Developing Effective Employment Relationships Essay - 2

Developing Effective Employment Relationships - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that businesses today face a lot of challenges, ranging from international competition growth to changes in the technology market that impact business direction. One of the most fundamental challenges is establishing effective employment relationships, both in a recessionary environment and in a more conducive and stable economic climate. To build effective employee/manager relationships, there are several leadership models that provide valuable human resources-based outcomes. These include transformational leadership, laissez-faire leadership, and transactional leadership. All three of these models have differing approaches to building successful employment relationships, either focusing on autonomy, inspiration and vision iteration, or establishing effective rewards for meeting performance targets. Whatever model utilized in the organizational environment, there are opportunities and challenges associated with how employees will respond i n a recessionary environment and when economic conditions are more favorable for business growth and development. During a recession, employees begin to find personal concern about their employment security. Job security, under respected models of psychology, is a fundamental need that must be fulfilled before the employee can achieve self-esteem, a sense of social belonging, or achieve full self-actualization; the process of reaching the pinnacle of motivation and self-expansion. When employees feel that their jobs are in jeopardy, they will be more resistant to enacting change processes and will be de-motivated toward meeting performance expectations. When employees feel that their job positions are in jeopardy due to economic recession or business slowdowns occurring as a result of the macro-level economic environment, they are less motivated to perform under Expectancy Theory. Under this theory, employees choose a certain behavior based on the perceived desirability of the outco me of this behavior. Economic recessions often lead to internal job reductions through layoffs, thus consolidating job roles until the recession has run its life cycle and business returns back to expected levels of profitability. Employees that have remained behind and witnessed job losses with important reference group colleagues and associates, issues of job security are fresh on the minds of the employee.