Managing Employee Relations in Contemporary Organizations - Assignment Example

Managing Employee Relations in Contemporary Organizations Lecturer: Address: Managing Employee Relations in Contemporary Organizations 1. Identify the management style used by ACME (cite evidence from both the case study and academic literature to justify this) ACME takes on a modern approach to employee relations, the system does take on a new meaning of relations with employees. The first thing that is associated with the system is the adoption of a team approach to the employees (Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009, p. 202). The organization employs based on how an individual fits into a team (Salamom, 2000, p. 39). Thus, style of management is controlled by the policies that have been set by the Human Resource Management sector (Blyton and Turnbull, 2004, p. 201). The modern approach to employee relations is people management. The employees to the organization were employed based on their skill and as part of a team that would meet the requirements of the organization (Kessler and Purcell, 2003, p. 28). Human management as a style that is used by the ACME organization concentrates on the skills that an individual brings into the company (Legge, 2005, p.102). Prior to securing a job with the company, it is important that what the employee brings to the table is analyzed and this is part of the enrolment (Purcell, 1987, p. 29). The company has stringent policies on which employees it employs, a fact that is expressed in different settings such as when referring to family, (Legge, 1995, p. 99), i.e. potentially some members may feel offended if they cannot get their friends/family in but so be it. We will never compromise the arrangement that we will go for the best person for the job. But with 500 people there are going to be individuals, but relatively few, we wouldnt recruit again. If one of these few recommended friends/family we would look, but look very carefully. The company has also adopted a structure that is based on personal and team responsibilities within the organization, which differ from any trade union system of operation. The organisation’s policy on performance and pay states that, If somebody is not performing they get told about it. We have annual appraisal and salary is directly linked to contribution across a number of factors, so people get a message both financially and otherwise across the table from the manager at the appraisal, if not at other times of the year, which does not include any responsibilities to any party or individual outside the organisation. The system used is analytical based on the quality an individual brings to the company (Salamom, 2000, p. 291). The approach to management takes on a modern management style that gives employees roles, responsibilities as well as a supervisor to answer to in the course of their employment. The approach means that individual contributions to the company are looked into during the running of ACME. The management considers the goals set by management, in terms of economics, finances, growth, marketing and advertising among others (Williams and Adam-Smith, 2009, p. 102). Although the system makes use of preset performance requirements, the company ensures that it appreciates the efforts put in by the employees at any one given time in every position as it is stated by the company as directly linked to a number of factors contributing to outcomes in the financial and other concepts. 2. Critically discuss why they use this approach (cite evidence from both the case study and academic literature to justify this discussion). The performance of employees in the organisation is an important goal and objective driven element of analysis. The chosen employee management style in relations allows the management to keep track of the growth of the organisation on an overall state as well as in the personal concept. The style emphasizes the fact that individual workers are the unit by which the ACME organisation operates. By choosing the individualistic approach to employee relations, the organisation is able to utilize the human resources acquired via the analysis of strengths and weaknesses of individual workers (Rose, 2008, p. 19). As it has been stated in the study, “The values were that people were going to be very important to us and if we were going to have a team environment, we had to give the individual the opportunity to express himself. I suppose if you think about it is quite contrary to the approach that would be taken in Japan where the individual would be absorbed within the group and wouldnt necessarily have an individual say. Given that we werent going to have a trade union we either had a quasi trade union or we really said that everybody here would be at a level whereby the can represent themselves in their dealings with the company” the management style is also meant to be encouraging to individual players of the organisation. The aim of the matrix management style is to create teams that are fully backed by individuals who are concerned with the outcome and whether it is acceptable by the team leaders. The leadership is designed to concentrate on positive enforcing to ensure that there is an increased performance at both individual and team capacities (Smith, Morton, 2006, p. 3). In accordance with the organisations leadership concept;’ we would never take money off people if performance dropped. If absence increased and it was a bad patch, we will make an allowance for that reason and if there was a big change in performance, we would keep the individual on the salary. If somebody was at the top end of points but not promoted, maybe there was no position, he can be above the guide salary. Each year salary is increased by inflation so what they get is an inflation plus. Somebody at the top end of points but not promoted and no wish to be promoted can be way above the guide salary but we would want to give them more than inflation [retention tool]”. 3. Evaluate the extent that this style is made possible due to the changing context of British employee relations through the 1980s and 1990s (you may draw on ideas that may be in your earlier report for this section, but do not reproduce sections of it). Changes in the management of human resource in the concept of employee relations have undergone a lot of changes through the 1980s and 1900s in the British society. The changes that employee relations underwent during this epic era is an important contributor and facilitator to the current system used in ACME. The employee relations element is best explained as a struggle between the management and the labour force regarding meeting of goals, responsibilities and tasks within given working parameters. The relationship between the management and the workers has always been tough to crack with the social differences created by authority and financial consequences creating a huge gap for most approaches (Dundon and Rollinson, 2007, p. 49). In any organisational setting, productivity is a needed outcome objective. The goal to the management is producing as much products as possible without having to depreciate quality, but without having to incur any extra cost in the production process. With such parameters, the labourers usually feel, and are often, oppressed to meet the desires expressed by the management. Adoption of the human management techniques ensures both management and workers establish a balance that revolves around the satisfaction of both entities without having to oppress either parties (Bryson, 2005, p. 1123). Current Human Resource Management techniques draw most of its inspiration from employee relations and the growth it experienced. The richest history of the relations between employees and the management is based in the 1980s and 1990s. The unskilled workers group is probably the most active employees in the context of employee relations. In the industrial revolution period, the unskilled workers were exploited by the management in terms of working conditions as well as pay. The introduction of technology within the working environment meant an increase in productivity and a possible decrease in operations cost since the machines replaced human workers, which also gave the management the chance to lower rates due to an increased competition between workers for the limited slots available. This happened to be the source of rows between the management and the workers. In an effort to fight against the oppression they faced from management, labourers resulted to violent means of expression such as strikes and demonstrations. A noble idea of expressing their grievances as a multitude carried with it some degree of threat that was not taken into by the management and authorities. Crimes associated with the gathering of workers were quite common. The integration of politics in the grievances gave the labourers the chance to form a body that is legally recognised to address their woes with their employers and thus began the rise of trade unions (Hardy and Leiba-O’Sullivan, 1998, p. 468). Unions were vessels that employees found useful in addressing some of the grievances they had at work. The unions provided a platform though which uniformity in the working place could be defined. By doing this, it was possible for the employees to come to understandings with various employers regarding the condition of the working environment, number of hours, payment and leaves among other issues. Trade unions analysed how organisations treated their members and took legal action if the standard conditions of operation were not met. Employees need to register with trade unions if they were to benefit from the advantages the organisations introduced in the working environment. Unions had a major flaw in employee relations, they worked on the assumption that the workers; productivity was equal. This was a flaw in the line of thought regarding employee relations for different parameters, environments, personalities and attitudes affected the output of the workers. The trade unions were thus both advantageous and disadvantageous to both the employees and employers. A scenario of a disadvantage associated with the trade unions would be when it came to promotions. With organisations barely concentrating on the efforts placed in by their employees, choosing an employee to promote within the company is a nightmare. The absence of an internal analysis strategy within organisations and the trade unions meant that it was impossible to identify quality workers within the organisations and companies. With more organisations concentrating on the performance of its employees, the trade unions began losing popularity with the employees as well as employers, as a performance based analytical approach was necessary to introduce fairness in the workplace. It was logical that efforts in working were realised and a reward associated with the efforts accorded to employees. The decreasing popularity of trade unions was as a result of preferences by the former union members. Adoption of employee relations associated with Human Resource Management meant that employers would make decisions and analyse performance and productivity on an individual level. Concepts such as the level of education of an employee came into play when considering various positions, payment packages and working conditions within the organisation. This system of employee relations was especially necessary with the expansion and growth of most industries during the era. Expansion and growth of organisations created new opportunities for employees whom needed a means by which credentials would be used to allocate responsibilities (Lloyd and Newell, 2001, p. 380). Human management techniques in employee relations is based on an analytical, strategic approach by which the management and workers develop a network of an organisation based on position, roles and responsibilities to ensure productivity and performance. How employees and employers relate in the modern techniques incorporates technology and extends beyond the workplace as concepts of social, psychological, health and mental conditions are assessed and analysed to ensure that all entities within an organisation perform optimally towards the goals set by the management (Undy, 1999, p. 328). The employee relations also provide means by which the needs of individual employees, departments or an organisation as a whole are presented to management. The system also incorporates communication as a contributor to employee relations since information regarding operations within the organisation is necessary for the optimization of efficacy and efficiency in the execution of various tasks within different departments and by different individuals allocated the role of ensuring that certain tasks are completed within a given time frame. The concept of employee relations is greatly influenced by the development of the subject in the years between the 1980s and 1900s. During this period, the management of human resources helped in identifying the contributors towards performance and what conditions encourage performance. In the same concept, the growth allowed the organisations to ensure that the taskforce allocated a given task is optimal for performance. The development particularly influenced the mode of decision making within the organisations regarding the workers, their roles and strategic tracking of their involvement in an organisation, in addition, the growth addressed the issue of individual contributions to the growth of the organisation (Wilkinson, Dundon, Marchington and Ackers, 2004, p. 34). References Blyton, P. and Turnbull, P (2004) The Dynamics of Employee Relations. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Kessler, I. and Purcell, J (2003) “Individualism and Collectivism in Industrial Relations” in Edwards, P. (2003) Industrial Relations: theory and practice. Oxford:Blackwell Legge, K. (2005) Human Resource management: Rhetorics And Realities. Basingstoke: Palgrave. Legge, K. (1995) “HRM, rhetoric, reality and hidden agendas” in Story, J (1995) Human Resource management: a critical text. London: Routledge. Purcell, J. (1987) “Mapping Management Styles in Employee Relations” Journal of Management Studies, 24:5 September. Salamom, M. (2000) Industrial Relations Theory and Practice. Harlow: Pearson Education. Williams, S. and Adam-Smith, D. (2009) Contemporary Employment Relations: A Critical Introduction. Oxford: OUP. Rose, E. (2008) Employment Relations London: Prentice Hall. Smith, P., Morton, G. (2006), ‘Nine Years of New Labour: Neoliberalism and Workers’ Rights’, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 44 (3) Wilkinson, A., Dundon, T., Marchington, M. and Ackers, P. (2004) Changing patterns of employee voice: Case studies from the UK and Republic of Ireland, The Journal of Industrial Relations, 46(3): 298–322. Dundon, T. and Rollinson, D. (2007) Understanding Employment Relations, Maidenhead: McGraw Hill Bryson, A. (2005) Union effects on employee relations in Britain, Human Relations, 58: 1111–39. Hardy, C. and Leiba-O’Sullivan, S. (1998) The power behind empowerment: Implications for research and practice, Human Relations, 51: 451–83. Wilkinson, A., Dundon, T., Marchington, M. and Ackers, P. (2004) Changing patterns of Employee Voice: Case Studies from the UK and Republic of Ireland, The Journal of Industrial Relations, 46(3): 298–322. Undy, R. (1999) Annual Review Article: New Labour’s “Industrial Relations Settlement”: The Third Way? British Journal of Industrial Relations, 37: 315 – 336. Lloyd, C. and Newell, H. (2001) Changing management–union relations: Consultation in the UK pharmaceutical industry, Economic and Industrial Democracy, 22(3): 357–82. Read More