HR Managing Employee Relations in Contemporary Organisations - Book Report/Review Example

HR Managing Employee Relations in Contemporary Organisations Table of Contents Introduction 2 Management Style at ACME 3 Reasons behind the Use of Permissive Management Style 6 Individualism In Relation to Changing Context of British Employee Relations 9 Conclusion 12 References 13 Introduction ACME Engineering is a manufacturing as well as a sales organisation. The company is based in UK. It is the adequate management styles that can lead to an organisation’s enduring growth. Majority of the organisational problems can be resolved, the satisfaction level of the employee can be increased and the overall output can be enhanced to a great extent with the help of adequate management styles. On the contrary, if the management adopts incorrect management styles then conflicts and tensions among the management and the workers is likely to arise in the organisation. The role of managers tends to alter with the situations. The way they handle the situations is generally dependent upon the styles of the management in the organisation. Management styles are basically systems of leadership that are used by the manager to manage the organisation at various situations in order to attain the objectives (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2011). The case study places greater emphasis upon the employee relation management style at ACME Engineering. The main objective of the paper is to identify the management style that is adopted by ACME in order to administer the organisation in an effective and efficient way. The paper also tries to explore the reasons behind the adoption of a particular management style by ACME. The extent to which the management style is made possible due to the changing context of British employee relations through the 1980s and 1990s will also be discussed in this report. Management Style at ACME For the purpose of clarifying the concept of management styles in context of employee relation, there are two types of styles. One of them is the individualism and the other is collectivism. By the term individualism it can be understood as the degree to which the company tends to design their personnel policies focusing on the capabilities and the rights of their individual workers. On the other hand, the term collectivism is essentially concerned with the degree to which the company designs its management policies that support the development of collective representation by the employees and permit the employees to participate collectively in the process of decision making. Management style can be referred to as a purposeful choice connected to the business policies. The organisation can either focus on one or both the features (Purcell, 2007). The unitarist view is framed upon the presumed agreement of interest between the employees and management and therefore it is believed that the management as well as the employees share common goals in the organisation. Unitarist views do not take into account the legitimacy of conflicts. On the other hand, the pluralist views realise the predictability of varied employees and management interests which is related to competition over the allotment of scarce resources such as time, effort and rewards. It can be identified that the notion of individualism is closely related with unitarist. The reason behind this fact is that unitarist suggests the fact that there must be shared interests among the member of the organisation in order to attain the group objectives. It also prefers a relationship between the individual employee and the manager which does not have any mediator and tends to be direct. The other view which is pluralism is generally related to collectivism because this frame of reference demonstrates conflicting interests among the management and the employees. It further prefers collective institutions as well as actions in the form of trade unions or collective bargaining that will represent and regulate conflicting interests (Edwards, 2003). The values along with the perceptions of the managers have been noted as being devoted to unitarist or pluralist ideals. It has been found that bigger organisations are faced with contingencies as well as conditions that permit them to make choices regarding the employment relations in such ways which may not be suitable for SMEs (Keith, 2006). After going through the case study, it is apparent that the management style of ACME Engineering is that of egalitarian or individualism. They have informal management style. The relationship between the management and the employees is generally relaxed and non-threatening. The management of ACME is able to act at times without much thought as a result of the informal working environment. The company works without a trade union. The company decided to operate in a team environment where group of people could work together. However, for this strategy to be effective ACME wanted to maintain the visibility of individual. The company’s values rest on the belief that employees are quite important for the company. The company did not want to have a collectivism approach since it believed that due to this approach the individuals are restrained from raising their voices and they would not necessarily have an individual say. Therefore, the company did not have trade union, rather it preferred to have quasi trade union. The employees of the company were at the level whereby they could represent themselves in their dealings with the company. The management style practiced by the manager of ACME Engineering is permissive since the manager permits his followers to take part in the process of decision making and therefore tends to offer greater level of autonomy in accomplishing the routine tasks (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2012). The manager of ACME provides the employees with greater autonomy and freedom. It has been found from the case study that the work of allocating the staffs for specific tasks is left with the team leader who has a lot of freedom over how much overtime people work and has lot of flexibility. It can be observed that permissive management style is closely related to the individualism. The notion of individualism is based upon the belief that employees must be provided enough flexibility to make their decisions and to complete their task. Permissive management style is also based upon similar belief. Individualism is part of permissive management style (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, 2012). It can be stated that the style of administering the work relationship is basically mandated by the organisational culture. This concept tends to be significant since it permits the employees to create an idea that offers meanings to their work thereby generating dedication and serves as informal control over the behaviour. A cooperative management style is one which offers a framework through which motivated and creative staffs can be created in order to attain the objectives of the organisation (Lamsa, 2010). Reasons behind the Use of Permissive Management Style The individualism practiced under the permissive management style related to the employment policies removes the problems and the unresolved challenges for the employees, the trade unions as well as the managers (Storey & Bacon, 1993). Most of the companies tend to shift from individualistic views to collectivistic views. The main reason behind this is that collectivistic group generally reduces societal loafing and thus helps in enhancing the cooperation. An organisation that practices collectivism management style tends to work in a collaborative manner with the work groups. But there are many risk associated with the collectivism management style. Though the collectivism tends to stimulate the culture of harmony and cooperation in the work environment, it has been observed that it also tends to eliminate the spark that is required for the purpose of innovation from the members of the organisation. When companies strive to be creative so that they can gain competitive advantage, the collectivism management style practiced by the organisation tends to have negative consequences in this regard (Goncalo & Staw, 2006). Modernisation has led most of the contemporary societies to be more individualistic. The main advantages of individualism are that it provides an individual with greater awareness regarding his preferences and also tends to offer an individual to act autonomously. It is of greater belief that people tend to perform well when they are offered to work in autonomy. Individualism also assumes the fact that instantaneous choice of a self-seeking individual tends to produce better outcomes for everyone in the organisation. It not only benefits the management but also tends to have a significant impact upon the individuals working with the organisation (Veenhoven, 1999). There is constructive and favourable association between the individualism as well as the strategic integration. When there is high level of strategic integration, then it generally leads to low degree of collectivism in context of employee relations (Gunnigle & et. al., 1998). The organisation that tends to practice individualism or unitarist views generally reflects either authoritarian or autocratic management style whereby the managerial rights in the process of decision making is maintained by means of strict control as well as discipline (SAGE Publication, 2011). It is the new legislation with regards to the individual protection as well as the availability of immediate information to the individuals that has supported the individualism in the modern day context (Scribd, 2011). The main reason behind the adoption of permissive management style by ACME Engineering is that in collectivism, which promotes union environment, the unions’ take on the company which impersonalise it. Although it is a victory for the union, it may not be a defeat for the manager. The company adopts the notion of permissive management style because it permits its employees to act independently and therefore achieve the goals of the organisation. The management of ACME Engineering considers its people as one of the significant aspects of the organisation and as a result it pays lot of attention towards the people. The other reason behind the adoption of that particular management style to employee relation i.e. permissive management style was that the company decided not to make use of trade unions in the operation of the business. It can be identified that the company employed people on the threshold of their career which the company considers as quite challenging and demanding to manage. The company employed those people who have individual expressions in their dealings with the company. It did not recruit people who were protected with the trade unions. The countries like Britain do not practice unionism. The concept related to unionism is generally common in car manufacturing industry in Japan (Redman & Wilkinson, 2002). The organisation such as ACME that practices permissive management style have created a calculative, instrumental as well as business oriented approach for managing the employees in their organisation (Deery, 1999). Individualism In Relation to Changing Context of British Employee Relations Since the twentieth century, trade unions have been seen as one of the main vehicles to represent the interests of the employees and collective bargaining has been viewed as one of the main methods for setting the wages. It was during the 1980s and 1990s when Conservative government made policies to focus on deregulations of the economy as well as in the labour market. The main motto of the government in this regard was to offer greater liberty and suppleness to the managers so that they can respond effectively to the changes taking place in the organisation. The companies could achieve these benefits by restraining employment security for the workers and by limiting the capability of the trade unions from managing the organisation. This policy adopted by the government changes the way the workers were administered in the organisation (SAGE Publication, 2011). In the conventional times, trade unions played a vital role in monitoring the employment relationship in the UK by means of collective bargaining with the company over matters such as pay, employment terms and conditions, and working practices. In the late 1980s, it was observed that the union movement hit the highest point in terms of political and economic power, membership along with density. The UK had 13.2 million members in trade unions in the year 1979. There was significant reduction in the trade unions by the year 2008 and it had reduced to 7.2 million (SAGE Publication, 2011). There are many factors that have led to decline in the potency of the union and their influence. Since the manufacturing sector shifted to a service based economy, much of the trade union activity as well as membership had been eradicated. In the conventional times, much of the trade unions were not established well in the service sectors. Trade unions played a significant role in the public sector. However, it was noticed that during the 1980s and 1990s most of the state-owned organisations went private which meant weakening of the union’s strength. The other factor leading to the decline in the trade union had been the political climate. During the year 1979, the Conservative government chosen to rule the country considered that trade unions obstruct the UK from competing with other parts of the globe. Government tried its best to weaken the capability of the trade unions to reduce its effect upon the organisations. Therefore, it initiated several measures in order to prevent the trade unions from taking any actions. It introduced stringent rules and regulations for monitoring legitimate industrial actions. It was during the 1980s, when range of managerial practices was introduced with the influence of Human Resource Management (HRM). This era also saw greater scope for the companies to innovate which was afforded by weak trade unions. It led to diversity in the workplace arrangement for the administration of the people. From the sides of the workers or employees, the period of 1980s saw growing individualism along with self interest that weakened the employees’ harmony. One of the factors that might have also contributed to the decline in the trade union during the year 1980s may be the failure of the trade unions to properly respond to the labour market changes. It was noted that during the 1970s the employee’s voice in the process of decision making took place generally via indirect workers partaking because trade unions used to mediate in the process. In the 1980s, it was identified that since there was decline in the trade union membership, the employees’ voice in the procedure of decision making took place through direct workers contribution by means of managerially established forums as well as communication channels. However, during the period of 1990s it was found that the focus moved to partnership between the management as well as the workers and joint decision making was given more attention (SAGE Publication, 2011). The focus of the managers during this period was more on individualism rather than collectivism. The managers were also assisted by a wide-ranging programme of employment legislation which was prepared to strengthen the position of the companies and therefore weaken the trade unions (Cully, 1999). The main benefits that Britain received on removal of the collective bargaining was that it helped the management to make its desired changes unilaterally without being required to consult the union. The main reasons behind the companies shift from collectivism to individualism in Britain were to achieve enhanced flexibility over pay systems, grading structures as well as working practices (Gospel & Palmer, 1993). Conclusion Most of the organisations tend to practice improper management styles that lead to conflicts among the members of the organisation. It is quite significant for the companies to undertake proper management styles in order to resolve the conflicts arising in the management and to increase the efficiency in the overall organisation. There are two forms of management styles that most of the companies tend to follow. They are individualism as well as collectivism. It has been identified that ACME Engineering followed individualism management style in its organisation. It did not want the participation of the trade unions in its organisation. The main reasons behind the adoption of the individualism management style have been that it wanted its employees to act independently and encourage greater flexibility thereby assisting in achieving the goals of the organisation. Although individualism tends to possess several disadvantages, the companies in the modern times have been adopting individualism management style in managing the affairs of the organisation. It has been found that during the phase of 1980s ad 1990s, the Conservative government in Britain encouraged liberty and tried to make policies on deregulations of the economy. It was since the period when trade unions membership was eradicated and individualism approach was given major priority. References Cully, M., 1999. Britain at Work: As Depicted By 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey. Routledge. Deery, S., 1999. Employment Relation: Individualisation and Union Exclusion: An international Study. Federation Press. Edwards, P. K., 2003. 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