The human nature is exceedingly simple and exceedingly complex. It seems we know all about it, but still, don’t know it all. However, a thorough understanding of self and others will contribute to enhanced personal growth, copious interpersonal skills, and an improved ability to lead people effectively within an organization.
Can a manager really understand the nature of the human beings within his organization? The following are a few reasons why it a Manager must take full responsibility to understand the nature of human beings;
- The decisions a Manager will be required to make in the course of carrying out his duties will hinge on the quality of knowledge such Manager has on the subject matter. Having subpar knowledge on this concept can be detrimental to an organization. To put this in context, Chester I. Barnard, one of the pioneers of management, in his extremely influential book, “The Functions of the Executive, opines thus:
” I have found it impossible to go far in the study of organisations or of the behaviour of people in relation to them without being confronted with a few questions which can be simply stated. For example: What is an individual?’ ‘What do we mean by a person?’
‘To what extent do people have a power of choice or free will? The temptation is to avoid such difficult questions, leaving them to the philosophers and scientists who still debate them after centuries. It quickly appears, however, that even if we avoid answering such questions definitely, we cannot evade them. We answer them implicitly in whatever we say about human behaviour; and, what is more important, all sorts of people, and especially leaders and executives, act on the basis of fundamental assumptions or attitudes regarding them, although these people are rarely conscious that they are doing so.”
2. It is unrealistic for a Manager to believe that an employee will act rationally and seek to perform optimally as an individual which is the proposition of neoclassical economics, however, an employee who is exposed to this proposition may tend to acknowledge this as a valid description of human nature, and this may create even further problems. Various empirical studies have compared students of business and economics with students of other disciples and have found out that the former are more likely to receive bribes, engage in examination malpractice, and show no interest in developing a philosophy of life, amongst other. Rather, business and economics student attach more significance to being well-off financially.
3. More often than not, management and economic theories do not stop at explanation, modelling and prediction but delve into the realm of instruction which makes the theory largely flawed because the economic model of man which is in use is incomplete and falls short of an accurate description of real human beings. For example, agency theory anticipates that a divergence of interests between shareholders and managers would arise and that imposing control structures upon managers and other staff of the business can curb this. However, this is a fundamentally flawed argument because many times, human beings lack opportunistic tendencies and there are no proven genetic factors or external factors which compels a human being to act in that way. In short, an opportunistic tendency in humans, largely depends on the individual’s environment, his experiences in the course of his career and the choices he makes.
In conclusion, Managers tend to think they know a lot about the human nature, however, difficulties may arise when deeper questions are asked. The inability to answer these questions straight on is usually an indication of a gap in the understanding of human nature. As such, Managers ought to become more knowledgeable about the nature of human beings, disabuse themselves of thinking that humans will act rationally or seek to perform optimally, and be circumspect in adopting management and economic theory, especially when these theories go beyond explaining, modelling and predicting the nature of human beings but further delve into instructing on how Managers or employees should act.
