MOTIVATION THROUGH EMPLOYEE COUNSELLING

 

Employee counselling at the workplace is, discussion of an employee’s problem that usually has an emotional content to it in order to help the employee cope with the situation better (Ajila, & Adetayo, 2013). According to Gerstmanm (2014) aim of the employee counselling is to assist both the employer and employee by intervening with an active problem-solving approach to tackling the problems at hand.

Pickerell (2011) has revealed that counselors can help individuals to find and maintain work that uses their skills, talents, and attributes in order to support career engagement. Further he revealed that counselors can also advocate for lifelong career management by keeping challenge and capacity in a reasonable balance through taking on special projects or new positions to stay challenged, engaging in continuing education, or developing an effective support system.

Use of this model, both counselors and employers can support individuals to make the necessary career adjustments to stay fully engaged. In the words of Stone (2007), there is a process for performance counselling to boost employee performance.

Employee Counselling:

According to Carroll (1995), counselors in the organization sometime called as welfare officers and organizations believe counselors are doing miraclecure for all disciplinary procedure, personal hygiene, and mental illnesses. In the same study has discussed that, good employee counselor is playing varied role with clients, maintain good communication with managers, conducting training courses, and occasionally visit employees’ homes.

Counselling Techniques:

There are various counselling techniques in the field of counselling which support to conduct productive counselling session. Counselling technique that commonly use are, cognitive therapy, behavioral therapy, existential therapy, psychoanalysis, and humanistic therapy, and holistic therapy (American Psychology Association, 2016). In the following discussion, clearly defines counselling therapies, which are using in counselling.

Cognitive Therapy Cognitive Therapy (CT) is one of the most important psychotherapy techniques using to change human mind and validated in hundreds of cognitive psychology studies (Beck, 2010). CT is a system of psychotherapy that attempts to modify their dysfunctional behavior, and corrected the distortions in their thinking, they quickly experienced enduring improvement in their mood, symptoms, functioning, and relationships (Beck, Rush, Shaw, & Emery, 1979)

Behavioral Therapy In 1900s, John B. Watson introduced behaviorism theory who was the father of behaviorism and, Behavioral Therapy (BT) grounded on the theory of behaviorism (Hayes, 2004). However, it established as a psychological approach in 1950s and 1960s. Simply through this therapy, attempt to change the behavior of client and it has verified in the study of Hayes (2004) since he has stated that BT focus directly on problematic behavior and emotion, to change behavior. BT based studies observe behavior rather than mental process as in cognitive therapy. BT has been introduced Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT); removal of a client’s problematic behaviors from the contexts that participate in that event (merely analyzing manifested behavioral symptoms themselves) (Hayes, 2004).

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) To change the behavior of the client therapist must deal with feelings and thoughts in a more direct and central way. Accordingly, psychologist has introduced CBT. Among forms of psychotherapy, CBT has been taken important role, which is highly effective for adult unipolar depression, adolescent unipolar depression, generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder with or without agoraphobia, social phobia, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and childhood depressive and anxiety disorders (Andrew & Butler, 2006). CBT focuses on changing both cognitive and behavior to rescue client. Simply CBT is a combination of the basic therapies; CT and BT (Beck, 2011).

Existential – Humanistic Therapy Based on Existential-Humanistic Theory, Existential-Humanistic Therapy EHT), provides a rich, comprehensive, and practical overview since 1978s (Krug, 2010). Main purpose of using this therapy is remove mental problems and disorders by directly making sense of human existence. Techniques, which are using in EHT are, logo therapy (Melton & Schulenberg, 2008), and gestalt therapy: emphasis on individual responsibility (Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, 1999).

Psychoanalysis Psychoanalysis was found by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) and hence father of this theory is Sigmund Freud. Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight. The aim of psychoanalysis therapy is to release repressed emotions and experiences, i.e. make the unconscious conscious (McLeod, 2007).

REFERENCES:

·         Ajila, C. O., & Adetayo, H. O. (2013, Nov 1). Workplace Counselling: Implications for Enhanced Productivity. IFE Psychologia, 21(3), 197- 210.

·         Beck, J. S. (2010, Jan 30). Cognitive Therapy. Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research and University of Pennsylvania

·         Carroll, M. (1995). The counsellor in organizational settings some reflections. Employee Councelling Today, 7(1), 23-29

·         Hayes, S. C. (2004). Acceptance and Commitment Therapy,Relational Frame Theory, and the Third Wave of Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies. Behavioural Therapy, 639-665.

·         McLeod, S. (2007). Psychoanalysis. Retrieved August 08, 2016,

·         Melton, A. M., & Schulenberg, S. E. (2008). On the Measurement of Meaning: Logotherapy’s Empirical Contributions to Humanistic Psychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 36(1), 31-44

·         Pickerell, R. A. (2011). career engagement: bridging career. journal of employment counseling, 185-189

·         Sigmund Freud Page. (2002). Introduction to the Psychoanalytic Techniques. Retrieved August 08, 2016, from Sigmund Freud - Life and Work: http://www.freudfile.org/

·         Stone, M. F. (2007). Coaching, counseling and mentroing: How to Choose & Use the Right Technique to boost employee performance.