Key Features of Employee Relations - Coursework Example

Employee Relations Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 3 Task 4 Reasons behind Organizational Conflict 4 Procedures an Organization should follow for Dealing with Conflict 4 Key Features of Employee Relations 5 Effectiveness of Procedures Used In a Selected Conflict Situation 6 Task 2 7 The Role of Negotiation in Collective Bargaining 7 Impact of Negotiation Strategy 8 Task 3 9 Influence of the EU on Industrial Democracy in the UK 9 Comparing the Types of Employee Participation in Decision Making 10 Impact of Human Resource Management on Employee Relations 11 Conclusion 11 12 Reference List 13 Introduction Organizational conflict is a critical phenomenon in the study of organizational behaviour and hence it is essential for every management to recognize the root cause behind conflicts among employees or between employer and employees and apply appropriate strategies in order to minimize the occurrences and effect of such conflict For the purpose of understanding the source of such organizational conflict the management must identify the key attributes of employee relation which will help them to mitigate the effect of conflict and ensure organizational effectiveness by establishing a healthy relationship among employer and employees (Armstrong, 2011). Collective bargaining is a major source of organizational conflict and negotiation strategies have the power to accelerate or decelerate the business operations of an organization. The incidents of industrial democracy in United Kingdom has marked development in employer employee relationship and the management initiative of employee participation in decision making has successfully accelerated the scope for organizational development (Pattanayak, 2014). The paper will concentrate on the employee relations, the cause and effect of conflict as well as the role of negotiation in collective bargaining in order to evaluate the relevant strategies of human resource management and organizational behaviour and how the application of these strategies can help to establish stability in an organizational framework. Discussion Organizational conflict many be defined as the disagreement arising out of employees as a result of perceived differences in values, cultural norms, interests as well as substantial and intangible needs of the employees working together in an organizations. Excessive use of power and authority also leads to generate dissatisfaction among individuals which in turn tends to create conflict (Rahim, 2015). In order to evaluate the procedures an organization should adopt for the purpose of dealing such organizational conflict, it is important to identify the reasons behind it. Task 1 Reasons behind Organizational Conflict Organizational structure and culture is the most significant source of conflicts. For instance, an organization using matrix structure obligates the employees for dual reporting that leads to create ambiguity regarding their routine responsibilities. Global companies that integrate geographically dispersed provinces across world frequently experience employee conflicts as a result of cultural differences among the employees coming from different race and religion. Scarcity and improper distribution of critical resources among employees is another source of conflict. For example, providing laptops or smart phones with latest features in a particular department of an organization may create resentment among employees in other departments. Task interdependence and inability of one of the parties to live up to the expectation of the other party also create organizational conflicts. Lack of transparency in communication, incomplete information from the management as well as unintentional communication is a huge source of organizational conflict. Apart from all these, differences in personality, expectations and mutually exclusive objectives of employees pose to be serious reasons of organizational conflicts (Pickering, 2000). Procedures an Organization should follow for Dealing with Conflict The researchers have identifies a number of procedures for dealing with organizational conflicts. Five Situational Conflict Handling Modes The five methods for understanding and resolving organizational conflicts is assumed to be most effective according to the situations in which it is best fitted. These are: Competing Mode which tends to resolute conflicts arising out of power-oriented and uncooperative organizational structure. Collaborating Mode leads to resolve interpersonal conflicts among employees by providing a solution that may secure the interests of all parties involved in the conflict situation. Compromising Mode strives to intervene in a conflict situation and tries to establish cooperativeness by providing mutually satisfactory solutions to the competing parties. Avoiding Mode is effective in situations when uncooperative and unassertive circumstances prevail in the organization. Finally, Accommodating Mode is incorporated when one party involved in conflict is ready to sacrifice his own interest in order to satisfy the interest of the other party. However, instance of such selfless generosity is very rare in organizational context (Pickering, 2000). However, before identifying the best suitable mode for resolving the conflict, the management should effort to understand the tenderness and emotions associated with the conflict, assume the intention of the parties to resolve, recognize if the management itself is associated with the reason of conflict or not and accordingly tend to provide an unbiased solution, taking into account the interests of all parties involved in the conflict through selecting the most appropriate method of handling situation based organizational conflict (Rahim, 2015). Communication skill also plays a vital role in handling organizational conflict. The relevant situational modes selected for resolving conflict is channelized through effective communication within the organization. Efficient communication leads to identify needs and priorities of the employees, clarify the changing organizational objectives over a period of time, provide complete information to the internal stakeholders and determine solution that will ascertain mutual gain (Pickering, 2000). Key Features of Employee Relations Employee relations lead to manage employee-employer relationship in an organizational framework. A stable and well-established employee relation indicates the organization’s excellence to prevent and control organizational problems well in advance. Sustainable employee relation ensures employee satisfaction which in turn leads to enhance the productivity of the workers, giving the bottom line of the organization a big boost (Wilkinson, Wood and Deeg, 2014). Key features of the employee relations may be attributed as: 1. Employer- employee relationship always involves two parties- employee and employer. Such relationship in a particular organization reflects the employee relations of the industry as a whole. Such relations always involve two parties. 2. Employee relationship can be of two types such as individual relationship between an employer and employee as well as a collective relationship between association of employees in terms of trade union and core group of management. In the collective relationship, interest of that party is better established whose bargaining power is stronger. 3. The multi dimensional employee relation is not limited to the internal management and trade union but it is influenced by the industry position, government intervention, regulations and institutionalization in both organized and unorganized sector. Hence, employee relation is characterized by ever- complexity. 4. As the organization experiences a series of structural changes according to the need of business environment, the dynamic relationship among employees and employer also changes keeping parity with organizational changes. Such changes are influenced by changes in policy regulations, technological and social dynamism of an economy (Wilkinson, Wood and Deeg, 2014). 6. Employee relation is an integral part of social relations as the composite attitude of one organization or an industry largely influences such relationship in parallel companies or the industry at large. 7. The nature of economy (capitalist, socialist, mixed economy, government ownership etc) in which the organization operates and the technological consideration as well as labor legislations influences employee relations to a great extend. 8. The main objective of an organization to establish a sound employee relation is to preserve a sustainable relationship between the management and the trade union. (Rahim, 2015). Effectiveness of Procedures Used In a Selected Conflict Situation Effectiveness of the procedure used in resolving the conflict situation is ensured if it is experienced that the company is exercising best practices. An organization is said to be incorporating best practices if it has been able to resolute the internal conflicts efficiently with minimum legal obligations and third party involvement at an optimum cost. An effective conflict resolution will result in a marked reduction in employee turnover ratio, improvement in the quality of products and services and a low tendency of absenteeism among workers. If an organization can incorporate the procedure of selected conflict situation effectively, it will be able to set up a benchmark within the industry in terms of customer services, sales and labour productivity which will help the organization to easily outnumber its competitors (Secord, 2003). Task 2 The Role of Negotiation in Collective Bargaining The concept of collective bargaining relies on the power of negotiation between employer and employees for the betterment of regulating the rules, policies and procedures in the workplace. In general, the concerns of employees are put forward by the trade union in front of the management in order to establish employee well-being. Naturally, the significance of negotiation in collective bargaining process is inevitable (Anstey and Ngcukaitobi, 2011). The role of negotiation in collective bargaining process can be attributed as: 1. Negotiation in collective bargaining aims to reduce the gap between both the parties involved in the bargaining process in order to establish a satisfactory agreement between the employees and management and institute a common ground for uninterrupted communication among them. 2. Individuals involved in the negotiation process possess sound listening skills so that they can properly understand the demand of both the parties and raise the issues of the weaker party in order to secure their interests. 3. Negotiation in collective bargaining tends to build up logical sequences of the bargaining process for the purpose of concentrating each and every diminutive details raised by both the parties in order to draw a coherent conclusion and wind up the collective bargaining process, supporting each and every requirement of the parties involved. 4. While bargaining for wage increase or for restricting retrenchment as a result of incorporating technological consideration in order to absorb external competitive pressure, the negotiators provides the ways to the management of how they will be able to maintain its competitive position within the industry without hindering the concern of their employees. 5. Negotiation in collective bargaining helps to establish human rights and drives to ensure economic prosperity and productivity according to the rules of a democratic and civic society (Wilkinson, Wood and Deeg, 2014). Impact of Negotiation Strategy Before evaluating the impact of negotiation on collective bargaining in a particular situation, different types of negotiation strategies must be analysed. Selection of negotiation strategy is of utmost importance in order to obtain the best outcome from both the employer and employee perspective. Negotiation strategy can be of two types such that competitive and collaborative negotiation strategy. A competitive negotiation strategy signifies the success or loss of either party in a clear cut manner whereas the collaborative approach aims to establish an equitable and fair agreement between both the parties. Where competitive negotiation is identified as hard bargaining negotiation, collaborating negotiation is recognised as a more constructive and interest based approach. Given a specific situation, the negotiation strategies have the potential to leave great impact on the situation on a societal or economical framework (Hayter, 2011). These are: Opportunity to Re- examine the Organizational Leverage Negotiation strategies provide the organization to re-examine their existing leverages in terms of sustaining the long term suppliers’ relation, wage rate and existing technological forces. In the time of negotiation, the management gets an opportunity to consider cost benefit analysis in terms of all the mentioned factors and may be able to evaluate in which segment they will have to expand or shrink the leverage in order to maintain the competitive position within the industry (Hayter, 2011). Setting up Standards of the Organization With the help of existing leverages and the identified scope for expansion of leverages as a result of successful negotiation process, the management of an organization may decide to raise or downsize the standard of the organization. The management can also think of switching their existing production and distribution process to a different line in which they are expecting to have more competitive advantages. For instance, following the proceedings of the negotiation process, the management can calculate that by reducing x% of their idle workforce, they can increase revenue of the company by y%. This is the excellence of negotiation strategies (Hayter, 2011). Focusing on the Term In spite of having all these positive impacts of negotiation, some researchers are on the opinion that negotiation strategies tends to hamper long term business orientation of an organization by highlighting recent problems which may proved to be trivial for the organization in long run. At times, the negotiators present the problems in a manner that can create serious doubt in the mind of management which push them to take faulty decision (Hayter, 2011). Task 3 Influence of the EU on Industrial Democracy in the UK The industrial democracy in UK had shown marked development in industrial relations which had initiated worker’s participation in decision making and sharing of authority and responsibility within the organization. Prior to that, there existed an aggressive relationship between the trade union and management in most of the European countries. However, over a period of time the European legislations started encouraging a partnership based relationship between the employers and employees which involved scope for workers’ in decision making and also prompted the workers to become more proactive and authoritative in their work. Soon after implementation of such democracy in industrial relations the employees started experiencing benefits arising out of the newly established systems. Such functional development resulted in a noticeable improvement in employee participation and performance which in turn benefitted the organization in terms of a positive profit. Industrial democracy directed the firms to construct workers’ council where employees and workers from all the departments of an organization were encouraged for compulsory participation for the purpose of discussing the long term business objectives of the particular organization and determining strategies in order to achieve the goals. The employees were also provided with different savings schemes for the security of their future and facilitated them an opportunity to hold company’s stocks. In such ideal situation, when the workers started believing that they were having a stake on the business of the organization, the European Monetary Union feared of wage dumping i.e. the possibility of increasing awareness among the workers regarding the level of their wage payment, in most of the cases which was below the industry standards (Levinson, 2013). Comparing the Types of Employee Participation in Decision Making Employee Participation in decision making signifies the extent to which the employees are legitimated by the management to participate in the decision making process. Such participation can be both formal and informal and the rage of such participation can vary from 0% to 100%, depending on the organizational culture. The main motivation behind initiating employee participation in management is to establish and confirm fair and equitable approach of the management among the workers. Participatory decision making in the areas of job evaluation, pay determination and adoption of methods for performance management leads the management to identify workers with future leadership qualities. Under such participatory management, employees are also encouraged to form quality circles with a small group of workers in order to bridging the gap between employers and employees. The participants of the group are directed to communicate and understand the problems of the employees which they cannot commune directly to the management (Sims, 2002). Considering the types of employee participation in decision making, the study of organizational behaviour has identified four different types of such decision making process. The democratic approach which is the most accepted means of participative management encourages maximum engagement of employees in decision making process. Naturally, democratic participation results in superior employee motivation and higher productivity. In this type of decision making process, employees are encouraged to freely share their innovative ideas and transparent flow of communication is appreciated. Incidence of exercising the personal power and authority is very less democratic decision making process. In contrast, in autocratic participative decision making approach, the degree of employee involvement in decision making is as lower as possible because of the extensive exercise of power by the authoritative management. Though the workers are provided with a scope for decision making, the final decision is always taken by the management. In autocratic participative decision making system, employee decision making is initiated mainly if emergency situation arises. Incidence of broken confidence of workers is very prominent in this type of participative decision making. Consensus participative decision making is another system in which the management completely delegates the responsibility of decision making in the hands of employees. In this system, organization strives for a 100% employee participation in decision making. Though such delegation motivates the employees to sharpen their skills and attitude, lack of control leads to hamper productivity and employee performance to a great extend (Sims, 2002). Impact of Human Resource Management on Employee Relations Employee relation plays a crucial role in human resource management. The European Union obligated the legislations to establish a participatory employer- employee relationship in order to accelerate the business activities and business performance. Hence, the human resource management department experienced considerable development in the overall performance of employees and a positive shift of employee attitude towards their productivity. The policies and practices of human resource in relation to the employee attitude are largely divided into hard and soft version of managing the resources. The hard version concentrates on managing employees rationally whereas the soft version emphasises on treating the employees as valuable assets of organization. Hence, the soft version of human resource management affiliates competitive advantage through enriching the existing skills levels of the employees. In summation, impact of human resource management on employee relations can be attributed as ensuring job satisfaction, decreasing rate of retrenchment, adopting a distinct procedure for performance measurement in order to motivate employees and improve their performances which in turn leads to enhance the business performance of the organization itself (Armstrong, 2011). Conclusion Analysing the organizational conflict and the organization’s effectiveness for handling situations arising out of such conflict it can be inferred that an organization will be able to experience smooth business operations and expand its business activities only if it can control such conflict situations before those take a shape of devastation. While driving the conflict handling operations, the management must take into consideration the concerns of both employer and employees. Negotiation in collective bargaining leads to establish the interest of both the parties, especially to the weaker party i.e. of employees. Experiencing the employees are always in the weaker side of the negotiation, the UK legislations strived to incorporate employee participation in decision making in order to safeguard the interests of the employees. Therefore, the impact of human resource management on employer- employee relationship is enormously important. Reference List Anstey, M. S. and Ngcukaitobi, T., 2011. Collective Bargaining in the Workplace. Cape Town: Juta Academy. Armstrong, M., 2011. Armstrongs Handbook of Strategic Human Resource Management. London: Kogan Page Publishers. Hayter, S., 2011. The Role of Collective Bargaining in the Global Economy: Negotiating for Social Justice. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing. Levinson, C., 2013. Industrys Democratic Revolution. London: Routledge. Pattanayak, B., 2014. Human Resource Management. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Pickering, P., 2000. How to Manage Conflict: Turn All Conflicts into Win-win Outcomes. New York: Career Press. Rahim, M. A., 2015. Managing Conflict in Organizations. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers. Secord, H., 2003. Implementing Best Practices in Human Resources Management. Toronto: CCH Canadian Limited. Sims, R. R., 2002. Organizational Success Through Effective Human Resources Management. California: Greenwood Publishing Group. Wilkinson, A., Wood, G. and Deeg, R., 2014. The Oxford Handbook of Employment Relations: Comparative Employment Systems. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Read More