Employee Relations: Decision-Making Procedures

Employee Relations Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Employee Relations Due to the rapid technological advancements and globalization of businesses, employee relations have become an integral part of organizations. For the past two decades, organizational workforce has been changing as well, it is getting more diverse. The rapid change in employee diversity has called for new developments to manage employee relations within an organization. Employee relations have been considered to be the relationship that exists between employers and employees. Employees are the most important resources an organization hence being termed as the organization’s most valuable assets. This is because the nature and amount of tasks that they complete have a direct impact on the overall performance of the organization. Therefore maintaining a healthy relationship is crucial in achieving the overall objectives of the organization. Therefore, employee relations are involved with the interactions among parties to the employment relationship. The involved parties include employers, employees, trade unions and state agencies that play third party roles. Armstrong (2009) asserts that employee relations involve various areas of human resources management that are concerned with employee relationships either directly or through trade unions. The purpose of employee relations is to ensure that there are effective decision-making procedures in handling employee-relation issues such employee motivation and conflict resolutions (Beardwell & Claydon, 2007). Moreover, Beardwell and Claydon (2007), argue that good employee relations leads to a motivated and committed workforce, fewer disputes and improved productivity. There are three theories that have been adopted to analyse employee relations within an organization. They are; unitary theory, pluralist theory and Marxism theory (Teicher & Holland, 2002). Each approach provides a particular perspective in regard to employee relations to help in the interpretations of various events such as role of employee unions, conflicts, employee-manager relations and job regulation. These approaches are contradictory based on their principles. Unitarianism Theory The unitary perspective considers an organization to be like family which is unified to a single authority and loyalty structure. Unitary approach emphasizes on common values, interests and objectives. Those who utilize this perspective consider an organization to be a team hence the emphasis on shared values and goals. This implies that employers and employees have a common interest for the survival of the organization. In this perspective, in case of the occurrence of a conflict, it is unlikely to affect the organization to a point that it can dissolve. Conflicts that may arise are considered to a result of personality disorders, poor communication, inappropriate recruitment and promotion strategies or deviance of the employees. The theory suggests that in order to avoid such conflicts that may affect the “natural order” of the firms operations, the management must be identify and remove potential factors that may cause the conflict. This can be achieved by ensuring that there is fairness and equitability in the recruitment and promotion process. Additionally, it must ensure that the communication systems put in place in the organization are effective (Teicher & Holland, 2002). This ensures that employees are well informed about their interests and the likely consequences of those who may cause conflicts. Moreover, it must ensure that the workforce acknowledges the organization as the only source of authority and any different source such as trade unions will be eliminated. Pluralist theory This approach differs from the unitary perspective by first looking at various assumptions and values that conflicts are inevitable in organizations. Those who hold to this perception consider organizations to be complex social constructions that consist various interest groups. Employees and the management are such groups that due to the nature of the system tend to subscribe to different values and objectives. In this perspective, it is assumed that different sources of authority are likely to exist and conflicts between them will always be present as a result of disagreements in duties and rewarding system (Heery, 2016). The acknowledgement the existence of conflicts in the workplace, the followers of this perception consider conflicts to be a crucial element for the health of an organization and helps in bringing the grievances of the employees to the attention of the management. Additionally, conflicts enable the management to explore various methods for handling the conflict to produce desired results. The acknowledgement of the existence of alternative sources of authority such as trade unions, it is held that they provide various benefits such as allowing the organization to address employee relation issues in a collective manner. Based on this, it does not only provide the management with an efficient approach of institutionalizing terms of employment and reducing conflicts, but also encourages fairness during negotiations (Kaufman & Gall, 2016). These conceptions are the ones that make pluralists accept the rights of employees such as collective bargaining and be presented by their trade unions. Marxism Theory The Marxist perspective holds that employee relations are a relation of conflict of class interests between employers and employees. The employers attempt to maximize their profits by upholding a surplus value and paying their employees lower wages. Employees raise conflicts about their share in the results because they are the most important factor of production in this case. The Marxists perceive employee relations to be a process of a continuous conflict of interests between employers and employees. These conflicts will only end in a socialist society where employees are in control. Marxists argue that the weaknesses and contradictions present in a capitalist system will lead to revolutions; a capitalist system will lead to a monopolistic labor market; wages will be reduced to the subsistence level; and employers and employees will be in constant competition to win. This perspective is emphasizes on the division of interest among employers and their employees. It focuses on the structure and nature of the society and perceives that workplace conflicts reflect the society’s nature. Therefore, it considers conflicts to be inevitable in the workplace and the emergence of trade unions is a natural response. Modern Organizations Modern organizations have an influence and in turn are influenced by the environment. An organization’s internal environmental factors especially its practices affect its external environment especially through the products and services it provides. On the other hand, the external environment does not only affect the practices of an organization, but also influences the direction they will take in the future. Therefore, the internal and external factors of an organization have an impact on employee relations. The following are some of the factors that affect the modern employee relations. * Competition- with the rapid technological advancements and globalization, organizations are facing stiff competition and they require employees with the necessary skills and knowledge to give the firms a competitive advantage in the market place. * Technological changes- there are dynamic changes in relation to the operations of firms. Some of the processes are being automated and this might affect employee relations since some employees may be laid off. Moreover, the rapid changes in information technology are also rendering some skills obsolete forcing the organization to organize employee trainings. * Economic changes- these affects the manner a firm operates. During recession periods, organizations are forced to cut costs which include reducing employee incentives and salaries, laying some off and utilizing part-time employees only. * Globalization- The increasing wave of a global economy is making organizations to change their operations. Moreover, globalization has brought global practices that must be observed and employees have unlimited access to them due to technological advancements. The management is forced to incorporate these practices into its culture. * Government policies- these policies influences the behaviour of a firm. For example, government interventions are inevitable in various aspects of an organization. They include wages and salaries and employee rights in the market. There are other factors such as changes in the dynamic customer tastes and preferences implying that employees should have the skills and knowledge of addressing these new demands. Additionally, social changes such as an increase in the number of skilled population and unemployment levels are affecting employee relations. Moreover, the increasing trend in decentralization of organizations and virtual organizations affects employee relations in an organization. Unitarianism in Modern Employee Relations In the modern employee relations, most organizations have adopted the unitary perspective though in a modified form. The overall objective of an organization determines its strategic direction and vision and all its operations are geared towards the achievement of that vision (Armstrong, 2009). Therefore, the objectives of employees should be aligned with those of the organization to facilitate goal congruence where the objectives of the employees fit into those of the organization. The primary objective of the modern organizations is to utilize employees in such a manner that they obtain the best results from employees in an efficient and effective manner. On the other hand, employees need to be rewarded for their efforts. The overall goals of both parties should be aligned and if one has superior than the other, it must be willing to adjust in order to accommodate the other one. The modern organizations have adopted the HRM paradigm which in itself is unitary. HRM is strategic in addressing the contemporary employee relation issues. Its basic principle is the utilization of employees in order to realize the strategic objectives of the organization. Therefore, the overall goal of HRM is to integrate the goals of both parties (Budd, 200...