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Cover of Human Relations: Career, Relationships, and You v4.0
Published: 
March 2023
Page Count: 
270
ISBN (Digital): 
978-1-4533-4127-8

Human Relations: Career, Relationships, and You

Version 4.0
By Laura Portolese

Included Supplements

Key Features

  • Over  100 hyperlinks to videos and webpages enrich online courses, engage students, and reinforce or augment many of the presented topics
  • Conversational writing style immediately engages the reader’s attention
  • Strong organizing framework grounded in emotional intelligence research
  • Practical emphasis on how the “real-world” workplace actually functions, rather than presenting theoretical or ideal situations
  • Focus on establishing and nurturing positive workplace relationships. Avoids in-depth discussions of human resource management or organizational behavior
  • Chapter 13 on career management presents a unique discussion of how to power a position in an organization and successfully manage a career to achieve consistent upward growth
  • Supportive learning features in each chapter:
    • An opening case illustrates a situation related to the chapter’s topics
    • “Learning Objectives” start each main section to preview the chapter and prepare students to learn
    • “Key Takeaways” at the end of every main section to summarize new information while it is still fresh and encourage retention
    • “Exercises” at the end of every main section help develop critical thinking skills
    • “What’s In It for Me?” feature explains the importance of key topics and how they directly relate to career success
    • “Chapter Summary” and “Chapter Case” reinforce material just learned and encourage students to apply concepts to real-world situations
    • Answer guidelines to all exercises and case questions are provided in the instructor’s manual

Educators

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Students

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Human Relations: Career, Relationships, and You is suitable for courses called Human Relations, Human Relations in the Workplace, or Human Relations in Organizations, Career Development, or similar titles. It is usually taught in business departments, but can be a core General Education course at the undergraduate level in two- and four-year colleges and universities.  

Human Relations: Career, Relationships, and You is structured around an easily understood approach to enhancing students’ current and future working relationships. It features a timely focus on understanding emotional intelligence and developing basic skills to successfully apply the concept in the workplace. This book explains and models effective strategies for initiating and sustaining positive interactions and building healthy working relationships, including extensive information on emotional intelligence and other factors that could boost career success. 

Key topics include achieving career success through behaving ethically, embracing diversity, supporting excellent teamwork, channeling conflict positively, making effective decisions, managing stress appropriately, sparking motivation, and exhibiting strong leadership. The book’s informal, yet professional, tone engages learners. Human Relations: Career, Relationships, and You models how students can productively and positively navigate workplace interactions to enhance their current and future working relationships and achieve career success.

New in This Version

  • Addresses the impacts of a “gig economy” to reflect current market and work trends (Section 1.1)
  • Discusses continuous learning, being creative, and enhancing your curiosity and encourages learners to develop these skills (Section 2.3)
  • Expands on Diversity and Inclusion aspects such as: economic status; why companies should focus on inclusion along with diversity (Sections 1.2, 6.3, 7.2, 11.1, 11.2); non-binary and using gender neutral language in the workplace; and unconscious bias and microaggressions (Section 11.1)
  • Addresses the resulting stress and effects of COVID-19, such as decision fatigue (Section 4.4)
  • Electronic communication, such as do’s and don’ts are addressed (Section 5.5)
  • Social responsibility with examples go into greater depth (Section 6.3)
  • Team development, including remote team building strategies and “office politics” (Sections 8.3, 8.4)
  • Specific strategies to implement when resolving conflict are addressed (Section 10.2)
  • Information on how to develop cultural intelligence (Section 11.3)
  • Information on how to create your own personal brand and how to develop and deliver an elevator pitch (Section 13.5)
  • New and improved homework questions include new items types such as drop-down and matching to reinforce student comprehension
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Dedication
  • Preface

    • Chapter 1: What Is Human Relations?

  • 1.1 Why Study Human Relations?
  • 1.2 Human Relations Skills
  • 1.3 Personality, Values, and Attitude Affect Our Human Relations
  • 1.4 Perception and Effect on Human Relations
  • 1.5 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 2: Be Your Best Self

  • 2.1 Emotional Intelligence
  • 2.2 Goal Setting
  • 2.3 Continuous Learning
  • 2.4 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 3: Enhance Your Self-Esteem

  • 3.1 What Is Self-Esteem, Self-Confidence, and Self-Image?
  • 3.2 Causes of Low Self-Esteem
  • 3.3 Signs of Low Self-Esteem
  • 3.4 Ways to Build Self-Esteem
  • 3.5 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 4: Manage Stress 

  • 4.1 Types of Stress
  • 4.2 Symptoms of Stress
  • 4.3 Sources of Stress
  • 4.4 Reducing Stress
  • 4.5 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 5: Build Communication Skills

  • 5.1 Verbal and Written Communication Strategies
  • 5.2 Principles of Nonverbal Communication
  • 5.3 Nonverbal Communication Types 
  • 5.4 Public Speaking as a Form of Communication
  • 5.5 Persuasion and Selling Yourself
  • 5.6 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 6: Navigate Ethical Situations

  • 6.1 An Ethics Framework
  • 6.2 Making Ethical Decisions
  • 6.3 Social Responsibility
  • 6.4 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 7: Understand Your Motivations

  • 7.1 Human Motivation at Work
  • 7.2 Strategies Used to Increase Motivation
  • 7.3 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 8: Work in Teams

  • 8.1 What Is a Team?
  • 8.2 Team Life Cycles and Member Roles
  • 8.3 Team Dynamics and Difficult Team Members
  • 8.4 Effective Team Meetings
  • 8.5 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 9: Make Great Decisions

  • 9.1 What Is Decision Making?
  • 9.2 Rational Decision-Making Model and Pitfalls to Avoid
  • 9.3 Decision Making in Groups
  • 9.4 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 10: Manage Conflict and Understand the Role of Unions

  • 10.1 What Is Conflict?
  • 10.2 Conflict Styles and Managing Conflict
  • 10.3 What Are Labor Unions?
  • 10.4 Collective Bargaining
  • 10.5 Grievance Processes
  • 10.6 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 11: Embrace Diversity, Inclusion, and Cultural Intelligence

  • 11.1 What Is Diversity & Inclusion (D&I)?
  • 11.2 Diversity and the Law
  • 11.3 Cultural Intelligence
  • 11.4 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 12: Be a Leader

  • 12.1 Management Styles
  • 12.2 Leadership versus Management
  • 12.3 Chapter Summary and Case

    • Chapter 13: Build Career Success

  • 13.1 Career Growth: Power Positioning and Power Sources
  • 13.2 Career Growth: Negotiation
  • 13.3 Career Growth: Behaviors and Change
  • 13.4 Career Growth: Impression Management
  • 13.5 Career Growth: Résumés, Interviews, and Personality
  • 13.6 Chapter Summary and Case
    • FlatWorld Homework System

    FlatWorld Homework

    FlatWorld Homework includes multi-format questions written specifically for your FlatWorld book, which you can access through our stand-alone interface or integrate with your learning management system.

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    Instructor’s Manual

    Instructor’s Manual

    The Instructor’s Manual guides you through the main concepts of each chapter and important elements such as learning objectives, key terms, and key takeaways. Can include answers to chapter exercises, group activity suggestions, and discussion questions.

    Instructor’s Manual

    PowerPoint Lecture Notes

    PowerPoint Lecture Notes

    A PowerPoint presentation highlighting key learning objectives and the main concepts for each chapter are available for you to use in your classroom. You can either cut and paste sections or use the presentation as a whole.

    PowerPoint Lecture Notes

    Test Generator - powered by Cognero

    Test Generator - powered by Cognero

    FlatWorld has partnered with Cognero, a leading online assessment system, that allows you to create printable tests from FlatWorld provided content.

    Test Bank Files for Import to Learning Management Systems

    Test Bank Files for Import to Learning Management Systems

    For your convenience, we've packaged our test items for easy import into Learning Management Systems like Blackboard, Brightspace/D2L, Canvas, Moodle, or Respondus.

    Test Item File

    Test Item File

    Need assistance in supplementing your quizzes and tests? Our test-item files (in Word format) contain many multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and short-answer questions.

    Sample Syllabi

    Sample Syllabi

    Sample syllabi provide useful templates to help new faculty adopters revise their teaching plans to match their assigned FlatWorld textbook or lend insights to existing adopters on how to organize their classes.

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    Other Supplements

    Other Supplements

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    Laura Portolese Central Washington University

    Laura Portolese (Doctorate, Argosy University) is Professor of Information Technology and Administrative Management in the College of Education and Professional Studies at Central Washington University. Laura is the author or co-author of four books with FlatWorld (Entrepreneurship, Human Resource Management, Human Relations, and The Art of Leadership and Supervision). Laura also holds an MBA from City University and a Doctorate of Business Administration from Argosy University. Laura is a prolific researcher, with publications focused in the areas of curriculum development and best practices in online learning. She has a Graduate Online Teacher Certificate from Central Washington University and a certificate from Oregon State University in E-learning Instructional Design and Development. Before beginning her academic career, Laura worked for several organizations in management and operations. She is also an entrepreneur who has performed consulting work for companies such as Microsoft.

    Additions & Errata

    4/24/24: Updated the broken CQ quiz in Chapter 11.3 exercises. 

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