HR Management in The Christian Organizations

The Christian organizations find people through calling and membership. In Christian organizations, the Spiritual leadership and membership is developed within an intrinsic motivation model that incorporates vision, hope/faith and altruistic love, theories of workplace spirituality, and spiritual survival (Fry 694). The Christian organizations underline the fact the people need emotional support or arousal from others to promote action. They seek to convert people through the message of confession. They sell their goals to people and then use emotional arousal technique to encourage action. These approaches are different to secular organizations which seek to provide opportunity for self reliant to its members (Fry 694).

In Christian organization motivation is achieved when people are convinced of the correctness and urgency of their organization goals to the extent that they are eager to act and keep acting to reach those goals regardless of what others do or think. To motivate members, the leaders in Christian organizations must get in touch with the core values and communicate them to the followers. The people are then retained by being taught to understand the biblical basis of their actions which help to win their consent. On the other hand secular workers motivation is derived from their life philosophy. Christians work practice provides many situations where workers contemplate their faith, which is not the case in secular work practices (Fry 695).

The motivation sets Christian work a part as it is based on beliefs which to non-Christians may seem unfounded. Instead, in secular organizations, the members are motivated by the organizations’ readiness to embraces various social actions that benefit the local communities. Young people therefore join secular organizations so that they may realize their full potential because these organizations seek to support personal development (Fry 695).

To retain people, Christian organizations use words of encouragements. They also directly influence people through prayers and teaching people “what is right”. The organizations also offer such services as counseling. They hold that it is a sacred Christian duty to meet the spiritual needs of people. Central to Christian organizational work is a sense of vocation, a calling or invitation from God to engage in people’s lives (Fry 698). The members see themselves as servants of the Kingdom of God rather than of the political or social agenda. The Christian Organization offer simple explanation for complex realities. They substitute enthusiasm and inspiration, which are the retaining factors in the secular organizations, for analysis and reflection. The church also encourages fear of the secular organizations (Fry 698).

Criteria by which effectiveness can be measured in an organization

Organizational effectiveness is the amount of resources used to produce a unit output. It can be measured as a ration of inputs to outputs. More effective organizations are therefore those that are able to achieve a given production level with fewer resources. The success of any organization depends on how effective its structures are managed and therefore all roles of an organization should focus on creating organizational effectiveness (Woodman 5). The various criteria of measuring the effectiveness of an organization takes into account the interests of its stakeholders, time taken by the organization to achieve the results and whether the criteria are means or ends.

• The first criterion is the Goal Approach.  It involves identifying an organization’s output goals and assessing how well the organization has attained those goals. Because organizations do try to attain certain levels of output, profit or client satisfaction, this approach may as well be considered as a logical approach. In this criterion what is measured is an organization’s progress towards the attainment of such goals. It also considers the time frame an organization takes to achieve results and how long the achieved results will last over the life of the organization (Woodman 5).
• Second is the resource based criterion. It focuses on the input side of the transformational process. In has the assumption that in order for any given organization to be effective, it must be successful in obtaining and managing valued resources. It is therefore takes into account the ability of the organization to obtain scarce and valued resources. It further looks at an organization’s success in integrating and managing such resources (Woodman 5).
• Organizational effectiveness may also be measured through the effectiveness of the production cycle. This criterion considers organization’s efficiency and accountability on the amount of input used and the process employed to achieve a given amount of output (Woodman 6).
• Forth, it may be measured by the organizations response to the environment. This entails the capability of the organization to fit well in the environment in which it operates. This criterion seeks to find out whether the organization is flexible enough to match the volatile market competition.
• Last is the stakeholders’ criterion. Here, the fulfillment of the interests and demands of the various stakeholders in the organization are put into focus (Woodman 6).

Mini-case studies of creativity use in achievement of the organizations mission

Today more organizations are realizing the value of creativity in developing new products and provision of innovative services. Creativity is the mental and social process of generating ideas, concepts and associations. A number of studies have shown how creativity has greatly boosted various organizations (McLean 226).

• First study is the creativeness by the Procter and Gamble which has been surviving through innovation. Procter was a candle maker while Gamble was a soap maker. They capitalized on innovation and creativity to lead the consumer and household product industries. The two came up with an aggressive play-to-win strategy that enabled them to maintain their markets dominance in mid 1980s when they faced stiff competition. The strategy entailed the acquisition of P&G’s domestic and foreign competitors that helped them diversify their product line and increasing their profits significantly (McLean 227).
• The second case study is a proposal to off-shoring by a number of the Human Resource Managers of Barclays bank based in the U.S. This was during the economic crisis of the late 1980s. According to this group, off-shoring was the best strategy for the implementation of the bank’s structural change. After  its implementation the strategy assisted the bank to cut on its expenses. It also helped the bank minimize its cost while improving its services to the customers.
• A third case study is the joining of Equity Bank by Orange Telecom as a strategy of benefitting both the orange and the Bank. Through the Telkom Kenya Chief Executive Mickael Ghossein, the group said that the access to services from the agency banking outlets will compliment Orange money services that are already offered at Equity Bank Branches (McLean 230).
• The forth case study is the adjustment of Nakumatt Supermarket in its operation in East African countries such as Kenya’s Nairobi and Uganda’s Bugolobi to a 24 hour services. A team of its Nakumatt’s public relation managers proposed that this move would allow the supermarket to register at least five percent increase of sale in the region.
• The last study is that of McDonald’s transformation of their Environmental strategies in April 1990. The company committed itself to spending $ 100 million annually on the use of recycled materials especially in the building and renovation of its restaurants. A year after, this goal gave saved the company much of its expenses (McLean 2233).

Ways of building trust in the work place

Trust is the most important element of harmonious, synergetic and efficient work environment. Any organization that has succeeded in developing trust among its employees is usually considered successful. Building trust requires the top management to set an example by being the role models. This then makes it possible for them to build the same in every department. There are several ways of building trust.

• First the organization should seek establish and maintain integrity which is the foundation of trust in any organization. This must begin at the top and then trickle downwards. The managers must seek to keep their promises and always be committed to telling the truth no matter how difficult the situation may be. An organization with employees of high integrity can easily win the trust of its stakeholders (Roderick 134).
• Secondly, an organization must communicate clearly its vision and values. This will provide the channel for information and truth. By communicating the organizational vision, both the employees and the other stakeholders will have a clear understanding of where the organization is going. Clear communication of organizational vision and mission will also enable the organization to put in place the necessary strategies for realizing their vision (Roderick 134).
• Thirdly, the organization must consider all its employees as equal partners. This will enable all the employees irrespective of their level to feel important and have a sense of belonging. The management must avoid the formation of sub classes among its employees. This can be achieved by developing the spirit of consensus where the leaders seek the opinions and ideas of all the workers. The top management must also seek to treat its employees with genuine respect (Roderick 134).
• Forth, the organization should orientate its members to focus on shared and not personal goals. Trust will be obvious whenever the employees feel that everyone is contributing to the realization of a common vision as opposed to when there are a series of personal agendas. The organization must therefore create a sense of team work.
• Lastly the organization must encourage its employees to stick to doing the right thing, regardless of personal risk. Following one’s consciousness and ignoring any resulting consequences allows the creation of respect from one’s fellow workers. The respect generates trust among the workers.

Methods that can be used to build effective personal relationship in the work place

• First is by establishing and encouraging effective communication. An organization can encourage interpersonal relationship through establishing effective communication between its stakeholders. Several organizations provide different forums and trainings where their employees can interact. Various organizations have also stressed on such virtues as being friendly and helpful while becoming genuinely interested in its employees (Williams 20).
• The second step to building a better working relationship is to become aware of the diversity that exists among the employees and willingly accept these differences as positive force within an organization. This will require that people listen to each irrespective of their different backgrounds.
• Thirdly, the employees should be trained in conflict resolution skills. To establish effective personal relationship, there is need for the workers to understand that conflict is a normal and necessary part of a healthy relationship. It is normal that two or more people within the work place may not agree on everything at all times. It is therefore important for the workers to learn how to effectively deal with conflict instead of avoiding it (Williams 21).
• Forth method is the provision of relationship coaching and relationship management. Managers can be trained in relationship intelligence to enable them manage diverse individuals and certain problematic group behaviors that may pose challenge to interpersonal relation ships. This will enable them to handle issues such as office conflicts and enable them to resolve different opinions to cultivate positive interrelations among their workers. Relationship coaching focuses on improving a person’s interpersonal skills. A developed Relationship Coaching Program makes it easy to maintain, improve or salvage relationships within the work place.
• Fifth is through building of trust among the workers. Trust is the foundation of any powerful relationship. It allows workers in any organizational arrangement to work together as a team. Workers who trust one another are always ready to support each other in a happy kind of relationship. Trust also enables the workers to listen to one another and to open up and share about their problems.

These are the key ingredients for the development of any meaningful interrelationship.