Applications to Human Resource Management

1.The studies from the franchise Channel Brand, and Empirical Quest to Identify the Most Dominant Negotiating Styles among American Sales Managers, were used to form the recommendation for Practicing leadership behavior that reduce conflicts between levels of management groups. The recommendation was practice leadership behavior to reduce conflict between different management levels. They used self -administered questionnaires. The results of the study showed that the leadership behavior affected the employer’s behavior and this led to conflict between the areas of management and employees. When conflicts arise within different levels of a company, Human Resources automatically become involved. In the Lecture Collection of Human Resource Management by Indiana University, it provided critical information for mangers to lead efficiently.  The success and failure of a business depends on the managers who implement the correct strategies and employment treatment. Some mangers make the common mistake of using Rater Errors. Rater errors are based on personal bias for employees; one example is the similar-to-me error when elevating an employee’s work progress.  Elizabeth Malatestinc, Senior Lecture in Human Resource Management Indiana University Kelly School of Business, defines similar-to-me error as evaluating an employee’s work performance that is similar to the evaluator. Evaluators think that people similar to them do the job efficiently like them. Because the evaluators are working on personal bias, they are unable to make criticism. Similarly, mangers who do not use effective strategies to evaluate an employee’s performance can cause conflict between the managers who do. Mangers may use intentional errors to rate an employee’s performance to cover up their leadership abilities. Human Resources have to handle mangers improper behavior against employees. By using, the evidence-based management provided by the Human Resource Lecture, they can reduce the emergence of conflict between mangers. Although the recommendation did not suggest employment mistreatment as a possible way for conflict to emerge, this could potentially happen. In short, using Human Resource’s functions to reassure equal treatment for employees can reduce conflict within management. 

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2. Our second recommendation is to use negotiation skills, such as mediation to reduce conflict between employee and management in an organization.  Mediation can be one of the greatest tools used to reduce conflict in an organization.  This recommendation would contribute to evidence based HR because failure to resolve conflict within an organization can lead to low morale, high turnover, and distrust of leadership.  One reason that conflict arises is because an employee isn’t getting what (s)he needs in the workplace.   When this happens, negotiation with a mediator present is a must.  Conflict can arise in areas such as non-competitive compensation, high stress, working conditions, monotony, poor supervision, poor fit between the employee and the job, inadequate training, poor communications and organization practices.  Evidence Based Management shows that HR can be a tool used to facilitate mediation in many instances so that employee and management to reach certain agreements.  Many case studies have shown how workplace conflict can be resolved through negotiation and mediation. (Doherty & Marcelas, Chapter 9). 

3. In many studies, women are stereotyped as not asking questions during negotiation, and that can make women lose opportunities to move forward in their careers. To prevent this problem being occurred in an organization, human resource practitioners can use our third recommendation, diminish women’s anxiety about negotiating and women will begin to discover strength as negotiators, to decrease women's anxiety in negotiating. This recommendation would contribute to evidence-based human resource (EBHR) practitioners in terms of encouraging women employees in the organization to ask and not feeling fear of conflict and negotiation. This recommendation can be applied to use in HR training program as motivation. Organizations may provide a workshop or supply training about negotiation for women employees. Furthermore, this recommendation is considered as external evidence, which helps evidence-based human resource practitioners to understand evidence from outside the organization, especially scientific facts, which EBHR practitioners can be using in policy making or solving issues (Hirsh & Briner, 2011, p. 16). One of the studies that is used to support this recommendation can be a hard fact that EBHR practitioners possibly rely on to implicate the HR development. For instance, according to Linda Babcock’s survey of experts, the result of 20 female physician executive surveys concluded that a full two-thirds felt that “negotiating made them nervous and a total of 86 percent expressed strong negative feelings about negotiating, such as it makes them feel insecure and defensive. Only 14 percent of these accomplished and successful women expressed any positive emotions about negotiating, such as saying that it makes them feel powerful and assertive” (Babcock & Laschever, 2003, p. 115). HR practitioners can then use this information to seek solutions such as training programs, or interventions to prevent and solve this kind of problem in an organization.

Conflict is an inherit part of life and organizations but with the use of scientifically research-based recommendations managers and organization members can learn to manage conflict effectively. By utilizing these three recommendations organizations can grow from conflict and become stronger entities. Practicing positive leadership methods, resorting to negotiating before fighting, and encouraging women and men to develop good communication and negotiation skills will all lead to a more productive and positive workplace.

References:

Babcock, L., & Laschever, S. (2003). Women don’t ask: Negotiation and the gender divide. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. 

Hagen, A., Siddiqi, S., & Tootoonchi, A. (2007). An Empirical Quest to Identify the Most Dominant Negotiating Styles Among American Sales Managers. Journal Of Promotion Management, 13(3/4), 413-429. 

Hirsh, W., & Briner, R. (2011). Evidence-based HR: From fads to facts?. CRF Research. Retrieved from http://www.cebma.org/wp-content/uploads/CRF-EBHR-report-aug-2011.pdf 

Malatestinc, E. (2014). Lecture Collection of Human Resource Management. http://www.iupui.edu/~stream/kelley/launchvideo.html?filename=Z200/Z200_9-3.mp4

Schul, P. L., Pride, W. M., & Little, T. L. (1983). The Impact of Channel Leadership Behavior on Intrachannel Conflict. Journal Of Marketing, 47(3), 21.