EMPLOYEE RELATIONS REQUIRES AN INTEGRATED APPROACH FROM MANAGEMENT - Essay Example

Guidelines are drawn to assist the employee understanding of the goal and objectives set by the management, more so, information is given to help the employees while taking corrective action and they are further given advise on how to go about bargaining their terms of employments, legislation and regulation. Employees relations is some times confused or used as a synonym for industrial relation since it deal with the relationship of workers and management and the conduct of workers in the in work place.

To understand the employee relations, one must start by understanding the legal frame work in the work place, and then consider the social psychological influence aspect part of the employee in terms of trust, communication and commitment. In deep understanding of the employee relations, it's important to consider factors that influence the employer employee relationship Globalization is one of the factors affecting the employee relations, otherwise known as the industrial relations. Strategic management is important because changes in employee relations has resulted to increased bargaining power of the employees, flexibility in working time as well as changing job functions and this has occurred due to the increase in competition, product processes changes due to consumer awareness combined with the increasing essence in quality, productivity and skills.

An integration of all these factors has had impact on the practices and policies of the management. While managing change in the firm, the employee involvement in making sure the change is effected is very important while the management has to ensure that the skills processed by the employees are compatible with those required in the market to meet the customer needs. The results of globalization are that:- Countries have become more interdependent economically than before due to the breakdown of barriers of trade hence they cannot become self reliant.

Governments have been unable to control information, technology and capital flow across the boundaries.Markets are now not regulated allowing the goods, services and capital to integrate like the European UnionCompanies are becoming global entities which are forming the global webs due to de-nationalization of firmsThe firms have discovered the importance of remaining competitive in the market b y producing high quality services and goodsA strategic human resource management is essential in making sure the objectives of production of high quality products, ability to counter fast to the dynamics of the market and continuous innovation are attained, and this can only be achieved through employee training, involvement and intrinsic and extrinsic rewards, this making the employee relations to be of paramount importance in management.

In many firms which include the general motors, the employee relations are taken to consist of five values which have enabled the management to succeed in achieving its objectives, these are:How the works are organizeAcquisition skills and development of employeesCompensation and pay processes and structuresSecurity arrangements on employment and staffingLabor management issuesWith the increased importance of the employee relations, the human resources is has shifted it focus to quality, innovation and reduction of the cost.

The importance of human resource management (HRM) is reflected in the personnel management in the firms. Employee