What is employment relationship - Essay Example

Running Head: Employment Relationship Employment Relationship of the of the CHAPTER What is employment relationship According to Herriot (2001) "an employment relationship needs to have a certain element of care, vision, a sense of mutual obligations, rights and responsibilities and the willingness to give service and support". This should come not only from the employer or employee but both parties should have an equal amount interest in providing their relationship with these key features. This relationship established by the contract of employment places certain rights and obligations on the employers and employees. A good stable working environment, encouraged by good employment relationship, is critical as it has noteworthy implications on the health and well-being of employees. It is an imperative characteristic in any success of any business or organization within the service economy. Service economy is the term used to refer to the comparative importance of service when presenting products. CHAPTER 2: Emotional Labour Whilst many people look on the jobs created by the information economy as "high tech", in actuality and in many respects it is merely new levels of de-skilling and pay differentials. Some parts of the new information economy, such as telesales or call centres, and some information processing jobs such as web content production, have been likened to the sweatshops of traditional manufacturing industries. These jobs even have a high job insecurity ratio. As Belt, Richardson and Webster (2000) put it "Call centre operations do not constitute an 'industry' in the commonly accepted sense, but it is considered sensible to refer to call centres as an industry." So for all required purposes call centres are an excellent example of how employment relationships function within the service economy. Call centre agents are supposed to be friendly cheerful and helpful as we as customers tend to expect this kind of behavior from interactive service workers. This was perceived as "emotional labour" by Hochschild (1983) because a certain degree of emotional investment was required to produce the desired effect. It seems to be a new way to exploit the workers. Van Maanen and Kunda (1989) have said that "organizational culture management, only seem to want to mask managerial attempts to control not only what employees say and do but feel as well." Emotional management seems to have been organized even more efficiently and pushed to the next level. Emotional labour increases stress and decreases job satisfaction immensely. This is proved in the study of five call centres conducted by Deery, Iverson and Walsh in 2000, where "excessive demands on emotional labour lead to a higher propensity of stress, anxiety and emotional exhaustion amongst call centre agents". In her book: Human Resource Management and Occupational Health and Safety, Carol Boyd (2003) has said, "the role of call centre agents is dictated by the immediacy of the production process and a dependency on employees' personal characteristics to deliver high-quality service" and "this is where various techniques aimed at maintaining their sweetness will be deployed". Now thanks to the leap of technology managerial control can even delve and investigate every tiny detail of the call centre agents' work, offering scrupulous and immediate particulars on each agent's activities. The monitoring of the communications and activities of employees in the workplace in the UK must, however, be balanced with requirements under the Human Rights Act 1998 and Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights; organizations must have regard to the private lives of individuals. Tight call-handling times and monitoring combine with performance targets to accelerate the pace of work, without gaining much job satisfaction. This tendency to micro manage results in a sense of self, which is vital to be lost; when agents feel that they are no longer in control of their lives and their emotions and experiences but rather their employer is. This factor is a serious hygiene factor, the presence of it will not motivate the workers to be more productive but the absence of it will definitely de-motivate them. It is up to their managers and supervisors to know when to draw the line. Herriot (2001) uses the metaphor of how a family is supposed to care for each other to illustrate this point. Just like family members are supposed to be primary care givers so are employers supposed to make sure that their call centre agents are not going through any severe emotional upheaval because of their jobs. A brilliant example would be California's high technology firm, Silicon Valley. CHAPTER 3: Employment contract and Safety Issues Another issue that seems to crop up in call centres is the extensive hours that call centre agents are required to put in. Call centre agencies are even sometimes called whit collar sweat shops because of the labor law violations, low wages and lack of safety. There have been cases where the pay isn't just low, it's below the legal minimum wage; and cases where large numbers of workers have been deprived of basic legal entitlements such as health, pension and employment benefits. Braver (1974) insists that while call centre may offer job enhancement and creative opportunities, the employers' thirst for control over the labour process will mean that the technology will be utilized in a way that ultimately degrades and dehumanises work. This condition is this industry may be because of the pressure to cut costs while still providing the same level of service. It can be seen as exploiting people who are helpless and need work by making them work for more than 8 hours at repetitive task they hate in appalling conditions. The high concentration of people and constant occupation of call centres leads to an unhealthy growth of germs and bacteria, these lead to definite sickness. The temperature, air quality and humidity are problems identified by call center employees, most really have no say in the kind of environment they are forced to work in. This seems comparable to the workers in Nike and Adidas sweatshops who are forced to work in bleak, windowless and suffocating factories. Yet, one may wonder how a call centre can be unsafe to its agents The agents at the centre may suffer from acoustic shock, where call centre agents suffer deafness or tinnitus from constant exposure to extremely loud noises through their headsets. The main problem when such violations occur is in the employment contract. According to the UK's department of trade and industry, all headsets are supposed to incorporate acoustic shock protection. However this precaution is not taken in every call centre as it is expensive e.g., a worker who worked at Gobain suffered sufficient hearing loss to sue and she recieved 5,500 as compensation. But most agents aren't even aware of their rights. 90 percent of call centre worker don't even receive instructions, training or even simple information on the risks of the level of noise. Employers are supposed to allow their agents a 20 minute break away from their workstations every 6 hours according to The Working Times Regulation. Failure to provide such adequate breaks is direct violation. In a study conducted by Taylor and Bain (2001) agents sometimes had to ask permission to go the toilet, they were hauled up to the manager to explain why they were going on toilet breaks and managers even brought disposable nappies to the call centre and threatened any one who went on too many toilet breaks with them. Now because of the rigid job conditions, instead of agents being recruited and developed within the organization, flexible employment contracts are implemented so that those who whine can so be treated. As a consequence there is no real prospect of moving up in the organization. Call centres has a higher proportion of temporary and short-term contract workers than any other. The industry has even been successful in developing a new word for such kind of jobs: permatemp - such jobs grantee no security as they are neither temporary nor permanent, such wokers (call centre agents for instance) are kept on a regularly reviewed short-term contract. The approach of short-term or regularly reviewed contracts in the UK has recently been challenged because of reforms to the national insurance rules. Self-employed people pay their own national insurance contributions, but on a lower rate than the equivalent total paid by an employee and employer's contributions. The new rules propose that freelance workers whose main income comes from one contract should be treated as employees. This has met with great opposition from within this industry; employers say it would increase costs and remove their flexibility by being able to dispense with staff at short notice. Some call centres employ agents with issuing contracts for this very reason, in such conditions basic rights as provided by the law pertain to both employer and employee. However it is a virtually non-existent practice to employ with contracts. CHAPTER 4: Off Shoring If agents start causing to many problems such as demand an increase in pay and all their rights most companies start off shoring to third world countries to reduce the cost of operations. Lately high-turnover rates (due to poor working conditions and other competitive call centres) also seem to be a reason for off shoring. Call centres tend to be moved to third world countries where the workers are cheaper and more readily available; as a result call centre agents from the country of origin lose their jobs. As you can see where such off shoring generates jobs for the third world countries, it is the jobs of the agents in the country of origin that are lost. Huws, Jagger and O'Reagan (1999) argue that "This has particular ramifications for worker health since health hazards such as repetitive strain injury, back and neck problems, eye strain and a range of stress-related disorders are reported as being particularly acute in offshore call-center facilities". Wherever call centres locate the implications of employment pattern and skills are not only significant in the host country but in the country of origin too, as employers will start to demand and expect similar patterns. In the era of globalization an employer who doesn't understand the importance of culture as a determinant to the success of the employment relationship is doomed. Service management and employment strategies should vary substantailly across the different markets Seemingly, the third world countries only hire those who are at the very least in college or college graduates but yet their pay is only one-tenth of what a UK call centre agent may earn. Dossani and Kenny (2004) have said that such advantages keep encouraging call centre firms to out source as they outshine UK centres in cost, performance and quality. Unfortunately there has been a certain amount of hostile response from consumers and there is a lack of security, this has led to many agencies moving out of third world countries and booming firms such as GE have even simply sold off their offshore agencies. This in turn leads to a lower standardization of work processes and over-utilization of human capital. Just creating jobs shouldn't be a reason for celebration; the jobs need to be of a certain standard with proper working terms, conditions and benefits. However, the companies in third world countries such as India have benefited from UK off shoring. The stocks of companies such as Infosys, Wipro and Satyam have been at an all time high this year. On the other hand companies such as Dell have taken a hit because their quality control has been questioned. CHAPTER 5: Discrimination There also seems to be a high amount of discrimination against females by employers in call centres. Women seem to be pushed only into jobs which require little or no technological knowledge, such as at the customer service or sales. Men on the other hand are given better jobs with not only better titles but also better wages such as jobs at the software help-desk. Are employers intentionally pushing women aside Or is it simply because men in general seem to be more aware of technology Women are more sociable and emphatic and so seem to have much better communication skills than their male counter parts. Belt (2000) reports how a number of managers in the case-study call centres believed that women tend to be more adept than men at 'handling' the most routine work, and were able to 'stick at the job' and 'keep themselves motivated' under pressure. As Macdonald and Sirianni (1996) explain, 'women are expected to be more nurturing and empathetic than men and to tolerate more offensive behavior from customers', consequently the jobs they are given are at the lower end of the call centre industry spectrum. Their jobs tend to be boring and repetitive and they are exposed to a greater load of potentially abusive and dangerous clients. Unfortunately women whose flexibility and resilience is rewarded by stereotyping employers giving them low- rewarding jobs may end up suffering with work and stress related illnesses. As Stanworth (2000) notes, "here is much evidence that old forms of gender segregation and inequality persist in the information economy, with female-dominated occupations still downgraded and regarded as low in status and vulnerable to automation, while the new high-status technical jobs are overwhelmingly occupied by men". The essentials that females bring to an employment relationship in are no way different from what men bring to the same type of employment relationship. If employers were to always stereotype females then they should also look at the other side of the picture. Mathew (1997) says that women are known for their nurturing, emotionally expressive features which carry them through any type of relationship. Their sensitivity enables them to have such concern for their relationships that they will have more success then men. However they should also be allowed to show themselves to be just as independent and decisive as men. Women who have a strong gender identity and struggle to make an impact often find themselves marginalized and their commitment questioned. The big question how is will organizations come to a balance that will enable a satisfactory employment relationship Women and men both have different qualities which are essential for any business, and instead of treating one as superior and another as inferior they should be made to function in such a way that they are compliment one another. The Burton group is one such company that has understood this and has embraced each gender's individuality while alienating or showing bias towards neither. At Charles Schawb, women make up 36% of the cooperate officers, it was recently recognized by catalyst, a company dedicated to advancing women in business. CHAPTER 6: Summary Individuals have different personalities which have definite and prominent elements that emphasis a person's uniqueness. It is these qualities that need to be appreciated. If that happens then they favour certain fundamentals of an employment relationship. Employers need to stop treating their employees as just random working machines but as individuals. Of course it is not possible to treat everyone as a separate entity, so it has to be somewhere in between the two extremes. If an employment relationship is good, sound and trusted then employees will free to express themselves. As such dialogue, which is primary for the innate expression of emotions need to be initiated so that people can openly talk about their feelings and experiences. Sometimes this could prove to be destructive as when people are intensely, emotionally involved in something verbal situations can be explosive. However it is necessary for such "dialogues" to take place so that the gulf between the employers and employees can be bridged. Thus these dialogues need to be managed in a particular fashion, with an unbiased third party to act as moderator, so, that both the workers (agents) and managers hear each other out and learn something from each other. To reduce friction practices such as enhanced training and development, improved communication with employees and greater employee involvement in decision-making, along with a more participative management style, should be observed. In addition, better physical working conditions and greater variety in work were proposed. Many of the proposed remedies are simply good practice. References AshForth, B.E and Humphrey, R.H. (1993) "Emotional labour in service roles: the influence of identity", Journal of Academy Managemrnt Review 18: 88-115 Belt, V. (2000, April) "Call girls: women, work and the telephone', paper presented to the 18th Annual International Labour Process Conference, University of Strathclyde. Belt,V., Richardson, R. and Webster, J. (2000) 'Women's work in the information economy: the case of telephone call centres', Journal of Information, Communication and Society 3(3): 366-85. Braverman, H. (1974) Labour and Monopoly Capital: the Degradation of Work in the Twentieth Century, New York: Monthly Review Press . Deery, S. , Iverson, R. and Walsh, R. (2000, February) 'Work relationships in telephone call centres: understanding emotional exhaustion and employee withdrawal', paper to the International Industrial Relations Conference, Manchester. Boyd, C. (2003). Human Resource Management and Occupational Health and Safety. London: Rutledge. Herniott, P. (2001) The Employment Relationship: A Psychological Perspective. New York: Routledge Hochschild, A. R. (1979) 'Emotion work, feeling rules, and social structure', American Journal of Sociology 85: 551-75. Huws, U., Jagger, N. and O'Regan, S. (1999) Teleworking and Globalisation, Institute for Employment Studies, Report No. 358. Macdonald, C.L and Sirrani, C. (1996) Working in the Service Society, Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Matthews, G. (1997) "The big five as a framework for personality assessment" International Handbook of Selection and Assessment. Chichester: Wiley. Stanworth, C. (2000) 'Women and work in the information age', Journal on Gender, Work and Organization 7(1): 20-32. Taylor, P. and Bain, P. (2001) 'Trade Unions, Workers' Rights and the Frontier of Control in UK Call Centres'. London: Sage Publications. Van Maanen, J. and Kunda, G. (1989) "Real feelings: emotional exhaustion and organizational culture", Journal of Research in Organisational Behaviour 11: 43-103 Read More