The presence of social interaction, that is, relationships in a team, is one of the most important elements in maintaining a person’s mental health. Well, people, apart from rare exceptions, cannot live without society. Just remember Daniel Defoe’s hero, the famous Robinson Crusoe, who immediately perked up when he met Friday. This desire for communication is also noticeable in the office jungle. It’s not for nothing that the question “How’s the team?” is one of the first questions asked of someone who has just gotten a job, and what is meant is not the professional level of new colleagues, but their personal qualities and characteristics. When should relationships between colleagues be purely formal, and can an informal style of doing business harm work? This will be discussed further.
Two types of work relationships
It is obvious that, becoming part of any work team, each person automatically enters into two types of relationships. We are talking about formal and informal relationships in a team.
Formal relationships are one of the means by which a business can achieve its goals. Such relationships are based on clear approved norms and principles of interaction between employees, which are regulated by job descriptions, staffing schedules, collective agreements, etc.
In turn, informal relationships are personal interactions between representatives of a particular company, based on acceptance or non-acceptance of the personal qualities of colleagues. The formal status of colleagues is not taken into account.
It is very important to note that informal relationships play a key role in confirming the importance of the personality of each member of the team, the need for acceptance and respect from other people. In addition, informal relationships serve as a mitigating factor during the period of employees’ adaptation to the rules and laws of the work team.
A team in which formal and informal relations coincide as much as possible can be called ideal. After all, it is in this form that it acts as cohesively as possible, demonstrating a noticeable production effect.
Impact tool
Let's start with the definition of motivation: these are specific methods used in production of any type in order to increase its efficiency and related to human resources. In other words, this is the motivation of the subject to activity.
What methods will be used to ensure that employees work with maximum efficiency are determined by the company's management and implemented by a special department (if the staff is large) or supervised by department heads (if the staff is small).
Competent management consists of using all available factors that can have a stimulating effect on the attitude towards the work of staff. An important aspect of the issue is the cost of motivational activities.
One thing is clear: to let this side of the functioning of production take its course is, at the very least, frivolous.
Benefits of informal relationships
It is noteworthy that at the start of any business, formality only hinders business, closing the way to enthusiasm and the flow of initiatives.
And at the beginning, no one thinks about how to build a company, all work is done with enthusiasm, and the cohesion of the team is much higher than any procedures and rules. In the process of its growth, a company is obliged to change, especially after encountering such a disease as the chaos of informality. Every business encounters this disease at some point. In order for work in a company to be effective, experts recommend dosing the amount of “informality” in corporate relations. So, the positive aspects of familiarity:
- The opportunity to obtain objective information about the state of affairs in the work team, as well as about the relations of colleagues.
- Additional support for a person during working and non-working hours without the need to compensate for assistance. However, if necessary, you need to provide assistance to other team members.
- Play a therapeutic role in case of problems and conflict situations in working conditions.
- Since the manager is also a member of the team, informal relationships with him can contribute to career growth.
In practice, managers come to the need to formalize business processes when they notice that their orders take a very long time to discuss and take even longer to execute. That is, at one point it becomes clear that familiarity is hindering the further development of the company. At the start, discussing new ideas and options for business development is very simple. They are shared by the general director, the secretary, the driver, and the engineer. However, with the growth of staff, profitability, tasks and goals of the company, this level of executive discipline becomes unsatisfactory and inconsistent with the requirements and conditions of business development. At what stage this will happen depends on many factors: the employees themselves, the scope of the company’s activities, relationships and the degree of involvement of employees in work processes.
Formal communication, its types and areas of application
In formal communication there are few techniques that contribute to its diversity.
But, nevertheless, several of its types can be distinguished, depending on the scope of application, goals of communication and people interacting with each other:
- Business - its goal is always to achieve material or professional gain. There is a discussion of facts and data that are considered by all interlocutors. During business negotiations, all issues are distributed in order of importance and presented in the most concise form.
- Role - limited to those functions that are performed at a certain moment by those communicating. Each of them plays a role - seller and buyer, doctor and patient. The patterns by which interaction between people is carried out allows them to practically not involve emotions, but, at the same time, demonstrate high professional skill.
- Functional - governed by general rules of etiquette. Most often it is fleeting in nature. This includes questions and explanatory answers from passers-by, negotiations between passengers on a bus or trolleybus, clarifying the stop or fare.
Formal communication is a reliable way of interaction between people of different social status, performing their official or professional duties and their patients, clients and other people.
It is completely subject to etiquette and demonstrates the level of education of the interlocutors.
Diagnosis – crisis of informality
There are a number of symptoms that indicate that a business is experiencing a crisis of informality:
- uncontrollability . At the very beginning, all tasks to subordinates come from the director. But as the number of subordinates grows, the manager is unable to remember the scope of responsibility of each individual employee. Ultimately, real confusion begins - duplicate and even mutually exclusive orders appear.
- lack of time . Performers do not have time to complete the work on time. Emergency situations are becoming the norm, and many employees have to spend their days in office dungeons around the clock.
— reduction in the efficiency of financial management . Money goes away like water. At the same time, there is an increase in profits, but there are not enough funds for specific projects and tasks.
— increasing the level of conflict . Since employees do not have time to cope with the accumulating volumes of work, the company's staff is growing and expanding. More professional specialists come to the company than those who have been working since the very foundation of the company. Gradually, the state of affairs acquires the state of a “cold war” between the “old guys” and the new employees. The psychological climate worsens, and everyone stops working.
International experience. The head of BKG, Mark Fedin, a former military man, notes that his experience in the Navy helped him formalize relationships in the company properly. When Fedin joined the company, there were only 15 people, and an informal work style was adopted - everyone did everything. When the number of employees began to grow, the situation gradually began to get out of control. For example, during negotiations with potential clients, several consultants participated simultaneously, as a result, clients did not understand who they should contact to resolve issues. As a result, it was decided to delineate job responsibilities.
Character of motivation: introvert
Each person, in one way or another, exhibits either introverted or extroverted personality traits. Pure types of these categories are very rare: more often one of the sides is emphasized. It is precisely this that is the active point, when exposed to which the maximum effect of motivating manipulations is achieved.
For an introvert, all other things being equal, the internal type of motivation will be more important, i.e., not associated with outside influence. For example, for such an employee, a significant incentive will be a free work schedule, a limited amount of reporting, a minimum of administrative control, and the ability to make independent decisions for which he is ready to take responsibility. In addition, for these people, personal space and its boundaries are not an empty phrase, and therefore, if a specialist is valuable to the company, then taking care of a separate office for him would be a psychologically intelligent decision.
In addition, for this type of people it is important to maintain proportion: the ratio of work to the time spent on it. This is due to the fact that these employees, as a rule, have many hobbies outside of work, and they have the right to expect that their personal time belongs only to them.
Thus, an individual approach to an introvert can influence his attitude towards the work performed.
Mutual benefit
Any production is formed to obtain material benefits. Exceptions include social enterprises. But one way or another, any activity is aimed at achieving a certain result, as a result of which production can be considered effective. For this purpose, external and internal motivation of personnel is combined.
In addition, the attitude of employees towards work is influenced by material interest, but is not decisive. Many managers consider this type of motivation of subordinates to be the main one, overestimating its influence. Studies have shown that such an incentive system works only in the initial stages, but has no impact in the future. However, everyone knows that forms of work used for a long time are very difficult to abandon.
According to the proven scheme, material incentives for lower-level employees are directly proportional to the employee’s attitude towards work: the better the result, the higher the salary and bonuses.
There is a different approach to management personnel: the higher the profit of an enterprise or organization, the greater the bonuses and other motivating additional payments.
Preliminary estimate
Today, people don’t just want to go to work and receive an advance and a salary. This is clearly not enough due to the increased level of self-awareness and desire to realize oneself in the chosen field. Therefore, when getting a job at an enterprise, a specialist expects at least an individual approach: no one is interested in being a “cog”.
Therefore, at the preliminary interview it is necessary to find out through testing or questioning the quality and orientation of the individual, as well as his character and potential. This should be done either by a psychologist or a HR specialist with the appropriate education.
When diagnosing a job applicant, it is important to determine: his personality type (introvert/extrovert), emotional stability; reaction speed necessary to make non-standard decisions; type of behavior in conflict, resistance to group pressure.
After completing the research and drawing conclusions, you can understand what the prospects for long-term cooperation with a potential employee are. In addition, this will significantly facilitate solving the problem of the subject’s attitude to work and selecting the type of motivation.
