Human Resource Management - Essay Example

Labour relations is an important aspect of managing people. Basically, it is a process that involves understanding people and their values, norms, needs and understanding the generation and handling of conflicts. It also involves the understanding of power and trust underpinning the tripartite relationship between the state, employer and employee (Amos et al 2008). All the organisations operate in a dynamic environment during the contemporary period and reforms in the labour relations are indispensable given that they affect the overall performance of the whole organisation in different ways.

There are various technological, political, social and economic changes that are taking place in the environment in which organisations operate. This makes change inevitable and LR cannot be an exception since there will be need to take into consideration the actual situation obtaining on the ground. For instance, an employee who fails to perform to the expectations of the organisation is not only costly to it but can affect its overall performance while bad labour laws can also negatively impact on the organisations (Grobler et al 2006).

The needs and interests of the employees in particular are constantly changing in response to the changing environment in which the organisations operate. There is need to strike a fine balance among the factors that affect the labour relations such as the state, employees as well as the employers. More importantly, the LR is meant to minimise the chances of conflicts in the workplace. Conflicts are counter-productive since the disgruntled workers will not put optimal effort in their performance.

Each particular country has got labour laws that are meant to guide the operations of organisations in a fair manner. To a greater extent, the system of governance obtaining in a given country is responsible for shaping labour laws and this is subject to change. For instance, the