Conflict of Interest between the Employee and Management - Essay Example

Table of Contents Page Introduction 2 PESTLE Analysis 4 Political 4 Economic 6 Social 8 Technological 10 Legal 11 Environmental 12 Conclusion 13 References 14 Introduction This paper tries to integrate different information and ideas from various views of authors on the subject matter involved. This is in line with finding ways in which organisation’s employment relations are influenced by external factors. Furthermore, the proponent conducts the PESTLE analysis as supported by various examples to substantiate the main point. There are different external factors that try to influence an organisation and they are all within the context of the common components of the business environment. The business environment components specifically involve political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental considerations. These components can combine together that they can substantially create strong influence on the existing employment relations in the corporate world. In order to understand further this issue, there is a need to cover important information about employment relationship management and other related aspects. It is by understanding this that the basic factors influencing employment relationships can be substantiated. Blyton and Turnbull (2004) argued that employee relations, personnel management and human resource management are different areas of studies as far as collective aspects of employment relationship is concerned. Under employee relations, personnel and human resource management, the focus is highly emphasised on individual and employment relationship (Blyton and Turnbull, 2004). However, if this has to be closely observed, the details about employee relations, personnel management and human resource management require basic understanding about individuals. Since this concern about individuals and the organisation, the existence of relationship between these two essential components of the business is a central focus as far as understanding employment relations is concerned. There are different attachments that characterise employment relationship such as employee commitment to organisation’s values and acknowledgement of both instrumental and calculative motives (Leat, 2007). The close tie that exists between the employer and employees is at some point can be attributed to given commitment by the two parties. It is important to understand in detail how this commitment comes into maturity in the business world. According to Daniels (2006), organisation and its employees should together have one common understanding of their corporate goals and such can be enhanced further by employees’ success or failures and their existing relationship. In short, a good relationship existing between employees and the organisation is a good indicator of corporate success. Thus, an organisation’s ultimate goal is to enhance relationship with its employees or workforce. PESTLE Analysis Political Holman et al. (2005) argued that political processes are highly involved in the employee and management relationship considering that the modern design of working processes involves the modern consideration of conflicting interests between the employee and management. This may complement with the idea of Byton and Turnbull (2004) that there is no common interest between the interdependence of corporate world and the employees. One important implication of this in the real world is the continuing existence of boundaries between employees and the organisation. This boundary is without question being instituted by the differences that lead to conflicting interest among employees and the organisation. The idea of Holman et al (2005) and Byton and Turnbull only suggests that in reality there is conflict of interest between the employee and management and this boils down to the politics involved inside and outside of the corporate world. This means therefore that it is not only at the inside part of the corporate realm there is specific influence when it comes to employment relations but even at the outside as far as the conflict of interest is concern. What Holman et al (2005) simply tried to argue is that the world is composed of different conflicting interests and this may continue to create more conflicts in the end because of varying degree of interests. Putting this in the context of employment relations, there is always a predetermined conflict of interest between an organisation and the employees. This conflict starts even if an employee is not yet hired. For instance, the pure interest of employee is to income and the same with the organisation. However, an organisation may demand more specific interest that may be far from the expectation of employee and vise versa. In reality, such expectation is part of the external factors as it can be due to existing condition outside the bound of the organisation. This is the reason why there is a need to orient new entrants employees with the company’s existing policies and standard operating procedures so as to both meet the same expectations and interests that are interdependent at first. As stated earlier, the real source of conflict is the varying degrees of interests among individuals and the organisation. This specifically suggests that the entire control is within the individual and an organisation has nothing to do about it but instead has something to do with eliminating them. This is the reason why motivational aspects in an organisation continue to exist. Organisation is always willing to bridge the gap in the same way, employees are willing to be motivated for as long as their personal interests are met. This can be a great challenge to an organisation considering that there can be a multitude of great challenge outside of its bound. Economic Industrial relations, personnel management and human resource management are practically about management of people. According to Edwards (2003), management of people is the combined human resource management and personnel management that created more refined industrial relations. Edwards argued that industrial relations can be more than manufacturing activity and it encompasses all level of activities in the economic setting of the country. Government possesses values and choices especially in macroeconomic and social policy that have significant influence on the processes and outcomes of employee relations (Blyton and Turnbull, 2004). This pointed out the fact that economic conditions of a certain country always have something to say about the existing relationship between organisations and its workforce. For instance, the economic recession in the United States resulted to significantly high number of people who lost their jobs. Such lost of jobs has been aggravated by the booming economies of other countries such as China. China is known to produce cheap labour which is a good opportunity for international companies as far as creating profit is concern. The idea of Byton and Turnbull especially points out that a country always has a choice to influence the corporate world. After all, it is the government which has the capacity to influence its economy and significantly helps it move into the right way. However, it might turn out that the capitalists are strongly protected by the government in this case. In line with this, there may be speculations that the corporate world is highly protected by the government when it comes to its interest. However, for Blyton and Turnbull (2004), labour and capital are interdependent and such interdependence cannot be considered for common interests. This means further that it is still the government that determines the level of influence that the corporate world can guarantee to its workforce as far as the economic point of view is concerned. However, such of this move is moving forward to common interest which at this point, it is only the government that perfectly sets the bottom line. The idea of Blyton and Turnbull may have the point but based on the reality, corporations always have something to say at the bottom line because they definitely are the ones to help the economy survive. It is because of them that people are substantially given their jobs and such in return have given the government the benefits. This has to be viewed from the economic point of view. In return, the government has the chance to do the necessary things in order for both the people and the corporate world to survive together in harmony. Such move is a specific indication that again, employment relations can be substantially affected by the external factors and at some point may be far from the corporate realm in particular. Social Employment experiences are said to be influenced by work pressures, job satisfaction, work intensity and limited discretion which only showed that many managers in the UK do not essentially address the need of the workforce (Bach, 2005). This is in line with the full control of manager in the operation which influences how the work force should be managed in detail depending on the company’s specific goal. In line with this argument, it is clear that Bach is simply trying to imply that organisations are the ones implementing and are demanding significant pressures on the workforce. In this case, it is clear that an organisation have the potential to create internal influence for the workforce. Such creation of internal influence is a powerful tool why the workforce continues to follow the demand of the company. This gives the entire organisation a hold or control over the workforce. However, in real setting, social context is far more influential when it comes to influencing employment relationship. Study shows that people particularly in Israel have become materialistic and individualistic which influenced employment relations in general as a consequence (Harpaz and Meshoulam, 2010). This only shows that social changes have basically affected how the relationship between employee and employer has been changed in the corporate world. People have the chance to demand because together they can create a unified voice which can become so powerful to influence the corporate world. This in general is a perfect replica how the external sources in the social context can generate results within the corporate world that are influential enough. Culture for instance is basically one of the most important considerations among International corporations when they try to operate in other countries. In fact, the theory of Hofstede and Trompenaars about culture is widely used concept when it comes to understanding employment relationship between two or more interacting cultures in a corporate world. This is due to the fact that there is a strong implication that cultures affect human behavior (Feldman, 2003). This idea is supported by the fact when it has to be viewed at the management’s level of capacity to influence the workforce. Eventually, the management has the capacity to enforce working practices that the employees need to positively respond or resist them at some point for their quality performance (Holman et al., 2005). This only shows the achievement of working practices that are rooted to social and political processes. There is involvement of social processes considering that part of employee and management relationship is an effort to influence psychological processes as argued by Holman et al (2005). Thus, this coincides with the idea of Feldman that culture for instance as a component of social factors is an important element to influence employment relations in the corporate world. In some other countries for instance, women are highly viewed as equal of men. This means that women have equal chance to be regarded higher in their social status just like men. This makes them socially significant and being regarded with the same level of importance in the corporate world just like men. Thus hiring process has become fair for all. This clearly shows that cultural acceptance of women in some society leads to implementation of employment relationship that is designed based on the dictate of the society. This clearly states the point that employment relationship is highly influenced by external factors that are integral parts of the society. Technological Holman et al. (2005) also pointed out that the modern design of work process requires substantial use of technology and part of it is to highly equip workers on the necessary skills. As a result of this, there is a need to focus on the availability of technology and its main function in the workforce. In line with this, organisations have made clear organisational training to effectively increase performance of employees. Such is a specific employment relationship but the bottom line is to come up with effective operation that could both benefit the employee and management. The existence of technology is not about the personal goal of a company but it is about the need to go with competitive advantage. As Porter (1998) pointed out, there is a need to compete and one of the ways to do so is to use the existing promise of technology. Thus, in this case, the external influence is the prevailing competitive advantage which at certain level is powered by technological advancement. Such of this is an external factor that slowly integrate corporate move to create technically-advanced personnel. Legal Since Holman et al (2005) emphasised that workers are active agent in the workforce, the Labour government in the UK and its employment law has substantially created ways for fair and equality to all workers. This is to ensure that exploitation and other negative impacts within the context of employment relationship are eliminated. Workers therefore obtained their absolute protection outside of their organisation because of the governing law instituted by the government for the workers. In fact, Employment law is said to be the areas that substantially undergone fast-paced change in the UK (Daniels, 2004). Employment law provides detailed concerns that highlight employee and management relationship. In this way, it is easy to understand the concept of employment equality, discrimination, harassment, victimisation and other relevant legal rights of both employee and the management (Hardy and Upex, 2006). Both employer and employee are given their essential rights with the instituted Employment law by the government (Lewis and Sergeant, 2007). This means that both parties have essential guidelines on what to do. The idea of employment law therefore is tantamount to protectionism. It is about protecting the interest of employer and employee from different point of view. From the above ideas, employment law may be a special contract covering the significant issues in the labour force. Due to existing labour law and other external factors, the workforce in particular has important privilege that protects them from any subsequent exploitation. Such prevention of exploitation is clearly a positive fuel to obtaining good employment relations. Environmental The current environmental concern is an important issue in employment relations. For instance, many companies which substantially in line with protecting the environment especially on the issue of global warming have substantially equip their employees with basic understanding about the issue. Such is a certain level of employee management that leads to actual employee and management relationship. It is in line with the strengthening of this aspect that will essentially lead to effective implementation of corporate goals. Thus, based on environmental concerns, a car manufacturing company will absolutely increase the understanding of its personnel on the probable issues in line with the environment. After all, the economic activities nowadays are interrelated with the environmental concerns. Conclusion It is clear that employment relation does not originate within the context between the corporate world and employees. In reality, the business environment is an external source of the existing trend in employment relations. In particular, the political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental aspects have corresponding impacts in the business world and the concerned employment relations between the employees and management. References Bach, S. (2005) ‘Personnel Management in Transition,’ in S. Bach (ed.). Managing human resources personnel management in transition. 4th ed. London: Wiley-Blackwell. Blyton, P., and Turnbull, P. (2004) The Dynamics of Employee Relations. Macmillan: Basingstoke. Daniels, K. (2006) Employee relations in an organisational context. Indiana: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development. Daniels, K. (2004) Employment law for HR and business students. Great Britain: CIPD Publishing. Edwards, P (2003) ‘The employment relationship and the field of industrial relations,’ in P. Edwards (ed). Industrial Relations: Theory and Practice. United Kingdom: Blackwell. Feldman, R. S. (2003) Essentials of Understanding Psychology. USA: McGraw-Hill. Hardy, S., and Upex, R. (2006) Employment Law for Business Students. California: SAGE. Harpaz, I., and Meshoulam, I. (2010) ‘The meaning of work, employment relations, and strategic human resources management in Israel.’ Human Resource Management, Vol. 20(3): 212-223. Holman, D., Wood, S., Wall, T. D., and Howard, A. (2005) ‘Introduction to the Essentials of the New Workplace,’ in D. Holman, S. Wood, T. D. Wall, and A. Howard (eds.). The Essentials of the New Workplace: A guide to the human impact of modern working practices. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons. Leat, M. (2007) Exploring employee relations. 2nd ed. Great Britain: Butterworth-Heinemann. Lewis, D., and Sergeant, M. (2004) Essentials of Employment Law. 8th ed. Great Britain: CIPD Publishing. Read More