A comparative study on the effectiveness of counsellor training programmes for managers
Date
2010
Authors
Ndung'u, Joseph W.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Strathmore University
Abstract
Workplace counseling has been identified as an effective tool for
facilitating increased productivity and enhancing efficiency (Franklin,
2003). Productivity and efficiency among the employees are elicited when
the organization takes care of their welfare. The managers are often at
the forefront in motivating employees and in creating an environment
that engenders productivity and efficiency in the workplace.
Middle level managers are especially instrumental in creating an
environment that nurtures employees well being and thus motivates
them to produce more efficiently in the workplace. A healthy and high
performing workplace also provides quality service and contributes to
overall profits (Carroll, 2001).
The role of middle level management is crucial in creating an
ambience that facilitates an employee's emotional and psychological well
being. This helps the employees to deal with workplace stress which has
been increasing at a rapid pace. The middle level managers play an
instrumental role in determining how employees respond to the
challenges posed by the work environment. Training middle level
managers is therefore essential in effective management of the human
resources.
This study focuses on how to train middle level managers in
counseling skills. It is motivated by the fact that effective managers
create a feedback loop to top management so that the organization can
benefit from the insights gained through employee counseling. This helps them to deal with the challenging situations that affect their productivity
at work. Effective counseling skills' training embeds counseling and
effective communication skills into management development.
The study is also motivated by the fact that effective use of
counseling skills helps the managers to address real organizational
issues as well as personal issues that have negative impact on the
efficiency and productivity of employees.
Training managers in counseling skills is fairly recent ill Kenya.
Indeed it was introduced in 2002 by the Institute of Personnel
Management (IPM) which has recently changed its name to the Institute
of Human Resource Management (IHRM). A close collaboration with the
Kenya Institute of Professional Counselling helped IHRM to introduce
courses in counseling skills for managers.
These management courses were intended to bridge the gap between
the cognitive managerial skills that are learnt at Business Schools in
Universities and the affective skills that are now recognized as necessary
in addressing the employee's emotional and psychological needs in the
workplace, which interfere with work and affect their performance.
Middle level managers work closely with employees, many of whom
spend about a quarter of their lives at work, whose key relationships are
part of their work and for whom their personal identity is bound up with
their job and have therefore integrated their personal and professional
lives to a great extent.
O'Leary (2002) and Cartwright (2004) observed that: one in five
employees suffers from mental illness due to stress at work. Some 90
million working days are lost each year as a result of the employee's illness. Over half of the employees experience emotional problems that
contribute to their absenteeism from work and that approximately 20
percent of employee's abuse alcohol in an effort to deal with stress
related challenges at the workplace. All these aspects contribute to poor
performance at work. The need for training middle level managers in
counseling skills has therefore been recognized as a remedy to such
problems at the workplace (Bergh, 2003).
Kenya Institute of Professional Counselling (KIPC) and Institute
Human Resource Management (IHRM) have been at the forefront in
providing counselling skills training for managers with a view to helping
the employees increase their productivity and efficiency by managing
their personal problem situations more effectively and thus improving
their work performance.
The positive outcomes of such trainings have been witnessed among
organizations where managers have been trained by KIPC in such
countries as Uganda, Ghana and Southern Sudan. In Uganda and
Ghana, KIPC has trained middle level healthcare managers in
counselling skills. In Southern Sudan KIPC has trained Catholic priests
and Catechists in counseling skills for trauma management. In Kenya
KIPC has trained heads of departments in many schools with a view to
providing them with the counseling skills necessary to help students
cope with their academic work. Through IHRM - KIPC has trained many
middle level managers on short courses in counseling skills for
managers.
Organizations are gradually recognizing that a "wh olen es s" approach
needs to be adopted towards employees. This implies that their physical,
mental, emotional and social well-being are an integral part which
managers need to work with in totality to enhance productivity.
Description
A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Master of Business Administration Degree
Keywords
Counselling, change management, intrapreneurship, mentoring, consulting, organizational development