Human resources is a term used to describe the individuals who comprise the workforce of an organization, although it is also applied in labor economics to, for example, business sectors or even whole nations. Human resources is also the name of the function within an organization charged with the overall responsibility for implementing strategies and policies relating to the management of individuals (i.e. the human resources). This function title is often abbreviated to the initials 'HR'.

Workplace empowerment

Empowerment in the workplace is regarded by critics as more a pseudo-empowerment exercise, the idea of which is to change the attitudes of workers, so as to make them work harder rather than giving them any real power, and Wilkinson (1998) refers to this as "attitudinal shaping". However, recent research suggests that the opportunity to exercise personal discretion/choice (and complete meaningful work) is an important element contributing to employee engagement and well-being. There is evidence that initiative and motivation are increased when people have a more positive attributional style. This influences self-belief, resilience when faced with setbacks, and the ability to visualize oneself overcoming problems. The implication is that 'empowerment' suits some more than others, and should be positioned in the broader and wider context of an 'enabling' work environment.

Empowerment to employees in the work place provides them with opportunities to make their own decisions with regards to their tasks. Now-a-days more and more bosses and managers are practicing the concept of empowerment among their subordinates to provide them with better opportunities.

CEO’s role in Organizations

"The CEO is the link between the Inside that is 'the organization' and the Outside of society, economy, technology, markets, and customers. Inside there are only costs. Results are only on the outside.

“For CEOs leading a transformation, no single model guarantees success. But they can improve the odds by targeting leadership functions: making the transformation meaningful, modeling the desired mind-sets and behavior, building a strong and committed team, and relentlessly pursuing impact. Together, these can powerfully generate the energy needed to achieve a successful performance transformation.

Stress Management

Trying to remove stress from your life completely is impossible. A certain amount of stress actually helps in maximizing performance in specific situations. During times of stress, the human body reacts by releasing chemicals and other substances to reduce digestive secretions, increase heart beat and contract blood vessels. This state is called by various names like hyper-arousal, the acute stress response or the fight or flight response. These changes are intended to be temporary in nature to handle the stress situation that you are in. The body then needs to revert to its normal relaxed state. It is constant stress that causes the human body to be in a physiologically stressed state for a prolonged period of time — something that can have a significant negative impact on your overall health.

The first step that you need to take towards managing it is to identify the cause of the stress. This needs a fair amount of introspection so that you can objectively and correctly identify the cause. Denial of a situation is something that needs to be avoided. Fooling yourself into believing that you are not worried about something, while in fact you are, will only make matter worse. Once you have identified the cause, it is also important to understand the various manifestations of the stress.

There are many techniques that you can use for managing stress. If you know that a certain event stresses you out, you can de-stress by indulging in fun activities or by taking up a hobby, going on a vacation or listening to some soothing music.

Chronic stress may need other methods of stress management. Practicing yoga, learning breathing techniques, meditating, laughter therapy and the like can be helpful in such cases.

Leadership

"Leadership is example. That's all leadership is." -- Professor Aidan Halligan

Leadership, a critical management skill, is the ability to motivate a group of people toward a common goal.

Leadership remains one of the most relevant aspects of the organizational context. However, defining leadership has been challenging and definitions can vary depending on the situation. According to Ann Marie E. McSwain, Assistant Professor at Lincoln University, “leadership is about capacity: the capacity of leaders to listen and observe, to use their expertise as a starting point to encourage dialogue between all levels of decision-making, to establish processes and transparency in decision-making, to articulate their own values and visions clearly but not impose them. Leadership is about setting and not just reacting to agendas, identifying problems, and initiating change that makes for substantial improvement rather than managing change.”

Team Building

Teambuilding is more precisely about conformity, comradeship, focus at individual levels, congruity and structural stability.

The first factor in team effectiveness is the diversity of skills and personalities. When people use their strengths in full, but can compensate for each other's weaknesses. When different personality types balance and complement each other.

The other critical element of team work success is that all the team efforts are directed towards the same clear goals, the team goals. This relies heavily on good communication in the team and the harmony in member relationships.