Employee Relations - Britain Finder - Case Study Example

Table of Contents 1.0.Introduction 2 2.0.Analysis of the Situation 2 3.0.Possible solutions and recommendations to the problems identified 7 4.0.References 11 1.0. Introduction Just like any other organisation, Britain Finder is comprised of workers, money, machinery, materials and management. The functioning of all these units depends on how workers behave within Britain Finder. Before embarking on the tenets of employee relationship that has generated the apparent incidences of absenteeism, it is noteworthy to recognise theoretical models that bring about such behaviours within the organisation. First, scientific management came into existence with the aim of focusing on behavioral aspects of employees and management. However, its failure has given birth to human relation movement which has since been found on more emphasis on employee cooperation and behaviours. Of particular interest in this case is the rate of absenteeism. Based on the categories of absenteeism as noted, its definition can be contextualised to mean failing to report to work. However, Coffman (2000) defines the term in a manner that allows further analyses of the employee relationship in Britain Finder. It means any unscheduled activity threatening the organisation to fall in danger as such leads to the disruption of day-to-day activities. These are the points of dispersion in this report---critically assess the employee relationship within the context of theoretical underpinnings so as to relate such with the incidences of absenteeism and high office concerns. 2.0. Analysis of the Situation What is apparent from the case presented is that there are unsuitable working conditions especially for the 300 employees who are working in various support and clerical points. This certainly creates what Baumruk and Gorman (2006) term as unfavourable mental attitude arising as a result of boredom. In the actual essence, there are three important aspects to employee relationships. These are reciprocity, relationship and exchange. When there is good relationship in the working environment it is expected that both parties would bestow benefits to one another and such exchange should be mutual. If the employer reciprocates, and then such followed by a series of benefits that are exchanged, there will be cordial relationship between the employees and the employer thus ultimately creating mutual obligation between the two parties. When the trend goes for some time, the positive relationship is characterised as one where the employee and employer trust each other to reciprocate the benefits received. Apparently this is not the case within Britain Finder. For instance, it is noted that manufacturing workers are represented by the trade union UNITE but the 1500 staff and the other 300 workers have nowhere to present their grievance. It is for this reason that they feel their efforts are not reciprocated. To complicate the situation, they are working in a very busy and demanding industry where pressure to perform and deliver overweighs their personal satisfaction. Integrating this with underlying social exchange theory and the inducement-contributions model, Hoque and Islam (2003) argue that organisation should strive to achieve success but man-power expected to deliver such must be reciprocated and their specific areas of motivation well taken care of. However, it is apparent that both parties have not adopted a contingent view of exchange. This is supported by the presence of distinct absence patterns and as also noted, there is also small groups of operatives who have been on long-term sick leave of between three and six months. According to recent research by Ellis and Sorensen (2007), the norm of reciprocity and failure to effectively motivate workers has been used to explain the negative attitudes and behavioural consequences of perceived contract breaches by employees. A long a similar vein, Stephen (2009) has shown that organisation with the culture of reciprocity has been the foundation for explaining why there is effectiveness and commitment in response to employer defined employee-organisation relationships. Other than the aspect of reciprocity, employee relationship within Britain Finder can be understood with regard to specifications of agents. This study notes paucity of literature materials with regard to specification (or lack) of organisation agents and how such is related to employee relationships. However, within the framework of this Company, theorising is understatement and empirically unjustified. To make this clear, the case shows that first, there were no sanctions imposed on employees who were absent for long periods. As a matter of fact, the reasons given included cases where employees were returning to new supervisors who were not familiar with their details. In addition, it was also found that in some incidences, supervisors were not sure about the procedure to follow when dealing with issues to do with longer periods of absence. Conceptualising this point, on the one hand, there is no employees’ immediate manager who in turn represents them in what Peter (2002) conceptualises as a dyadic exchange. The fact that the Company operates in 70 countries, creating a dyadic exchange is indeed essential. On the other hand, there is lack of senior or middle level managers who can capture the perspectives of the Company to its relationship with employees at all of its 70 countries of operations. What we are currently seeing is the use of supervisors in between disgruntled employees to represent the organisation. With no doubt, it is for this reason that makes employees not to take their work serious. To answer the reason why “the employee returned to a new supervisor who was unfamiliar with their details”, inevitably, employees are not sure who is taken as representative of the Company from the managerial hierarchy. Todor (2002) posits that for cordial relationship that yield productivity to be there, managers and supervisors need to look at themselves as actual representatives of the firm so that employees can consider them as “legitimate” firm’s representatives. Still on specifications of agents, employees in Britain Finder are almost tired of their repeated duties and work. In such cases, the bottom line of the matter is the roles agents play in motivating employees so that they remain satisfied with their work. For instance, the Company has 1500 staffs who are employed in manufacturing and assembly operations. This department deals with heavy machines which needs a lot of effort from the staff to carryout day-to-day activities. When this work is repeatedly given to employees they become unsatisfied. Unfortunately lack of agents’ specifications makes relationships between employees to be broken and when such comes; there is lack of transition from one level to the other. It is also noted that the Company has grown on the basis of high quality and technological innovation. This is to mean that the Company prefers its employees to carry on same work whole time in order to secure the current status. The third aspect that can be viewed with regard to employee relationship in this case is the aspect of worker voice and representation. To begin with, any discussion that touches on commitment automatically calls for an attention to what scholars have researched on with respect to sincerity, attachment, and norms of work. Such extends to intrinsic values that have already been highlighted above. While these remain to be contended issues within this Company, there are still a number of issues that need to be told regarding worker voice and representation. Studies such as Spector (1996) are examples of industrial relationship researches that have reviewed the relationship existing between the employer and employees. From this perspective, it can be accepted that worker voice has been reduced, not because staff are non-unionised at the UK facility but partly because the vision and aspirations of the Company as explained does not recognise trade unions. In as much, even though we can recognise that manufacturing workers are represented by the trade union (UNITE), it is apparent that the influence of UNITE has been reduced to an extent that collective bargaining yields are empty shell in what Cohen and Higgins (2007) terms as “continuing organization cultures” (p. 35). The position at hand is that UNITE has expressed its concern to management that any stern aggressive responses to its employees are indeed ill and may cause some counter-productivity. This statement is two-fold. On the one hand, the Company has earlier had issues with UNITE with regard to harassment of workers who were genuinely ill; something that further questions worker voice and representation. On the other hand, while workers under the umbrella of UNITE can have their voices heard and indeed represented, other staff who are non-unionised at the UK facility must be facing elements of employee rights violations. Basically, it is difficult trying to organise employees and indeed create good rapport with them when they are elusive and where layers of sub-contracting diffuse responsibility across multiple actors. Basically, from the analyses and the situation above, the figure below has been developed to summarise main issues and problems that are inherent within the Company and subsequently connect to the existing employee relationship. 3.0. Possible solutions and recommendations to the problems identified As already noted, the Company is facing a number of inherent challenges and it is for this reason that the head office is concerned. This report suggests solutions and recommendations based on the already identified areas of concern. These solutions and recommendations are pegged on the demands raised by the head office but are within the framework of theoretical models and practices of contemporary institutions. The first solution that solves much of the concerns raised by the head office is proper employee engagement. Employee engagement is a vast construct that touches almost all parts of human resource management within this company. This report has already identified that not all parts of human resources are well addressed therefore employees have failed to fully engage themselves in their job in response to the existing mismanagement. Additionally, Erickson (2005) unequivocally shows that managers agree that this century demands more productivity and efficiency than any other times and this Company is not an exception. Therefore what this Company needs with respect to employee management is what Erickson (2005) cites regarding Towers Perrin Talent Report. Towers Perrin Talent Report suggested top three work place attributes which constitute what Companies ought to do as far as engaging their employers is concerned. These attributes are; Senior management interests in the employees well-being Challenging and dynamic work Collective decision making authority by workers and employers Looking at the case presented, it is apparent that employees in this Company are not engaged and senior management shows little interests in their well-being especially with regard to health. This can actually be underscored based on the warning UNITE gave regarding potential harassment of employees on leave when indeed they were sick. Secondly, engaging workers within this institution means that top management must to some level; accept to follow the model of bottom-up channel of communication where employees are given opportunities to view their opinions. Therefore when these factors are well coordinated the Company stands to benefit in the following ways: Employees will be having intense desire to be members of the Company regardless of the opportunities to work elsewhere Employees will be advocating for the Company to other workers, and refer potential employees and customers who use its patented medical equipment and technologies used in hospitals Employees will be able to exert extra time, initiative and efforts to contribute to the success of its business operation not only in United Kingdom but all over the 70 countries of operation The second solution to the problems that have been identified in the case is lack of motivation. It is encouraging to hear statements such as “…it has grown on the basis of high quality and technological innovation.” On the other hand, statements such as, “…another pattern seems to be short absence on regular intervals, such as night shift workers being absent on Friday nights, or day operatives absent when scheduled to work on a Saturday” shows that there is lack of motivation among employees. This report recognises that the term motivation is multifaceted and has been defined differently by scholars with such definitions depending on the subject matter. However, these definitions agree that theories such as Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs are essential when understanding motivation within organisations. Secondly, the report notes from the perspective of Anderson (2004) that there is lack of universal rule for motivating employees. Despite these challenges, there are specific ways management of this Company can motivate employees so that issues raised by the head office can be solved. These are the recommendations: Job enlargement: this is another level of motivation which involves increasing the number and dynamics of the tasks which are involved in the performance of a given job. This will ultimately motivate and multi-skill the employees. To be specific, this Company has the 200 professional staff employed in the research and development of new medical technologies that assist with sight and having procedures. It can be realized that over time, doing the research becomes monotonous and when there is job enlargement these employees will be motivated to try new challenges that come with the enlargement. Works council: currently the Company is in urgent need for works council especially if it must address short absence on regular intervals, such as night shift workers being absent on Friday nights, or day operatives absent when scheduled to work on a Saturday. Within this context, motivating workers through works council means creating worker participation which consists of regular discussions between workers and management or representative of management over such issues as production and marketing. Work directors: this report understands that the Company is located at a state-of-the-art facility in the Midlands. Being in United Kingdom, worker directors are not very common in United Kingdom since they are believed to be slowing down the decision-making process as well as leaking confidential information to employees. However, this Company needs to motivate its workers in this direction so that as workforce representatives, they participate in meeting held by board of directors. Other than employee engagement and motivation, scholars such as Clifton (2008) have widely documented on skills and training responsibilities as ways of reducing absenteeism within organisations. Currently, problems faced by this Company are manifold; ranging from aspects of low turnout, absenteeism and failure to be effectively represented by trade unions. However, the aspect of skills and training responsibility has been suggested as a solution to deal with the problem of cost of absenteeism that has been identified as excessive at the UK facility, especially among manufacturing operatives and research and development staff. When companies are faced with these kinds of challenges then it is certain that there are inadequate optimistic accounts of network that develop workers’ inter-organisational learning and knowledge transfer. It is worth noting that skills and training responsibilities do not adequately deal with complex issues faced by the Company as far as complaints from head office are concerned but rather it creates collaboration and partnership that ensure employees are up to date in their areas of specialisation. Additionally, from the case presented and specifically to cite what the UNITE terms as “…It may also be in breach of the negotiated agreement on sick leave”, it is apparent that the Company is against skills and training responsibilities because it feels that it will conflict and compromise the specific resources on which the its comparative goals, missions and advantages rest. However, in a flexible employment context where employees’ mobility is both promoted and expected, Johns (1996) argues that interests of the employer may be compromised where the interest of the employee and employer coincides must be least considered. If such is not done, Johns (1996) adds that the company risks losing employees shared social capital and trust. 4.0. References Anderson, A. 2004. What's absent in absence management. Employee Benefits Journal 29 (1): 25-30. Baumruk, R. and Gorman, B. 2006. Why managers are crucial to increasing engagement. Melcrum Publishing. Clifton, K. 2008. Engaging your employees: Six keys to understanding the new workplace. 2002 SHRM Foundation Thought Leaders Remarks. Society for Human Resource Management. Coffman, C. 2000. Is Your Company Bleeding Talent? How to become a true “employer of choice”. The Gallup Management Journal, 2000. The Gallup Organization, Princeton, NJ. Cohen, G. and Higgins, N. 2007. Employee Engagement: The secret of highly performing organizations. Journal of Applied Human Capital Management, Vol 1 Number 2007. Ellis, C. and Sorensen A. 2007. Assessing Employee Engagement: The Key to Improving Productivity. Perspectives, vol .15, Issue 1 The Segal Group, Inc. Erickson, T. 2005. Testimony submitted before the US Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labour and Pensions, May 26. Hoque, E. and Islam, M. 2003. Contribution of some behavioral factors to absenteeism of manufacturing in Bangladesh. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research 81 (3/4):81-96. Johns, G. 1996. Organizational behavior: Understanding and managing life at work (4th ed.). Harper Collins College Publishers. Peter, J. 2002. Affectivity, organizational stressors and absenteeism: A casual model of Burnout and its consequences, The University of Melbourne. Spector. P. 1996. Industrial and organizational psychology – Research and practice. USA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Stephen, P. 2009. Organizational Behavior, Pearson education, Prentice Hall, 13th edition, New Delhi. Todor, W. 2002. Turnover, Transfer, Absenteeism: An Interdependent Perspective: Journal of Management, Vol. 19 Issue 2, p193. Read More