Shift from Industrial Relations to Employee Relations - Essay Example

It covers a wide spectrum of industrial activities such as collective bargaining, trade unionisms, and worker's participation in management, discipline and grievance management and industrial disputes and interpretation of labor laws. It, therefore, refers to the collective relationship between the employer and employees on a set of employment relationship. But researches conducted at various places across the world have concluded that the validity of industrial relations as a concept is going to decline in the near future because of the necessity of more recognition of employees at the work place by employers.

The employee-employer relation in the 21st century is going to have a new outlook because of the increased need for the recognition of employees at the work place either voluntarily or by the contemplation of law. The relationship between employer and employee experienced in the past, coined as industrial relations has declined over the last few years by virtue of reasons such as change in working condition and approach of trade union. The research undertaken by CIPD (Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development) in 2004-05 on the changing nature of employee relations in U K organizations reveal that "Union membership and traditional union-related personnel management work has declined enormously in the last 30 years, with no prospect of a sustained re-emergence, though the re-regulation of employment and the new Employee Information and Consultation Regulations are pushing employee relations back up the management agenda" Rationale for change in the outlook The reasons for the modern perspective of employee relationship are manifold.

Over the past 20 years there have been many amendments in the employment legislations, change in the methods of selection, recruitment, training, remuneration, working condition, consultation etc. All these factors have contributed to a shift from industrial relations to employee relations. Also shift in the trade union image from the earlier industrial conflict has also helped in creating and maintaining a harmonious relationship with employers which opened up opportunities for greater involvement of employees.

Another factor which caused a change in the treatment of employees by employer is the changing attitude of present day employees. The modern employees and employers have a psychological contract, which implies the unwritten perceptions of the employment relationship and the degree of trust, motivation and commitment involved. Employee RelationEmployee Relations involves the body of work concerned with maintaining employer-employee relationships that contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation, and morale.

This approach towards the employees in a changing working environment should not be conventional nor is it adversely affects the employee performance. Modern employers unanimously agree with employee relations, although a few have different opinion. The new approach from employer perspective can be justified by the following:1. Employee attitude and commitment are strongly associated with employee performance2. Employee involvement and consultation appear to be more strongly associated with employee satisfaction3.

The ideal mechanism to be used for employee voice includes two-way communications, project teams and joint consultation through electronic