Labor Relations - Union Free or Unionized Environment - Essay Example

They also influence the employees’ social needs and the relationship between the management and the workers. They are however not a guarantee to increased productivity in the workplace, since they may limit the employees from giving the Company their best performance. This may be because of the union’s influence as it highlights some of the needs of workers XYZ does not fulfill (Sporgnardi, 2000). Making the employees aware of these needs may introduce and increase the number of strikes in the workplace.

Differences between operating in a union-free environment and in a unionized environment In a union free environment, the decision the management makes solely concentrates on increasing productivity of the organization. This may be through directly investing in the organization, for example investing in intensive marketing of the company’s products. The indirect method involves corporate social responsibility, where the organization creates the best working environment and introduces awards for the best performing employee.

In a Unionized environment however, there is presentation of the interests of two parties: the employer and the worker. The unions assume that the workers provide optimum services to the organization hence, strives to increase the wages of its members. They force the employers into increasing wages and introducing strategies in the organization that show that they treat them fairly in the workplace. This influences the decisions the management makes because it has to put into consideration the demands of the union (Kaufman, 2001).

The Human Resource management is more effective in a union free environment than in a unionized environment. In a union free environment, the managers carry out research on how to improve the efficiency of the employees. They carry out activities such as job analysis, in order to develop job descriptions and job specifications that would enable them in formulating the salary structure for all its employees. The employees, in this environment, deal with the management directly in terms of payment increase or incentives.

In a unionized environment, the union stands out as the sole bargaining agent. The employees compile a report of conditions in the workplace, which the union considers in order to come up with a collective agreement on how to solve conflicts in the organization, increasing the wages and how the management should improve the working conditions. Management in union free environment is unable to question the decisions the heads of department and top managers make in the organization. It is therefore not a guarantee that all their decisions are efficient in the productivity of the company.

The workers union, on the other hand, is able to question any decision the employers make. This may result to the managers coming up with creative solutions that may be more productive. The CEO of XYZ may embrace the aristocratic style of leadership, where the management should not question his decisions. Some of the decisions that he would make would have a negative impact on the employees, for example increasing the production line without increasing the number of employees in the workplace, hence overworking the employees.

This may lead to production of low quality products that may result to reduced sales level. The union’