Personal Code of Values and Ethics
All individuals in an organization have their personal values and ethics which influence how they interact with their colleagues at work. Organizations are made up of employees who hail from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. As a result, every individual’s values and ethics are shaped by what he or she has learned in the socio-cultural environment he has been brought up.
Business organizations need to have strong internal codes of ethics to guide employees to act in a desirable manner as they perform their duties. Every individual employee needs to have a strong personal code of values and ethics that guide him or her on how to behave at work. Every employee needs to understand why various values and ethics are important and how they affect performance in the organization (Robbins & Judge, 2012, p. 46).
Many organizations have failed to align broad organizational values with those of their employees. For instance, integrity is a virtue that influences the way a firm operates in a particular industry. An individual that works in a firm with weak integrity systems can easily become cynical, which is likely to make him get negative perceptions about the firm.
Business firms need to implement effective integrity systems that encourage employees to have good conduct. Business firms need to have high-quality internal practices that make them stand out in their respective industries. Internal practices in a firm have a big influence on employees’ integrity. For instance, if an employee is coerced by his superiors to engage in unethical practices, his personal values are likely to deteriorate. (Robbins & Judge, 2012, p. 48)
Young and inexperienced employees need mentors to make them understand the importance of various organizational processes and practices. Some of them are naĂŻve and do not understand what they need to do to conform to the expectations of organizations they are working for. They need to interact with senior and more experienced employees to acquire good personality traits to ensure they become more effective in their workstations.
They need to learn about different facets of human behavior to make them understand how to interact with other employees in the organization. An individual’s code of values and ethics is shaped by the community he or she lives in (Robbins & Judge, 2012, p. 52). The relationships a person has with other people influence him to behave in a particular way which in turn affects his emotional as well as psychological growth.
An individual needs to adopt positive external influences that are beneficial to his emotional and psychological growth. He needs to understand various cultural and social influences that determine the way he performs his professional duties. An individual needs to use his own instincts to decide what is right or wrong and how this corresponds to or conflicts with expectations of the organization he works for.
This will make him have a sense of personal responsibility to make him understand the level of the contribution he has in the firm. All employees need to exercise good judgment to avoid deviating from their responsibilities (Robbins & Judge, 2012, p. 56). They need to understand various issues that affect their professional conduct in different settings they socialize in.
Time Mastery Skills
Every individual needs to have good time management skills. Time management is a crucial part of professional discipline which has a large impact on the way an individual performs his duties. All employees need to understand specific goals and objectives a firm has set improve their focus. All goals and objectives are measured by time, which is an essential commodity which does not have any monetary equivalent.
Every employee needs to set goals and the time in which he intends to achieve them to strengthen his focus and commitment (Pink, 2009, p. 62). For instance, an ambitious individual is more motivated to perform well in a firm which makes him capable of achieving positive results in his work duties. He is able to understand what needs to be achieved within specific timelines and he plans accordingly before taking part in any activity.
An individual needs to have a personal schedule to guide him on what needs to be done at any given period. An effective schedule helps an individual to decide on priority tasks that need to be performed urgently to avoid unnecessary delays. Every employee needs to work hard to realize good results in different tasks to avoid being in conflict with various codes of conduct set in the organization.
Daily and weekly schedules enable an individual to plan activities which he needs to perform at work and at home to ensure he does not deviate from his responsibilities. A person needs to give more attention to those activities that need to be performed urgently to ensure he meets crucial work deadlines set in the firm. An individual with time mastery skills is able to perform personal and professional engagements that add value to his life (Pink, 2009, p. 65).
For an individual to have effective time management skills, he needs to have strong willpower to help him perform all responsibilities diligently. Willpower is an essential factor that motivates an individual to overcome various obstacles that stand in his way to attain positive results out of various activities he takes part in.
As a result, a person needs to allocate more time to activities that add value to his personal and professional life to achieve inner satisfaction. Willpower stimulates a person’s drive to help him work hard in activities that make him happy and contented (Pink, 2009, p. 68). As a result, an individual is able to utilize effective time management skills to become more productive in various activities he gets involved in. Every individual needs to allocate time to various social activities that make his life more meaningful.
All employees should not divert from their goals to ensure they stay committed to their personal and collective organizational goals. Time mastery cements a sense of loyalty and responsibility in an individual. It makes it easy for an individual to adapt to various practices and cultures observed in a particular firm easily. In essence, an individual is able to set high standards in every task he performs to help him attain good results (Pink, 2009, p. 78).
Effective time management skills help an individual to adopt self-reinforcing habits which give him a positive attitude to tackle his responsibilities. This helps him to adhere to important workplace practices to boost his productivity at work. For instance, an employee with good time management skills is able to plan ahead which helps him to allocate adequate time for different activities he intends to perform.
Self- Awareness, Self –Disclosure, Trust, and Perception
Self –awareness is a vital concept that helps an individual to understand himself. It makes it possible for an individual to understand how other people perceive him as exemplified by various character traits which he possesses (De Janasz, Dowd & Schneider, 2012, p. 72). Self-awareness makes a person improve his own weaknesses and strengths and enables him to come up with an effective plan that addresses his personal shortcomings.
A person is also able to know his individual talents, attitudes, and experiences, which enables him to understand how they influence different aspects of his life. As a result, he is able to understand specific personal issues that have an impact on the way he relates with other people. Self-awareness allows a person to understand how other people are likely to perceive him based on his character traits and behavior.
Self-disclosure allows an individual to show other people his character traits, feelings, and inner thoughts. Self-disclosure enables an individual to be more outspoken about various issues which affect how he relates with other people in different environments. As a result, a person can build strong relationships with others because they can see that he is honest and genuine.
However, a person that speaks out about various issues needs to take time to understand how different recipients of messages he passes across are likely to react to them. This will enable him to avoid using offensive words that are likely to antagonize other people (De Janasz, Dowd & Schneider, 2012, p. 74). People who fail to self-disclose are likely to find it difficult to make a positive impression on other people. Self-disclosure allows an individual to be open and honest to other people to earn their trust.
Trust is an important aspect of life that allows people to have strong mutual relationships. There are various factors that make an individual trustworthy. It is important for every individual to understand how his personality is likely to draw other people closer to him. A person that treats other people with respect easily earns the trust of other people. In the same breadth, a person who is open about his feelings and intentions inspires confidence in other people.
However, a secretive and selfish person is likely to repulse other people because nobody will be comfortable in his presence. Selfish people do not have true friends and many people find it difficult to share their secrets with them (De Janasz, Dowd & Schneider, 2012, p. 77). It is important for people to take time to understand how other people perceive them to ensure they come up with better methods of inspiring trust and confidence in them. This will help them build beneficial relationships with other people.
Perceptions are general attitudes and feelings people have towards something. In many instances, perceptions are not backed up by factual information and statistics. Perceptions mainly occur due to limited information about a particular phenomenon which makes people have their own assumptions about something. An individual needs to display exemplary personal conduct to dispel any negative perceptions people may have about him (De Janasz, Dowd & Schneider, 2012, p. 81).
He needs to take note of various factors that affect the level of respect people show him at work or in his community. People come up with perceptions about a particular person due to his actions in the area he lives or works. For instance, people with negative reputations are likely to elicit negative perceptions from people whereas those with positive reputations are likely to be given more respect.
Communication Skills
Communication skills enable people to interact effectively with other people in different social settings. People who have effective communication skills are able to make other people understand their intentions and feelings about various issues. People need to understand various prejudices and cultural barriers that make it difficult for them to communicate effectively with other people.
An individual needs to find out the backgrounds of different people he communicates with to understand how he can make a positive impression as he communicates with them.
He needs to find out about different taboos that are likely to affect how he interacts with people from different cultural backgrounds (Means, 2010, p. 76). For instance, a Caucasian manager who has been transferred to Peru needs to understand cultural practices which are observed in the country to enable him to communicate with his subordinates and customers more effectively.
An individual also needs to understand various levels of authority in the firm and how they influence communication patterns between different employees. All individuals need to understand communication channels which exist in an organization to ensure they follow clear procedures (Means, 2010, p. 80). They also need to know how to conduct themselves whenever they send different messages to specific recipients.
For instance, in many organizations, subordinates have to use formal communication channels whenever they intend to communicate with their bosses. This enables business firms to save time and resources to ensure workplace productivity targets are not compromised.
An individual needs to understand the temperament of people he works with to build strong workplace relationships with his colleagues. For instance, a junior officer has to contact his boss in advance to set up a meeting about the most effective marketing approach the firm needs to use in the industry.
Good communication skills enable an individual to improve his oral skills. This enables him to speak out his ideas to other people in a clear and coherent manner. In a meeting or group setting, effective oral communication skills enable an individual to speak confidently to all people in attendance. As a result, “good oratory skills make a person stand out in a crowd because people are keen to hear what he has to say” (Means, 2010, p. 86).
An individual that has good public speaking skills builds strong relationships with other people and he is easily understood in public meetings and other forums. As a result, such a person finds it easy to create mutual understanding with people he interacts with because he is able to address their concerns in a better way. Oral communication skills enable people to make a good impression of themselves and their firms. Oral skills help a person dispel false attitudes people in attendance may have about him and his organization.
Written communication is another aspect of effective communication skills which helps individuals to build strong relationships with other people. Individuals who are able to write memos, business letters, invoices, and power point presentations can present complex information in simple formats. Individuals with flawlessly written language skills are able to elicit positive responses from different recipients of their written correspondence.
Such people are able to write messages which are full of impact on other people to convince them to perform various actions that are beneficial to their firms (Means, 2010, p. 88). For instance, an individual who writes high-quality business letters gives a good impression of his firm to consumers and other associates..
Conflict Resolution Skills
Conflict resolution skills enable an individual to unite people who have various differences in various social settings. People usually have fundamental differences which cause divisions between them. It is difficult for people that have differences with one another to have positive relationships because of the hatred and mutual suspicion that exists between them (Means, 2010, p. 90).
For a person to be an effective arbitrator, he needs to take time to understand the nature of the conflict he is required to resolve. Some conflicts arise due to mutual misunderstanding while others result from acts of antagonism that are caused by either one or more parties to the conflict. In an organizational setup, conflicts cause bitter divisions at work and they make it difficult for crucial organizational processes to go on without interruption.
For an individual to resolve conflicts effectively, he needs to make all parties involved trust him. He has to show all parties to the conflict that he is fair and he does not intend to make a biased resolution that is likely to worsen the situation even further. He needs to understand what every party stands to gain or lose something out of the process before he proceeds to initiate dialogue between them.
This will help him understand the root cause of the conflict between these parties to make him more focused on achieving a positive resolution from the process. In many instances, parties to a conflict maintain a hard stance which makes them unwilling to budge from their hard-line positions (Means, 2010, p. 95). For instance, a conflict between a Chinese business man and his American partner over a business disagreement can only be resolved when both parties show their commitment.
Negotiation skills are crucial in conflict resolution. An individual with effective negotiation skills is able to come up with a conducive environment to enable the main parties in conflict to discuss various matters openly. He directs all participants in the process to focus on sticky issues that bring about divisions between them.
Means (2010) asserts, “To resolve a conflict successfully, an arbitrator needs to earn the respect of all parties involved to help him gain their trust” (p. 99). He makes all parties involved to see benefits as well as disadvantages of all the solutions he proposes and encourages them to have an open mind. In some instances, parties to a conflict may need to consult with each other to find out how proposed solutions are likely to affect them.
Conflict resolution skills are vital in building positive relationships in an organization. However, in some instances, conflicts are beneficial to an organization because they make people more focused and motivated to do all they can to achieve good performance.
Every individual needs to understand that people have different ideas and thoughts regarding various issues they face at work (Means, 2010, p. 110). It is important to encourage people to collaborate with each other on various workplace duties to ensure they achieve positive performance in everything they do. Business firms need to encourage their workers to avoid unnecessary acts of hostility.
References
De Janasz S.C., Dowd, K. O., & Schneider, B.Z. (2012). Interpersonal skills in organizations. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.
Means, T.L. (2010). Business communication. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Pink, D.H. (2009). Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us. New York, NY: Penguin.
Robbins, S.P., & Judge, T.A. (2012). Essentials of organizational behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.