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Is your HR controlling you? (View Comments)
Vinnie Bhadra
Posted On Friday, July 16, 2010 at 12:41:59 PM
The urge to control your employees and make them work in the exact same manner as you want may seem like a smooth ride to you, but it can leave a negative impact on them and in turn affect their productivity
The job profile of an HR personnel entails that they should be able to identify and manage the grievances of the employees so that they are not unhappy to work with the organisation. The one problem that every employee faces is that of excessive control his or her seniors or team leaders impose that. According to research, any individual who is suppressed for long time, with no proper justification is seen to result in the downturn in the individual’s performance.
“Any normal person values their freedom and autonomy a lot. It is even more in the case of an employee who would be spending his maximum time of his/her time working. So much that, the very fact of a controlling person/boss stimulates a behavioural reaction. This can have a negative effect on their performance, even if they did not intend to slack off. It is a known fact that the mere thought of a controlling boss can make employees do a lousy job,” says K N Ajith senior director – HR, Virtusa (India) Pvt. Ltd.
“Authoritarian leadership does not always work at all times. Keeping this in mind it is believed that seniors should always maintain a balance while exercising authority over their sub-ordinates. The idea is to recognise that employees/subordinates see you as their guide, provider and monitor, as well as their leader. A boss should be more like a parental figure within a professional establishment. Authority in workplace is not about domination and control, yelling and punishing. It's about monitoring and recognising, guiding and listening to subordinates when they face professional difficulties,” says Ramesh Sanghvi –director, Sanghvi Group of Companies.
One of the steps that the HR can take to keep this problem under control is by keeping an eye over the seniors by getting closer to the operations and understanding the exercising of the right is in the correct or incorrect. Authority is not a capacity but a relationship with sanctioned powers. Effective delegation of authority and control follows the basic principle of treating all employees fairly and consistently.
What is also a surprising factor is that once people become managers, for them to forget how deeply their employees value freedom and autonomy, and the extent to which some of them, at least, will react to any infringement of it, even unconsciously.
“HR cannot do a policing job by keeping tab on the senior officials, however regular interactions with employees, skip level meetings, mentoring, buddy programs will help get indicators of such behaviours by senior officials. It is important then that HR coaches the supervisor/managers on getting these signals,” says Ajith.
Independent counseling can ease this problem too. To build rapport with the senior management, an HR personnel has to be sensitive and has to present the issue in the least controversial way and in essence. It is important to effectively manage difficult encounters at work to optimise employee contribution and commitment.
“The HR department can discuss the employee’s feedback with the management in order to bring improvement within the organisation. The improvement can be mapped by taking periodic reviews from the employees,” says Sanghvi.
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