Employee Relations Issues - Case Study Example

Employee Relations Name: Institution: Date of Submission: Introduction Employee Relations is a technique employed by many organizations to ensure a fruitful relationship between employees themselves and the organization’s management. By large extend, employee relations tries totake into consideration many strategies concerned with maintaining good relationships between employer and employee that aims at contributing satisfactory productivity in the organization, motivation and morale of employees (Adkins and Caldwell, 2004). Essentially, employee relations concernthe prevention and resolution of conflicts and problems that greatly involve individuals in workplaces. Such problems involve issues that mainly arise out of workplaces and work stations. It is an obvious fact that an organization will not have the ability to perform diligently with the help of non-living entities alone. It therefore means that any organization needs human beings who work together in a good relationshipfor magnificent performance oriented at achieving the organizational goals and objectives (Adkins and Caldwell, 2004). Employees working together towards the achievement of a common goal at a common place in an organization must have a relationship relative to the organization’s goals and objectives. Infact, any organization’s employees remain the major assets that an organization must make sure that their relationships remain a key priority. Furthermore, the success or failure of any organization directly translates to the employee relationship strategies employed by the organization. It is important for every organization’s employees to share a good rapport amongst them and strive hard towards achievement of organizational goals and objectives (Burman and Evans, 2008). Furthermore, it is important for employeesto complement each other as a team and work together as a single unit for effective relationship within workplaces. Effective employee relations and strategies mean proper communication, employee safety and well-being, and job satisfaction and reward of good performance (Pun et al., 2012). Overall Employee Relations Strategies As discussed above, employee relation strategies strive to provide a range of services that bridge the difference between employees and employers in any given organization. In light to conflict management in organizations, a healthy employee relation plays a key role in minimizing and fighting conflict among individuals (Patrick, 2008). It also ensures minimal resistance to change among organizational staff as employees will tend to cooperate towards achieving organizational predefined goals and objectives. People tend to adjust more and stop finding faults in each other. With health employee relations, it will be difficult to find employees wasting their vital time in dealing with meaningless conflicts and disputes (Patrick, 2008). By large extend, employees will tend to concentrate on their work and work hard to perform better in their respective activities. Any organization with good employee relations strategies will see its employees treating each other as friends and trying their level best to compromise and put more efforts towards organizational vision and mission. Not surprisingly, the culture of every organization depends much on the relationship held by their employees.The strategies adopted by organizations on its employee relations will determine the organizational culture and its perception. One of the key ingredients isfor inculcating good organizational culture includes ensuring proper employee relations strategies (Adkins and Caldwell, 2004). Furthermore, employee relations influence most on managing diversity among employees in workplaces. It is important for organizations to understand how employee diversity has some impacts on performance, motivation, success, and interactions within employees. On regular basis, organizational management should examine institutional structures and practices that pose unprecedented barriers to some dimensions of diversity (Harvey, 2012). These practices may include poor employee relations strategies. Risk management in workplaces is another very vital impact that remains directly proportional to employee relations. At any given point in time, employees are prone to risks and other hazardous scenarios that are common with workplace experiences and activities. With good employee relations strategy, organizational management will find it easy and efficient to manage risks and avoid injuries resulting from daily work experiences. This will be achievable with proper strategies aimed at ensuring that employees admire a culture of good relationship among themselves and the organizational management. This ensures that every individual within the organization strives to ensure his or her safety and that of his or her work mates (Pun, et al., 2012). Finally, employee relations ensure legal compliance to various legislations and laws amended for ensuring good relations and management of issues related to workplaces. Good employee-employer relations ensure that complaints that concern discrimination, harassment, unfair promotions, initiatives for awareness, and diversity attain the required measures and prevention to its minimum level as much as possible (Pun, et al., 2012). In addition, the importance of good employee relations on compliance to legal issues is its responsibility on equal employment opportunity for employees and employee assistance programs such as training. Employee Communication Strategy With the urge to accomplishand attain organizational objectives, most organizations come up with well-defined communications strategies to boost employee relations with the employers. An effective communication strategy within an organization is one that engages employees and is in agreement with the organization's business goals. It is the responsibility of every organization to ensure that employees receive useful, consistent, and timely communications (Burman and Evans, 2008). Such communications play a crucial role in supporting and enhancing performance and productivity within the organization. A two-way communication between employer and employee is crucial as it plays part in delivering information related to motivation, delivering of complains of job non-satisfaction, communicating change, and delivering policies and strategies for effective productivity (Rode, 2004). Therefore, without good communication strategy, it would be rather difficult for organizations to meet its core objectives. The objectives for any organizational communications are to create effects within the organization, maintain organizational effects, increase effects, and decrease the developed effects. These objectives are directly proportional to the organization’s performance that meets the strategic goals and objectives (Rode, 2004). Organizational communication strategy that creates effects focus is on that which did not exist before and come up with new awareness and a fresh attitude. Such strategy leads to communications about a change and conflict management within organizational set up. In essence, communication results into conflict and resolves conflict as well (Schaller-Demers, 2008).Effective delivery of information, good communication strategy, proper communication planning, and timely response will ensure manageable conflict levels with the organization. In doing so, effective communication strategy will have played a role in managing employee diversity within the organization (Harvey, 2012). Furthermore, effective employee communication influences employee legal compliance. Effective communication of legal compliance standards, policies, and procedures to all employees within an organization and other company representatives is an important tool to ensure minimum legal non-compliance within the organization (Rode, 2004). To achieve this very vital goal, organizations need to establish compliance-training and communication programs aimed at enlightening employees and other company representatives on their responsibilities in ensuring legal compliance within the organization. Employee safety and Well-being Employee health, safety, and wellbeing are a vital aspect that plays a crucial role in the success of any organization or business. With this in mind, every organization has an occupational health and Safety strategies sets out to ensure their commitment to provide safety, healthy, and well-being fortheir employees. It is also important to note that safe and healthy working environments provide employees with the opportunity to exercise their responsibilities with ease and efficiency (Burman and Evans, 2008). It also improves organization’s performance and productivity since employees are more likely to feel committed to their when they work in a healthy and safe environment. Furthermore, employee well-being promotes conflict management, as there will be less agents of conflict while employee well-being is put as first priority (Schaller-Demers, 2008). Likewise, employees will tend to comply with all legal compliance when their well-being and safety is taken care of. In essence, with employee well-being secured, no individual will tend to engage themselves in unlawful acts in the quest of finding safety at workplaces. As a result, organizational culture and success will remain consistent throughout all organizational spheres (Adkins and Caldwell, 2004). Employee Job Satisfaction and Reward for Performance By definition, job satisfaction refers to the extent at which an individualis contented with their respective jobs and areas of specialization. However, there is a great difference between affective job satisfaction and cognitive satisfaction. Cognitive job satisfaction refers to the degree of individual’s satisfaction concerning particular facets in their jobs. Such facets may include pension schemes, payments, working conditions, and working hours. On the other hand, affective job satisfaction refers to individual’s degree of pleasurable feelingstowards their overall jobs. At a general level of conceptualization, job satisfaction is simply the level at which how content an individual is with their jobs. At the more specific levels of conceptualization applied by human resources professionals, the meaning of job satisfaction varies by large extend. Most academic researchers and human resource professionals term affective job satisfaction as a one-dimensional subjective construct that refer to an overall emotional feeling of an individual towards their entire jobs (Thompson and Phua, 2012). Hence, affective job satisfaction as seen in individuals indicates the degree of pleasure or happiness that they derive from their job in general. Cognitive job satisfaction as defined by professionals in the field of human resource is a more objective and logical evaluation of various facets of a job. Employee job satisfaction relies on various issues within the workplace. Such issues include good leadership behavior, fair promotion, good motivational strategies, unbiased supervision, and reward for good performance. However, the entire subject of job satisfaction affects other various departments in an organization. Conflict management, legal compliance, risk management, managing diversity, and organizational culture are some of the areas affected by job satisfaction (Rode, 2004). Once individuals feel satisfied with their jobs, it is rare for conflicts to arise within the organization, as individuals will concentrate in their jobs to attain the best out of their efforts. If the trend is equal across all areas of the organization, conflict management in the organization will not be a serious issue. Consequently, exposure to risks is another issue likely to face decline with employee job satisfaction. This is because, once individuals are content with their jobs, the likelihood of risk occurrence will be very low (Patrick, 2008). Finally, employee job satisfaction boosts legal compliance within an organization, as individuals understand procedures involved in their areas of specialization and therefore unlikely to engage in any illegal activities within the workplace. Likewise, job satisfaction will also boost organizational culture of striving to achieve core objectives and goals. Individuals satisfied with their jobs will have the moral to dedicate their efforts to their jobs for better performance (Burman and Evans, 2008). Conclusion An employee relation is a major factor considered by most organizations. The success or failure of any organization will largely on the relationship held by its employees. Good and healthy employee relations through good communication strategies, safety and well-being, and employee job satisfaction and reward for performance play a key role in determining organization’s success and realization of its goals and objectives. Consequently, these aspects of employee relations influences several issues such conflict management, organizational culture, legal compliance, risk management, and managing diversity within an organization (Roughton, 2002). Therefore, for the success of an organization, it is necessary for an organization to adopt good employee relations strategies. Reference List Adkins, B., and Caldwell, D. (2004). Firm or subgroup culture: Where does fitting in matter most? Journal of Organizational Behavior, 25(8), p. 969–978 Burman, R., and Evans, A.J. (2008). Target Zero: A Culture of safety, Defense Aviation Safety Centre Journal, pp. 22–27. Harvey, Carol P. (2012). Understanding and Managing Diversity. New Jersey: Pearson Education Patrick J. Montana (2008). Management. New York: Barron's Educational Series Pun, K.-F., Yam, R & W.G. Lewis (2003). Safety management system registration in the shipping industry, International Journal of Quality & Reliability Management, Vol. 20, No. 6, pp. 704-721. Thompson, E. & Phua F. (2012). A Brief Index of Affective Job Satisfaction. Group & Organization Management 37 (3), 275–307. Rode, J. C. (2004). Job satisfaction and life satisfaction revisited. A longitudinal test of an integrated model. Human Relations, 57(9), 1205-1230. Roughton, James (2002). Developing an Effective Safety Culture: A Leadership Approach (1st ed.). Butterworth-Heinemann. Schaller-Demers, D. (2008). Conflict: A Catalyst for Institutional Change. Journal of Research Administration, 39(2), 81-90. Read More