Employee Relations (Lecture 4)

Employee relations

Employee relations initially known as industrial relations and it is defined the relationship between employer and employee. When employee relations compared with industrial relations, it has a wider concept and recognition in the industry. But today it is focusing on both individual and collective relationships in the workplace, with an increasing emphasis on helping line managers establish trust-based relationships with employees (CIPD, 2018).

According to Blyton and Turnbull, (2004) Employee relations is summarized as per the below,

• Work dominates the lives of most men and women.
• The management of employees, both individually and collectively, remains a central feature of organizational life.
• Within organizations a common interest between management and workforce cannot be assumed, willed, or managed into existence. 

According to Armstrong (2014) employee relations can be define as “Approached and methods adopted by employers to deal with employees either collectively or through their trade unions or individually”.

Importance of Employee Relations

Employee relation helps to build up employee engagement, productivity, motivation and moral in any organization.  Also employee who is in good terms with the manager always feels happy and when he is happy, he works hard, produce better work and this will keep the customer happy which leads to business improvement. Other than these benefits there are some importance in employee relations. ER encourages good organization atmosphere which help to build good understanding and cooperation. Also its helps to clear the issues of an organization (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014).

The parties of employee relations

In any employee relation, it consists of three groups. They are employers, employees, and the government. 

Figure i: Industrial relation system (Naukrihub, 2005)

Source: http://www.naukrihub.com/industrialrelations/industrial-relation-system.html

Processes of industrial relations

Organizations can configure Employee Relations to develop rules, regulations, standards, guidelines, or processes around coaching, discipline, and grievances.

When going through the below diagram that explain process of industrial relations. 

Figure ii: Employee Relations User Guide (Ibid, 2014)

Source: https://docs.infor.com/help_lmhcm_10.2/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.lawson.help.user%2Fcom.lawson.help.ltmerug-uw_10.2.0.0%2Findex.html

To understand the nature of the psychological contract

The mutual expectations people have from one another in a relationship of employer - employees are commonly referred to as a psychological contract (Thomas and Singh, 2011).

According to the Amidah, (1998) one of the first writers to use the term psychological contract is define as the mutual understanding between employees and their employers. 

Types of the psychological contract

The three type of psychological contract that (Thomas and Singh, 2011) explained. Those are mentioned below,

• Transnational: Short term employment arrangement with a specific and definite description of duties and responsibilities.

• Relational: Long-term employment arrangements based upon mutual trust and loyalty

• Balanced: opportunity to develop skill sets and for career advancement, based on skills and performance

Employee Voice 

Employee voice refers to employees have in matters of concern to them in their organization. It is defining two-way, that “allows employees to influence events at work and includes the processes of involvement, participation, upward problem solving and upward communication” (Armstrong, 2011).

According to Millward et al, (1992) the Employee voice describe as the ability of employees to influence the actions of the employer.

When going through below diagram it is more understand a framework of employee voice.

Figure iii: A framework for employee voice (Marchington et al., 2001)

References

Armstrong, M. and Taylor, S., (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. Kogan Page Publishers.

Armstrong, M., (2009). Armstrong’s Handbook Of human resource Management practice 11th edition.

Amidah. B. ( 1998). Forms of Prayer for Jewish Workshop, The assembly of Rabbis of the Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, The Reform Synagogues of Great Britain, London, 145

Blyton, P. and Turnbull, P., (2004). The dynamics of employee relations. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Ibid, (2014). Employee Relations User Guide. [Online]

Available at: https://docs.infor.com/help_lmhcm_10.2/index.jsp?topic=%2Fcom.lawson.help.user%2Fcom.lawson.help.ltmerug-uw_10.2.0.0%2Findex.html [Accessed 10 9 2018].

Millward, N, Stevens, M, Smart, D and Hawes, W R (1992) Workplace Industrial Relations in Transition, Dartmouth Publishing, Hampshire

Marchington, M, Wilkinson, A, Ackers, P and Dundon, A (2001) Management Choice and Employee Voice, CIPD, London

Thomas A, Singh N, (2011). Psychological Contract and its Relevance in Fast-Food Industry. Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 3(6), pp. 337,338.