Human Nature

A Guide to Managing Workplace Relations

Greg Clydesdale

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781472416797
• eBook ISBN: 9781317120001
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

Humans are weird! They can be emotional, irrational and often unpredictable, yet as their manager, it is your job to get the best out of them. In fact they are often the key to your success. Sadly, humans do not come with an instruction manual which lists their technical specifications. Human Nature by Greg Clydesdale is based on the premise that the key to good management is understanding human nature and interpersonal relations. But what is human nature? Greg argues that even where human nature is addressed at a conceptual level; the link between theory and what actually happens in the workplace is usually weak and often fails to recognize that social ability is probably the defining aspect. It is his intense focus on human nature and the link between a theoretical understanding of it and what actually happens in the workplace that makes this book so valuable. Throughout the book, you see how managers must constantly make balancing acts between conflicting forces that exist at any given time. But the essential message is: 'If you want to make the World a better place, focus on being a better manager to your staff'. To help with this you will find an elaboration theory-based approach, in which a basic model is provided, and then elaborated on with examples from the work-place. The model consists of twenty human characteristics placed in three categories - emotion, motivation and cognition. These characteristics are then linked to what managers have to do in the workplace.

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Human Nature

A Guide to Managing Workplace Relations

Greg Clydesdale

Lincoln University, New Zealand

First published 2013 by Gower Publishing

Published 2016 by Routledge

2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

Copyright © Greg Clydesdale 2013

Greg Clydesdale has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988, to be identified as the author of this work.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Notice:

Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Gower Applied Business Research

Our programme provides leaders, practitioners, scholars and researchers with thought provoking, cutting edge books that combine conceptual insights, interdisciplinary rigour and practical relevance in key areas of business and management.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

The Library of Congress has cataloged the printed edition as follows:

Clydesdale, Greg.

Human nature : a guide to managing workplace relations / by Greg Clydesdale.

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4724-1679-7 (hardback) – ISBN 978-1-3155-8744-8 (ebook) – ISBN 978-1-3171-2000-1 (epub)

1. Industrial relations. 2. Organizational behavior. 3. Interpersonal relations. I. Title.

HD6971.C57 2013

658.3’145–dc23

2013023966

ISBN 9781472416797 (hbk)

ISBN 9781315587448 (ebk-PDF)

ISBN 9781317120001 (ebk-ePUB)

DOI: 10.4324/9781315587448

Contents

• Lists of Figures and Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Human Nature and Management
• Chapter 2 Technical Specifications of the Human Resource: A Simple Model of Human Nature
• Chapter 3 Relationship Capital
• Chapter 4 Constructive Management
• Chapter 5 Getting On and Having Fun
• Chapter 6 Bullying
• Chapter 7 Sex
• Chapter 8 Could You Be a Hypocrite and Not Know It?
• Index

Lists of Figures and Tables

Figures

• 2.1 Simple model of human nature
• 4.1 The learning curve
• 4.2 Factors that influence performance

Tables

• 1.1 Select human universals
• 5.1 Risks and rewards of workplace friendships
• 5.2 Strategies to improve relationships
• 7.1 Forms of flirting
• 7.2 Behavioural categories of sexual harassment

Preface

My first management job was a shock! Nothing I had learned at business school prepared me for it. The subjects I studied at university were far away from the day-to-day people management that characterized my work. It was almost as if universities and companies were on two different planets.

Years later, I found myself teaching management at a university, and I swore I would never leave my students so ill equipped. In preparing my classes, I initially put aside the textbook and began asking colleagues in business what they expected from their future managers. Their answers varied, but they had the same underlying theme – they wanted to employ managers with an ability to deal with people.

Not surprisingly, recent research shows that those with well-developed social skills earn higher salaries. It is not just in companies’ interest for managers to have better social skills; it also helps individuals advance their careers.

Universities have long been criticized for their failure to provide social skills, and a lot of progress has been made since I first graduated, particularly in the area of communication and emotional intelligence. However, gaps remain.

One of the biggest gaps is in the area of ‘human nature’. Many businesspeople told me that the key to success was understanding human nature, but this is a concept that business schools ignore. The complexity of the topic means it sits in the ‘too hard basket’, and our future managers are deprived of the most important part of their education.

For me, this problem presented an irresistible challenge, and before long, I was questioning business colleagues about the sort of problems they were confronting on a daily basis. Common patterns appeared, and common human traits were at play. This allowed me to identify the most common traits that regularly impacted on the work of managers.

Most of the traits are well known to business scholars, and this book rests on a strong body of academic research. However, some of the traits are not commonly taught in business schools, such as ‘the limited span of absolute judgement’. This concept is similar to ‘bounded rationality’, in that it recognizes the limitations of the human mind. However, limited span of absolute judgement is more precise, and asks managers to seriously consider the mental limits of their colleagues and themselves. Having a clearer concept of our limits can allow us to develop strategies to mitigate our own weaknesses, and understand the shortfalls of those we deal with.

With an understanding of human nature, we can develop relationship management strategies. However, there is one other important ingredient. As I delved deeper in to the topic, I came to realize that the patterns I observed in others also existed in me. To manage others effectively, I had to accept my own cognitive, emotional and motivational limitations. This requires ‘self-knowing’, and this is the hardest part of the process because of all the cognitive biases that distort our self-perceptio...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half Title Page
• Frontmatter 1
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Lists of Figures and Tables
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• Chapter 1 Human Nature and Management
• Chapter 2 Technical Specifications of the Human Resource: A Simple Model of Human Nature
• Chapter 3 Relationship Capital
• Chapter 4 Constructive Management
• Chapter 5 Getting On and Having Fun
• Chapter 6 Bullying
• Chapter 7 Sex
• Chapter 8 Could You Be a Hypocrite and Not Know It?
• Index