EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Human Relations is an international peer reviewed journal, which publishes the highest
quality original research to advance our understanding of social relationships at and around
work. Human Relations encourages strong empirical contributions that develop and extend
theory as well as more conceptual papers that integrate critique and expand existing theory.

Owners and managers of profit and nonprofit organizations define human relations as fitting
people into work situations so as to motivate them to work together harmoniously. The
process of fitting together should achieve higher levels of productivity for the organization,
while also bringing employees economic, psychological, and social satisfaction. Human
relations covers all types of interactions among people their conflicts, cooperative efforts, and
group relationships. It is the study of why our beliefs, attitudes and behaviors sometimes
cause interpersonal conflict in our personal lives and in work-related situations.

One of the most significant developments in recent years has been the increased importance
of interpersonal skills in almost every type of work setting. For many employers,
interpersonal skills represent an important category of transferable skills a worker is expected
to bring to the job. Technical ability only is usually not enough to achieve career success.
Studies indicate that many people who have difficulty in obtaining or holding a job possess
the needed technical competence but lack interpersonal competence.
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