Ch 3 - The Human Relations Approach

From Chapter 3 entitled the Three Early Perspectives on Organizations and Communication in the sub section The Human Relations Approach on page 82 the authors define human relations as “the assumption that all people want to feel united, tied, bound to something, some cause, bigger than they, commanding them yet worthy of them, summoning them to significant in living.” The idea of the employee-manager relationship is talked about through the eyes of May Parker Follett who “believed that only cooperating among people working together in groups under visionary leadership produced excellence in the workplace, the neighborhood, or the community.” I agree with Follett’s vision of providing a manager that interacts with their employees and creates a cohesive environment where EVERYONE is considered important and vital to the company. When I worked at Pacsun I felt that I was just a “filler” if you will, a warm body to make it look like enough employees were present but I was not worth anything and would help the company only achieve organized and folded clothes, which the manager looked at as an unimportant and useless job. Because the manager viewed it as useless so did I, causing me to do a terrible job and I hated coming to work. However, where I work now, I feel like a valuable and important part to the team. My boss constantly asks for my opinions and keeps me updated with everything that is going on with the team and if we run across problems he asks me what I think we could do to fix it and we work out a solution together. Now that someone views me as a valuable team member I cannot wait to get to work and perform the best to my ability. So by having a manger that treats you with respect instead of intimidation makes the working environment more enjoyable.