|
||
Tips for understanding behavior in employees
Employees are "trainable"-at one level, humans are just animals and our behaviors can be understood as a series of stimulus and response patterns.At a very basic level, we repeat behaviors that have worked for us in the past and fail to repeat behaviors that have not worked for us.This concept is called behaviorism and it says that when employees are rewarded for good behavior, they will repeat the behavior.In a bad job, the only reward an employee gets is a paycheck and he or she will do as little as possible to keep getting that reward.In a good job, there are constant rewards; even praise can be considered a motivating reward that encourages good behavior.
Employees need to feel empowered-big behavior problems can result from employees feeling powerless in their roles.Feeling powerless can manifest itself in different ways with different employees; some will take a passive aggressive stance, gaining power by what they don't do rather than what they do do.Other employees might respond to feelings of powerlessness by more aggressive means, like gossiping and badmouthing the company.Still others might take out the feelings on subordinates or even on their customers. To help your employees feel empowered, they should have a say in setting their own goals and they should always be treated with dignity and respect.Another way to empower your employee is to support the employee in a public situation.If they make a decision, do not usurp their power by correcting them in public (of course, there are exceptions to this rule) instead, support the decision and then discuss other options later, in private.Empowered employees make great employees; underpowered employees make bitter enemies that are hard to deal with. Understand cultural differences-human behavior is largely influenced by culture.If you find that you don't understand the behavior of an employee, you might want to consider the cultural background of the employee.As a manager, you should educate yourself, learning what you can about the person's cultural heritage.In some Asian cultures, people are encouraged never to offer an opinion unless they are asked.If you have an employee with a similar background, you might need to ask for feedback more than you would from an American who values individual opinion and freedom of speech. |
||
Copyright 2003-2020 by BusinessKnowledgeSource.com - All Rights Reserved
Privacy Policy, Terms of Use |