“Some groups do better than others but what’s key to that is their social connectedness to each other.”

• Margaret Heffernan 

In Heffernan’s speech ‘Forget the Pecking Order at Work’ she underscores how vital social cohesion is to the business process. While last week we looked at how the business process can be organised to maximise the flow of tasks between individuals, the relationship of those individuals will dictate the quality of work finally produced. You can’t have one without the other, so to speak.
 
If we know that social sensitivity is the key to stronger collaborative effort throughout a workplace, then why are business processes still liable to miscommunication?
 
In a Cpl survey, 25% of people pinpointed time constraints as their main work pressure – getting to know one another clearly isn’t at the top of the agenda. This article will discuss how managers can conceptually approach team optimisation, gain feedback and foster a collaborative company culture to enhance productivity.

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• Know the Value of Social Capital to Your Business 

Social capital is a sociological concept which refers to the social connections which enable a group to function well.
 
To achieve optimal productivity, a connection must be drawn between the quality of staff relationships and a firm’s momentum.
 
In practical terms, this means that time must be given to employees during which they are free to socialise with one another because social capital compounds with time.
 
Teams that work together for longer become more efficient with the consolidation of trust.
 
Your HR team is in a prime position to set time aside for staff to kindle personal connections, relationships which will facilitate the real candour and openness you need to add value to your projects.
 
 

• Clear Fear 

In order to have a productive team, everyone’s perspective needs to be genuinely valued and hierarchy must be dismantled to some extent.

Managerial staff can forge a culture of open and honest communication by admitting your own mistakes, admissions which will make your staff much more likely to see you as a colleague first and approach you for help.

Allowing individuals to self-manage meetings will further build trust and will showcase your ability to trust in others and to remove yourself from certain projects.

You can, however, liaise with the chairperson to ensure equal time is given to each individual so no one voice dominates the conversation.

By promoting this principle, you will cultivate groups which are highly attuned to one another to best facilitate the free development of ideas, so time isn’t wasted and teams don’t hit a dead end.

Finally, asking staff for anonymous feedback on your HR policies is a further step you can take to demonstrate social sensitivity, a quality in you which they will respect.

• Organise Team Events and Meaningful Ones!

Team-building can often become a tokenistic annual event rather than a meaningful initiative to help your staff not just break the ice but shatter it! While team days out can help people to mesh, it can be something of a one-hit wonder. 

In Sweden, people take part in Fika on a day-to-day basis, an important concept in Swedish culture which sets aside time each day for friends or colleagues to share a cup of coffee or tea together with something to eat.

In Ireland, small pleasures such as this are often seen as an inhibitor to productivity whereas in Sweden they see them as essential moments of ‘collective restoration’.

These small windows of time are missed opportunities for staff to benefit from taking a pause and foster real relationships with co-workers.

Why not establish the coffee break as an integral part to the day as much as work? It makes good business sense: your company will have a more interconnected team and one which feels less overworked and more creatively ready to take on tasks together.
 
In Sum
 
Staff relationships aren’t just niceties of the workplace, they are vital to productivity.
 
Leadership as a solo act needs to become a thing of the past and we need to redefine it as an activity in which employees aren’t afraid to contribute their best effort.  
 
Through the clean-cut delegation of tasks, openness to HR reviews by staff and the institution of group breaks, we can leave behind the vestiges of the rat race mentality which serve to derail business productivity and staff happiness along with it.
 
It is only when we accept that everyone has value that we can genuinely invest in team activities and engage in active listening to make sure teams produce their best work, productively!

​Management should be a staff member’s first port of call when faced with bullying in the workplace. But what happens if bullying takes place between a manager and staff member, regardless of whether it is upwards or downwards bullying?

A US study revealed that workplace bullying could cost businesses $250 million per year. Workplace bullying can impact a business financially, as well as contribute towards reputational and performance damage.
Businesses should take action against upwards and downwards bullying, and protect their organisations.

Downwards Bullying
While often workplace bullying refers to that which takes place between staff members, it can also take place between managers and their subordinates. downwards bullying refers to managers who bully their staff, or a certain member of staff.

With 80% of workplace bullying cases taking place from a position of power, downwards bullying can be unfortunately commonplace in many working environments.

We spend much of our lives in the workplace, forming relationships with co-workers. However, when a manager begins to bully a staff member, it can have lasting consequences, not only on that individual, but on the rest of their staff and the wider organisation.

How Can a Manager be a Bully?
While some managers are simply tough, bullying managers will be guilty of giving an employee unattainable tasks that either the individual is not trained for, or cannot complete under the deadline.

A manager may bully a staff member through overbearing supervision, or constant criticism of their work. Rather than provide constructive feedback, an effective management style, leaders may choose to bully staff by giving them constant negative feedback about different aspects of their work.

Another way in which downwards bullying can take place within the workplace, is through the blocking of promotion of certain staff members, or a manager threatening a staff member over their job security from no fault of that individual.

The Impact of Downwards Bullying
Top-down bullying can have a lasting impact, not only on a manager’s team, but also on the organisation as a whole. If a staff member is a victim of bullying from their manager, this will inevitably lead to a breakdown in communication between these two individuals.

Staff members may feel intimidated or even humiliated. This can lead to absenteeism, ultimately affecting the performance of that individual team, and the organisation.

Leading on from this, if an organisation failed to act upon any complaints against a bullying manager, their reputation amongst stakeholders and wider internal and external publics could also be damaged.

Upwards Bullying
While downwards bullying may be more common, upwards bullying can also take place within any working environment, large or small. Upwards bullying takes place when a subordinate staff member bullies their own manager, or another member of management in their workplace.

A recent Irish case saw a victim of upwards bullying, Geraldine McCarthy win a Court of Appeal against her employer, ISS Ireland Ltd, for not providing a safe place to work.

Between May 2009 and February 2011, the supervisor was subject to five separate incidents, where her subordinates displayed aggressive, abusive behaviour. Despite making a complaint to the employer after the first incident, no action was taken, leading to an unsafe workplace for McCarthy.

How Can a Subordinate be a Bully?
A subordinate may bully through spreading gossip or falsehoods about their supervisor or manager. Just as in the above case, subordinates can also bully management through verbal or physical aggression, leading to intimidation or humiliation of the manager.

Upwards bullying can also take place when an individual may gain a new management role in a new organisation or department, tasked with supervising staff members who may be longstanding. While the new staff member may be at a managerial level, they may feel intimidated or threatened by longstanding, subordinate colleagues.

The Impact of Upwards Bullying
Upwards bullying can make a significant impact on the ability of a manager to do their job. The dynamics of a workplace can be affected, with employees losing respect for that manager, and vice versa.

In turn, managers may become disengaged or ‘absent’ in their roles. Their health could also deteriorate as a result of stress and humiliation.

As with downwards bullying, the disengagement of management as a result of upwards bullying can lead to a breakdown in communication between staff. This could have lasting consequences for an organisation, as subordinate staff members become harder to control or negotiate with, affecting the performance of a company. Again, this can also lead to a deterioration in an organisation’s reputation.

Paired with the possibility of increased staff turnover, both downwards and upwards bullying can be costly to an organisation, leading to performance and reputational damage.

Take Action
Tackle any cases of upwards or bullying as soon as possible. By dealing with such situations head-on, organisations can protect their own reputation and performance, as well as ensuring healthy working environments for all staff, regardless of role.

While it can be difficult for victims of downwards bullying to report to management about their colleague, employees should be assured that a company’s HR team has an onus to deal with bullying. In Ireland, workplaces have a legal duty to ensure that their environments are safe places to work.

In terms of upwards bullying, affected managers can demonstrate their authority by calling on their superiors for help to tackle subordinate bullies, in a sufficient and decent way. 

By instilling an intolerance towards bullying in the workplace, an organisation can ensure that such incidences do not take place. If peers champion this culture, workplace bullies can be dealt with quickly. This will ensure that a business’ performance will not be affected, while remaining a safe place to work for employees.

The way companies are being managed is changing rapidly. As the need for greater transparency and customer centric business increases, many companies are restructuring their management system to meet these new demands. Couple this with the fact that the workplace has become more fast-paced than ever - not least due to the rise of digitisation – and it is easy to see why companies are rethinking the structure of the workplace.

One management style which some companies – especially those that are tech based - are adopting to meet the challenges of the global marketplace is known as agile. Agile management, championed by companies such as Google and music streaming giants Spotify, essentially divides a business into small teams of workers that act like start-ups in their own right. Agile centres on the idea that employees should be largely self-organised and collaborate on a level playing field for the benefit of the business.
 
Clearly these types of changes to management have vast implications for HR departments. It is important to note that agile management has many different facets. The focus here is to look at how HR Departments should adjust and adapt in a business switching to, or thinking of taking on aspects of, agile management.
 
So, here are 3 ways that agile management can influence HR:  
 
1. Making Everything Continuous/Ongoing
 
In this day and age, product and project cycles work on a month-to-month or even week-to-week basis, rather than year-to-year. Agile management stresses the need for ongoing, continuous feedback and review of company progress, as opposed to annual reports. Here are three main areas HR departments should be prepared to tackle on an ongoing basis:

- Talent Acquisition:

Instead of hiring once or twice a year, companies are much more likely to hire as and when they require skilled staff. This means HR departments should be constantly on the lookout for staff suited to their business and regularly sounding out areas of the business that might be understaffed.
 
- Feedback:

Rather than providing yearly feedback to staff, HR departments in an agile management structure should be much more ready to give regular feedback to employees. While this may be time consuming, it helps to encourage and motivate staff and make sure the business is as productive and efficient as it can be.

- Training:
 
Under agile management, HR departments should see training as a continuous process, rather than a one off thing. Making sure your employees are regularly well trained and up-to-date in their department will ensure your company is more effective. A key role of HR is also to monitor performance – providing regular training is one way to keep all employees performing to the best of their ability.
 
2. Demands a Concentrated Focus on Teamwork
 
With agile management there is much less importance placed on the individual employee - it’s all about teamwork and how employees collaborate with one another. This means that the HR department must move away from focusing on individual merit and instead hone in on how teams work together, helping to ensure the smooth running of the team as a whole.

Of course this also changes the role of the managers in a company. It is essential that HR departments encourage managers to be much more interactive, hands on, and engaged with their team. HR must preach the idea that employees are on a level-playing field – something which can be hard for many managers to handle. HR may even be required to come up with new roles and methods of assessment that promote cross-functionality between teams.

3. Changes in Company Culture
 
Clearly, with an agile management system, the company ethos will have changed greatly. Having a harmonized company culture is essential, especially when it comes to hiring new talent, and it’s an area where HR can lead the way.  HR should make sure there is a homogenised company culture that all employees understand and support.
 
In addition, current employees may not be used to organising themselves and being given more flexibility – HR can assist in these areas in order to make sure companies get the best out of their staff and ensure talent retention. The key here is for HR to demonstrate that with agile management, leadership takes much more of a bottom-up rather than top-down approach. Clearly this is unconventional and may take time for employees to get used to, however it has the potential to make a company more effective and efficient, while promoting equality in the workplace.
 
Of course, agile management isn’t suited to every business. Companies may well pick and choose the ‘best-bits’ of agile management and implement them as they see fit, or opt for entirely different systems. However, the reality is that as companies look to change their management structure to meet the every day pressures of a fast-paced and ever-changing working environment, HR needs to make sure it doesn’t get left behind. As different companies adopt different management styles, the HR department must be versatile and adapt to any changes in order to stay in line with the rest of the business and remain an integral part of its success.  
 

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