A person spends most of his life training and working. People usually work at places that they are less than excited to get up in the morning and go to; this is an awful feeling. (Latumahina, 2010)Working in an environment involves building and breaking of relationships. So the quality of relationships with colleagues, managers, co-workers and clients is very necessary for wellbeing and building a connection to the workplace. A work environment full of positivity and enjoyment can definitely be less stressful and more innovative, encouraging and healthy. A positive work environment is productive, enjoyable, rewarding and innovative for all managers, clients and employees concerned. It increases the results and productivity of the organisation along with mental, physical and emotional health of the people working. There is a great saying by Grant Fairley, "A positive attitude many not solve every problem but it makes solving any problem more pleasant experience." (Rajeshkar, 2008). If a person is satisfied and feels good at workplace, then he is likely to be more loyal and committed to the work which eventually will increase the work performance.
Different organisations need employees of diverse emotions, actions and values to perform assorted tasks. To create a positive working environment organisation should provide appropriate jobs to people. Before appointing a position to a worker they should know what their skills are; what type of work do they want to do, what kind of role they would like, their expectations and what kind of environment they thrive in. Knowing all these attributes will help an organisation to recognise the work force needed for a particular job, hence providing a running start. There is a very accountable concept called 'The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy' according to which people always perform in the way others expect them to perform. If an organisation have high demands from their working members then they should treat them as capable and competent people.If they will be expected to be competent and successful they they . Usually So, if an organisation has high expectations for the staff, treat them as if they are capable, competent people and expect them to function as such, they will rise to the occasion and will become the excellent employees. However, if the organisation heads underestimate the workers and treat them as if they cant work well on therir own they they surely will not be able to perform well an accurately. So staff motivation is very important a good leader always has high expectations from his staff members and motivates them accordingly.
In a positive work environment each and every worker has dignity of labour and needs to be valued. Every worker should have an equal say and their views and ideas should be honoured. One important aspect is to value and respect every individual, organisations should communicate openly, meet with the staff and discuss their philosophy, values, missions and goals. The co-ordinators should ask for their ideas and thoughts on how they individually and as a team can contribute at a wider scale. Lead a discussion on the different ways they all see the tasks being fulfilled. While the group members have finished sharing their ideas, manager should go ahead and share their own visions of how they see everyone working together. They should also share how the see every one working together as a unit in which all the members are at a same level, instead of hierarchy in which supervisors and administrators are at the higher levels, and the staff is at the lower level. Encourage dignity of labour as every person is equal and every job has equal importance to fulfil the mission of the organisation. The organisations should talk about their own work ethic that will set an example of what they expect from their workers and their attitude. This includes : " Being accountable to the job. " Showing up on time and with a positive attitude. " Being willingly taking on tasks and assignments. " Being proud of your facility and that you are a part of it. " Treating everyone with respect and in a friendly manner. " Focusing on work and leaving personal issues outside the workplace. " Seeing your work as an opportunity for continuous personal growth and lifelong learning. (Abella)
The heads of the organisations should show an attitude of approachability to the workers, staff and costumers. Let them know that they will be available and very glad to speak to the staff from all different levels. They should be willingly prepared to listen to the demands and thoughts of the people working and further validate that they have heard. They should treat their workers in a more accessible and friendly manner. For example, smile while walking through the work place making an eye contact with every one being passed, act in a friendly manner, call people by name, be approachable, willing to help, talk with kindness, listen to others with interest encouragement, civility and respect, be friendly , pleasant and gentle and show interest in what is going on. (Abella). Moreover the organisers must make sure safe and healthy work environment by providing clean, bright, attractive and beautiful workplace. Every staff member should have sufficient room for their own personal space and there should be efficient access to natural sunlight. The employee have a right to be appreciated. As an organisation head one should always appreciate and recognise the good work of the employees. For example: "Julia, I appreciate your organizational skills and the way you organize your team today to deliver quality care." "James, thank you for staying overtime today. I really appreciate your positive, can-do attitude. (Abella) While giving a face to face direct appreciation they should try to be more personal and more specific about the knowledge and skills a person provided to do a certain task. A leader must recognise the excellent job performance and quality of the employees and appreciate them for all their hard work and effort, all these things will further help to make a positive, valued and respectful working environment.
One of the important tasks of the organisations are to make the people feel that they belong to something bigger than themselves, and they are required and are a part of supportive work group. As a supervisor, you have to instil the feeling of unity and integrity among the group of workers and make them feel important and valued. This will lead to a further more positive outcome as the workers will want to be at workplace, the team as a whole will function smoothly reducing stress and fatigue, the new united team will be more capable of carrying out missions and goals of your organizations. It must be made sure that every person in the staff has a specific and important role to play. Encourage the feeling of cooperation instead of competition. On creating team spirit and identity, the group of staff will see themselves as a union working together for a common goal, rather than a bunch of people fighting and competing with each other. Forster the value of respect to each staff member for their work and contribution. Usually there are many group activities to forester the spirit of unit . One of them is to make the group of people sit in circle and then moving around and having each person say a good and a bad quality of the person sitting on the right or left. An important step in creating the team spirit involves that the groups of people working together should be able to communicate openly from everyone, including residents, families and co-workers. While communicating they should make sure that they smile, are friendly, and acknowledge people passed. This will demonstrate that the boss is involved and aware of what is happening in the unit and he is willing to listen and is responsive to their needs. Therefore by creating a value of unity will help in developing a positive work environment.
One of the most challenging duties of a manager's job is counselling employees that are not able to perform up to the mark this activity at the end, comes out to be very successful in creating a healthy work aura. The leaders should always have a positive attitude in whatever they say and how they tackle the problem. When dealing with the negatives, disintegrate all the emotions from the issues, and deal with a logical and positive fact. Know about the thinking of the staff members about issues and working up to the mark. Create an accessible work plan to acknowledge about new behaviours and how they will be implemented. All the issues should be discussed in brief before the evaluation. Evaluation time is an opportunity for the managers to appreciate good work and how the employees have changed their attitude to increase the quality of work. It is the time to support and lift up the employees in need.
This evaluation process will help to forester dignity of labour and equality as ate the end of the evaluation program all the employees will be able to feel that they have some control and personal power over their work life. This is what every human being wants, the organisation should support the staff members by concentrating on their strengths rather than weaknesses. But this doesn't mean that they don't address their areas for growth. But the leaders should focus on their ability to work and perform according to the needs of the organisation. The conclusion for all these is that a manager's important job is to make a workplace more comfortable, accountable, healthy, enjoyable and safe. With a little bit of thinking and creativity this can be made possible.
An important duty of a manager is to give self evaluations. The self evaluation process is a very encouraging and positive experience for the staff members, it is great opportunity for the leaders and heads to thank their workers for their unity, cooperative spirit and their efforts in doing an task successfully. It is a favourable opportunity to thank them for indulging by analysing and bringing all their knowledge and practically applying them to the unit. It is also a good time to give them positive feedback about which employee need improvement and how he/she can improve and do the right thing. Make sure that the staff evaluation is a two way process. As it is an opportunity for the working members to rate themselves and even survey the organisation and the business, whereas it is also a great time to mutually create their career goals. Before the meeting starts, tell the employes to do a quick evaluation and the way they think about their workplace, their own job , views about their supervisor, and how they feel about working in the business. Further the organization leader should fill out an evaluation for the employee's performance; they should make suggestions in a constructive and a helping way.
Finally, every employee has a responsibility towards their managers, their colleagues and very importantly to themselves that helps in maintaining a positive workplace which is respectful, clean, safe, encouraging and healthy without any negative conflicts or dignity of work issues. Managers should be alert and concerned and they should be aware about the certain amount of competition. Competition is very normal and necessary in our life but it sometimes can be serious which usually leads to unfair and unethical behaviours that can cause high levels of stress and disruption to a particular individual, a unit and finally to the whole organisation. Managers should be sensitive to how their group workers are interacting and are they able to handle the increase in time, their workloads or any other changes. They must not hesitate to intervene at early stage in case of any dispute, fights , inappropriate behaviour, or if some one is suffering from stress. Mangers are required to establish the cause of the problem as soon as it arises and also find the solution before the situation becomes too intense. Further creating a Positive Work environment and resolving and managing conflicts go hand in hand. To a greater extent its is better communication, providing feedback and effective development. It also includes recognising and awarding good work, good and efficient performance management and being proactive when dealing with the problems and always come with a sensible solution in a fair and transparent manner.
Refrences
Abella, S. V. (n.d.). Ten Ways to create a positive work environment. Retrieved 10 2012, 2, from Inside Jobs: http://www.insidejobscoach.com/print_files/ten_ways.htm
East, D. N. (October, 2011). hse.openrepository. Retrieved 10 2, 2012, from Dublin North East: http://hse.openrepository.com/hse/bitstream/10147/145083/1/POSITIVEWORKINGENV.pdf
Latumahina, D. (2010, July 30). Life Optimizer. Retrieved 10 2, 2012, from http://www.lifeoptimizer.org/2010/07/30/positive-work-environment/
Rajeshkar. (2008, May 5). Inspirational quotes. Retrieved 10 7, 2012, from http://inspirationalquote.blogspot.com.au/2008/05/positive-attitude-at-workplace.html
