Analyse employment relations - Essay Example

?Analyze employment relation Employment relation is a new and modern term that is used in place of industrial relations. Starting with industrial relations, it is the association and affairs established between unions and management that includes collective bargaining, negotiation, and consultation, all effectively managed. As for the employment relation, it is the changes in the socio political context that now includes HRM, and a reduced power of labor unions along with agile management and altering social attitudes. Thus, creating a more diverse landscape, it is also related to the relationship that the management and the employees hold with each other in almost every area of the industry. It can be easily stated that employment relation works better if taken as a philosophy, rather than a function of the management (Wilton, 2010). In the Australian context, the changes have been rather massive in both the areas. These being innovative in nature have brought many new terms in the employment relations, such as commitment, involvement, and performance of the high order. Thus, the management has started to work on new ways to inculcate factors, such as team work and multitasking, so that higher productivity can be achieved. This makes the need to study employment relations huge over the years (Lansbury, 2000). However, it has also been observed that employees working in the aforementioned country are not happy with what has been going on. This means that they feel that the wok is too much and provides very low security. Thus, the need to cater to such issues has also risen in the recent year, which has increased the need to cater to employment relations more (Appelbaum et al. 2000, Davis and Gollan, 1999, Wood and Albanese, 1995, Lansbury, 2000). The following lines will be discussing the whys and hows of the employee relations and changes that occurred recently in this arena. The following lines will also be examining why industrial relations have become less relevant to the study of workplace relations now, than it was in 1980, as well as determining the extent to which the term employment relations best describe the changes that have occurred in workplaces since 1980, relating it with the Australian working arena. As far as the strengths and weaknesses of the unitarist, pluralist, and radical theoretical perspectives are concerned, it has been observed that the unitarist perspective aims at employee commitment, as well as loyalty by the fusion of the interests of both, employee as well as the employer (Guest and Peccei, 2001 & The Typed Gold, 2010). Also, used for stakeholder management, it caters to handing a win-win situation for the managers by aligning the goals and interests of both parties. However, this perspective also has its weaknesses; this theory does not cater to the power imbalance between the parties and must identify that managers hold an upper hand in terms of power. As conflict is a highly off-putting clause here, it ignores the fact that there are also certain conflicts that are advantageous to the organization in nature, for example the task conflict. Other than that, it is also unclear about how the feelings of the worker are aligned with those of the employer. As for the pluralist perspective, it caters to effective IR interventions made to resolve conflicts that act as a substitute in decision making process. The approach does not ignore conflict like the one stated previously and uses the same conflict scenario to understand the roots of many problems. The current perspective, thus, might have companies that have a ‘no union policy’ as well as those that encourage such unions so that diverse cultures can be obtained. It does not, however, ignore the fact that unions have a role. Yet, this perspective also holds certain weaknesses, such as too much reliance on rules and regulations, and somewhat also ignores those processes that directly help resolving conflicts (Gennard, and Judge, 2002 and the typed gold, 2010). Furthermore, it also fails to realize that state has commercial interest as well and not just public. Economics has always had a rather special relation with neo-institutionalism. This approach manages to pull down the traditional barriers and thus presents a different view when it comes to dealing with the employee perspective. Where it was assumed that there is only one form of leadership and conflict must be avoided, the other caters to the differences in interests towards the management’s advantage. The approach under discussion is however effective for organizational goals and presents a wide array of efforts to inculcate the art of increasing satisfaction, motivation, and loyalty in the organization (The typed gold, 2010). Considering the history, the 70s are regarded as one of those periods that came with great changes. When the economic performance took a rain check and the changes in the public as well as domestic policies were brought in, the role of employment relations grew bigger and bigger. In the 80s, it was stated that the Australian economy had a stable problem of unbalanced policies of domestic protection. Thus in 1987, unions were brought in the decision-making by the ACTU. However, it obtained little support and the government continuously introduced market-based solutions. It was observed that when it came towards explaining the trends of the employment relation, the labor market failed to do so, and introduced external as well as internal problems. Evidently, the long term trends began after the year 1985; it was observed that the only sector that was seen prosperous was the service sector, while the agriculture and manufacturing sector declined consistently. Therefore, the amount of employed persons also changed and was twice of what it was previously in the areas, such as property and business services; accommodation, cafes and restaurants; cultural and recreational services; and health and community services that greatly increased the need to cater to the employment relations in Australia (Lansbury, 2000). The Australian government is currently in the era to change where traditional neo liberalism is being transformed. More specifically, the clash in the objectives of the employer and employees, and the intervention of third parties, has brought in neo-liberalism with the help of clauses, like management objectives and competence of the market. According to Bell & Head (1994), the Australian government is currently holding the role of activists in the free market. Thus, the government practical intervention is being questioned with the contradiction of intervention by state and market forces (Baird, Ellem and Wright, 2005). From the inception of the 90s, the labor government stayed in power that witnessed a reduction in union power as well as the arbitration role. So basically, the government has enabled bypassing unions in order to directly contact the employer, but the states on the other hand, have indicated a green signal for collective bargaining. Therefore, the states have a very important role and matter a lot as their policies are not the same as of the government. In such a situation, an alignment of these policies must be done immediately and it must be understood that there is a significant state owned power in the IR institutions. This means, that the levels of power they possess vary with states. Thus, a critical eye must be given to not only the IR institutions, but also the governments and lobby groups (Baird, Ellem and Wright, 2005). There are always certain factors that contribute in the employee relations. One of the biggest factors is the relations between management and union with the nature of externalization. Other than that, three other important areas where the management has played a significant role is the industrialization process, product markets, and the pre-industrial culture. Basically, industrialization was the main reason behind introducing the concept of modern firm (Smith and Williams, 2010). Certain management functions that are directly affected by handling employee relations are quality, improvement, output, and labor costs which are attained through decision making, involving the management as well as the trade unions, and unilateral and effective consultations with the previously stated parties (Bray, Waring & Cooper, 2011). The role is not only limited to the external factors of the organizations. Other than the previously stated roles, the management is also responsible for including employees’ consent when work allocation and its direction are discussed. It is thus a duty of the management to discuss the level of authority on them and autonomy they hold (Smith and Williams, 2010). With the effective use of HRM strategies, the management can easily define it’s firm as either good, bad, ugly and lucky which can be understood by the following diagram. Source: Smith and Williams, 2010 Beginning with the role of unions in the overall economic development, history states that management has one way or the other always found its presence necessary. More specifically, where in the beginning trade unions were discouraged, now accommodations are made revolving around meeting the demands of the workers. The role of the union in the organizations is very important in almost every matter related to the employee (South shore profile, 2011). Thus the following areas highlight the role of the union as well as the advantages they provide: Increasing effectively in the recruitment and selection processes. Instilling order and control in the workforce of organizations A way of bringing rationality in resolving disputes of any nature Aiding the social adjustments. It is up to the employee to adjust him or herself accordingly, but as every employee has a different background and there are chances that frustration and dissatisfaction may rise, unions play the role to make them adjust to the new working conditions much easily than anyone else. With a reduction in disputes, playing the role of promoting national integration. Inculcating CSR in the employees Maintain peace within the industry As far as the future of unions in the Australian system of employment relations is concerned, history states that unions have played an important role in the Australian industries because of the fact that the union membership was kept rather high. Currently, the same unions have gone one notch up and have inculcated new strategies in their plans so that their relevance to the employee relations is maintained and new employees are attracted to join. In future, these unions will be adopting more roles that aid the employees directly as well as the organization with services like financial advice, legal aid, discount in insurance, and access to the internet (South shore profile, 2011). The impact of the non-union representation in Australian workplaces can be stated with the fact that it would directly provide the social effect in the workplaces. More specifically, the Australian working condition will be affected with things like workplace democracy, protection of the environment, and putting the legal effects in action. In European countries, the participation is apparent through work councils, which mean that they hold the power of maintaining democracy through a collective voice. As for the question of whether unionized bargaining is the best means by which employees can have a ‘voice’ in the decision-making process within organizations or not, it is important to realize the areas which have strong impact on this clause. The areas are thus, legal, political, economic, as well as moral where negotiation, terms and conditions, and decision making are the advantages both parties can attain. Talking specifically about the voice of the employees, the unionized bargaining is a way of promoting the rights of the workers as well as establishing their ideals where working conditions, the right to work like promotion, autonomy, and employee tenures are ensured. The entire process of bargaining began in the Australian workforce after the inception of 1980s. The process was begun by the government of Hawke Labor which was further aided by the movements of the unions. With the aim of decentralizing the entire system of employee relation, it was observed that bargaining played a very important role in the Australian system of employment relations, where the collaborations developed between the employees and the management is the main reason of improving the productivity of the workplace. There are always massive chances of an increase in dialogue between the parties where the role of bargaining should be bringing in social agreements. Of course, in order to achieve this, detailed and significant negotiations should be carried out to merge the differences (Lansbury, 2000). The industrial conflict can be easily defined as the situation where working and employment conditions create disputes between the employee and employer parties. The conflicts created thus develop groupings which have divergent interests. These conflicts may be unorganized when the employees are low in skill level, or organized headed by union leaders where the employees have a high level of knowledge, skills and abilities. When conflicts arise in the workplace, the four basic causes that create industrial conflict are: demands in wages, setting and circumstances provided in the company, policies, and several issues that are political and social in nature. In a more detailed explanation, causes for industrial conflict that arise due to overtime payments, rise in inflation, and the issues related to Cost of living allowance (COLA) are the wage demands; conflicts due to damage to the employees and over staffing can be attributed to the working condition; conflicts due to leaves, promotions, and low input from the employees can be attributed to the policies by management; and conflicts due to bigger issues of a cause can be attributed to social as well as political issues (Bikicrumb,2008). Therefore, it can be stated that relations between the employees and employer have a direct relationship with the productivity and high performance of the workplaces. More specifically, if the employment relations are in good condition, then the productivity and high performance workplace increases. However, if the same relationship turns up bad, the productivity and high performance also turn bad. As for the unions, they are a source of long term investments of positive change. The unions bridge the issues from both sides, and adopt the role of a communication infrastructure, so that high performance can be achieved. In this way, the necessary trust, security, coordination, and a positive mindset is also created that serve as the basic factor of the organizations success (Gill and Meyer, 2008). References Appelbaum, E., Bailey, T. Berg, P. and Kalleberg, A.L. 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Journal of Management Studies, 36 (2) 485-515, 1995 Read More