Human Resource Management
Employee Relations Strategies and Trade Unions
Introduction
Human resource is considered as the most important resource of any organization. That is the reason why there are different strategies and plans that are being implemented by different companies in order to make sure productivity. The management of people is considered as one of the most vital and challenging areas of business management and most of the organization believe that it is taken very seriously (Gennard & Judge 2005, p. 41).
Employee relations consists of all the important areas of human resource management or HRM that involve the general relationship with the employees, in the course of collective agreement where in the trade unions are recognized, and/or through generally applied policies for the involvement and communications of the employee (Armstrong 2000, p. 242).
Different employee relations strategies defines the entire intensions of the organization regarding what needs to be done and what are the needs to be changed in the ways in which the organization will enable to manages their relationship and communications with the employees as well as their respective trade unions. Unlike the HR strategy, the employee relations strategies focus from the business strategy and also aim to support it (Armstrong 2000, p. 242).
Human Resource Strategies
A great human resource strategy must provide a compelling and convincing business case for aligning people and organization with business strategy. It helps to command the attention of the entire management and build the specific commitment for the required resources as well as the support for the implementation. Great strategies create different dissatisfaction with the current state and then build an acute sense of urgency and readiness to change (Walker 1999, p. 11).
It is important to make sure that the human resource strategies are integral to the business strategy. That is why it is important that the HRS is developed with accordance to the context of the organization’s current and ongoing strategic management process. Thus the people and organization issues are directly related to the given strategic business issues, that is why in return, it must be derived from the forces that drives the business and other critical business success factors (Walker 1999, p. 11).
In addition to that, all the right levers are also connected to change. Different people and organizations issues are commonly complex, that requires attention to the multiple levers for the process of strategy implementation, including the different processes or organization, development, recruiting and staffing, rewards and appraisal, performance management as well as the entire employee relations. It is important to focus on application of HRS as a systems approach that will diagnose and develop the alignment of the levers with the strategies via the application and use of alignment as well as fit model (Walker 1999, p. 11).
Above all, it is important to make sure that the human resource will help to create value. It must support the business strategy in focusing on delivering superior value to customers, superior connections with the suppliers and distributors as well as superior position in the market compare to the competitors. In addition to that, it must help to bring innovative ideas that will contribute to the success of the organization, thus enabling the organization to differentiate itself in the market (Walker 1999, p. 11).
Organizational Values and Ethics and Human Resource Strategies
Organizational ethics is the articulation, application and implementation of the consistent values and moral position of a given organization where in it is defined and classified both in internal and external manner (Spencer & Mills 2000, p. 5). In simple terms, organizational ethics is considered as the ethics of an organization about how it responds to the different internal and external stimulus. The said action of the organization is based on the organizational culture. Organizational ethics focuses on the value and importance of the employees and other stakeholders and entities that are connected to the plans of the organization.
Organizational ethics has a huge impact over the human resource strategy. This is due to the fact that organizational ethics focuses on the importance of the individual, team, stakeholder, management leadership, human resources, group interaction and relationship and the psychological framework that are related to the division of labor in different types of organization.
It is important to remember that leadership and management plays an important and vital role towards the creation and implementation of human resource strategies.
In addition to that, it is important to focus on two important approaches, which are the individualistic approach and the communal approach. Each of the said approach incorporates different views and perspectives regarding the moral responsibility as well as different view of the kinds of the principles regarding ethics that must be used in order to resolve different dilemmas or problems that are related to ethical issues (Brown 2008).
The individualistic approach, as the terms states, it focuses on the promotion of good of each individual such as the individual rights like freedom of expression or even the right of privacy. On the other hand, the communal approach focuses on the common goods; where in the entire group of the employees are being considered in the different decision-making and planning regarding different actions and even policies. In addition, the said approach focuses on promoting or prohibiting social justice or ways where it can bring harm or benefits to all of the employees in the organization (Brown 2008).
Employee Relations Strategy
Employee relations strategies must be distinguished from the employee relations policies, because strategies are dynamic and provide sense of direction for the organization, while the employee relations policies focus about the here and now (p. 177). The employee relations strategy is concerned with how to build stable and cooperative relationship with employees who minimize conflict. It also focuses to achieve commitment through employee involvement and communications processes. Above all, it also helps to develop mutuality, a common interest in acquiring the goals of organization by the development of the organizational cultures that is based on the shared values between the management and the employees.
On the other hand, it is important to consider that the intensions that are being expressed by the employee relations strategies can direct the organization towards the changing forms of recognition, including single union recognition or de-recognition. In addition it can also change in the form and content of procedural agreements and it will also provide new bargaining structures, including the decentralization or single-table bargaining. Thus, it will help to achieve the increased levels of commitment through involvement or participation by giving the employees a voice. Furthermore, it can also help to increase the extent to which management controls operations in such areas of flexibility that will help to improve the employee relations climate to produce more harmonious and cooperative relationships. Above all, it can also help to develop a partnership with the trade unions that will help to recognize the employees as stakeholders and that it is to advantage of both parties in order to work together and increase mutual commitment (Armstrong & Baron 2002, pp. 177 – 178).
Recommendation
Trade Union
Labor union is the association of the workers that seeks to improve the economic and social status and condition of its member by group action. Labor union represents its members in different negotiations with an employer over all of the factors that are connected with employment such as contract, wages, working environment and other benefits. The said contract negotiation is called the collective bargaining (MSN Encarta 2008).
In the case of the company, there are about 30% of the employees belong to the trade union. However, the company still continues to consult the workforce through a process of management or by conducting meetings and Work Council that happens four times a year.
It is important to consider the having a direct relationship with the trade union can help the organization to save money, time and effort in having sound and updated relationship with the entire human resource. The primary advantage of incorporating the union in the human resource strategies and human relations strategies is that it helps the management to know the entire reactions and opinions of the populations of the employees. This is vital due to the fact that the satisfaction of the employees is important in the entire management of the human resource due to the fact that motivation has a great influence over the performance and productivity of each and every individual.
The existence of strong and recognized trade union is considered as vital aspect that will lead to industrial peace. Decisions that were taken through the collective bargaining and negotiations process between the employer as well as unions are more influential. The trade unions play a very significant role in helping to have an effective and successful communication between the worker and the entire management of a given organization. Furthermore, the unions provide effective advices and support in order to make sure that the differences of opinions and suggestions will not turn into huge conflicts and misunderstanding that will lead to huge communication and relation problems that can affect the productivity and performance of the organization. The main role of the trade union is to represent the people at work, as well as to protect their influence and rights. In addition to that, trade unions also play important role in other aspects such as educational aspect as well as organization of courses for the member’s in wide range of matters. Thus it shows that trade union focuses on offering the employees’ safe and fair working environment (Industrial Relations 2007).
In addition to that, the presence of trade union also gives the employees more assurance, thus improving trust and loyalty between the employees and the management. Human resource strategy is still possible if the union is recognized by the organization, however, it is important to consider that the strategy must be marginalize or at least side-step them by communicating directly with the employees by involvement and communication process (Armstrong 2000, p. 246)
In the current condition of the company it will be important to consider having a single union deal, this is due to the fact that there are different studies and past analysis that shows that unionized workplace, particularly those organization with a single union deal are more likely to have a developed and improve a coherent human resource strategy (Beardwell 1996, p. 23).
All of the said strategy can be done by implementing partnership agreements. In terms of industrial relations, a partnership arrangement is define as one in which both of the parties which are the management and the trade union agree to work together in order to achieve their mutual advantage as well as to get a climate of more cooperative and therefore less adversarial industrial relations. This can be done by including an undertaking from both side were in the management can offer job security that is connected to the productivity, while the union can agree to a new forms of work organization that will require more flexibility on the side of employees (Armstrong 2000, p. 246).
According to Rosow and Casner-Lotto, there are five important values that must be considered in partnership, first is the mutual trust and respect; the joint vision for the future as well as the different plans of activities in order to achieve it; continuous effort in exchanging information and data; acknowledgment of the central and vital role of the collective bargaining; and the devolved decision-making (Armstrong 2000, p. 247).
References
Armstrong, M 2000, Strategic Human Resource Management: A Guide to Action, Kogan Page Publishers
Armstrong, M & Baron, A 2002, Strategic HRM: The Key to Improved Business Performance, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Publishing
Beardwell, I 1996, Contemporary Industrial Relations: A Critical Analysis, Oxford University Press
Brown, M 2008, Ethics in Organizations, Santa Clara University, viewed 30 October 2008, <http://www.scu.edu/ethics/publications/iie/v2n1/homepage.html>
Gennard, J & Judge, G 2005, Employee Relations, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development Publishing
Importance of the Trade Unions 2007, Industrial Relations, viewed 30 October 2008, <http://industrialrelations.naukrihub.com/importance-of-trade-unions.html>
Labor Union 2008, MSN Encarta, Microsoft, viewed 30 October 2008, < http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761553112/labor_union.html>
Spencer, E, Mills, A, Rorty, M & Werhane, P 2000, Organizational Ethics in Health Care, Oxford University Press, US
Walker, J 1999, ‘What Makes a Great Human Resource Strategy?’, Human Resource Planning, vol. 22, no. 1, p. 11
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