: Antecedents, consequences, prevention, and future directions.

Van Waeyenberg, T., & Decramer, A. (2018). Line managers’ AMO to manage employees’ performance: the route to effective and satisfying performance management. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 29(22), 3093-3114.

Yucel, D., & Minnotte, K. L. (2017). Workplace support and life satisfaction: The mediating roles of work-to-family conflict and mental health. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 12(3), 549-575.

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