MGT 674

Employee Relations Management

Ajaya Mishra

About Faculty …

Professional Experiences: 5 years in banking (MBL and Prudential) 6 years in media (NTV and ATV) 5 years in INGOs (UNDP/PLAN International) 5 Years in Government (MOE / CTEVT)

Academics … M. Phil. in Management (Leadership) MBA (E) in Human Resource Management Leadership Program (ISB, Hyderabad) International Board and Management Program

Research and Publications …

M. Phil. Thesis on “Understanding of Leadership and Factors Associate with Leadership Success, Nepalese Perspective”.

Research paper presented in South Asian Management Forum on “Leadership Styles and Employees’ Commitment to Organizational Change on Organizational Performance: A Study in a Nepali Technology Based Organization”.

Training Manual for Institutionalisation of Project Activities, Cooperative Management, Micro Credit and Enterprise Development.

Research Papers on Media industry, human resource development practices in public service organizations, etc.

Employee Relations

Overview …

What is Employee Relations?

Employee relations refers to the interrelationships, both formal and informal between managers and those whom they manage.

How are we managed? how we would like to be managed? how and why conflicts arise? and how these can be resolved at work? These are the basic concern of employee relations.

Traditional and newer concerns

Traditional focus on ‘actors’ like managers, employees, government, unions.

Until recently looked at person, unions, manufacturing, manual work.

Today, increasing interest in ‘new’ actors – customers, families, other interest groups - and in service sector, women and complexity of employment arrangements.

Widening focus has broadened scope of employee relations concerns

Why are Employee Relations worth studying?

For many people work is central in terms of time, money, identity, status, social relations

Most of us experience work as employees – we have an employment relationship – between ourselves and those who employ us, and an employment status

However many different interests at work (‘stakeholders’) – owners, shareholders, managers, employees, customers – all exert pressure on employment relationship

For employers – the ‘labour question’ a central one

Need labour to produce output

Need to ensure labour does what employers want

Need for control – of labour costs and activities - and need for welfare

Tension – control v commitment

The Employment Relationship

It follows that the ‘employment relationship’ is a central feature of work but it is dynamic.

It is also complex – has many dimensions and levels – economic, legal, social, psychological and political

Shaped by historical experiences

Employment relationship now seen as core to the study of employee relations

Many employment relationships, many employee relations

The Employment Relationship

Parties to Relationship

Employment Relationship

Structure

• Formal rules

•Informal understandings

Substance

•Individual: reward, job, career

•Collective: joint agreements

Operation

• Level

• Process

• Style

Source: Kessler and Undy 1997

The Course and Evaluation…

•12 Sessions direct contact on Tuesday.

•Focus on case study analysis and presentation, Group discussion and Group work.

•Evaluation Criteria

•Class Participation and Attendance 10%•Case Analysis and Presentation 15%•Group Work (Brief Research work) 20%•Mid Term Exam 15%•Final Exam 40%

•Case analysis, group work and assignments should be submitted on time. •Absent during case presentation will be graded “F” in internal evaluation.

Article Critiquing Framework …

•Issues the author is trying to address

•The Significance of the study or issue

•Basic Assumptions

•Theoretical Framework / Concepts

•Methodology used

•Contribution of the study

•Practical and managerial implication of study

•Conclusion of the study

Group Work…

Method: Qualitative

Framework:

•Understanding of Employee relations practices•Importance given to employee relations•Strategies adopted•Existence of union and their role•Collecting bargaining and grievances handling practices.•Employee’s perspective Vs Organizational perspective•Impact on Organizational performance and employee satisfaction•Others specific, if any.

Employee Relations …

Employee Relations: Content, History, Analysis

Industrial Relations, Employee Relations and Employment Relations

IR traditionally concerned with ‘the institutions of job regulation’ (Flanders and Clegg 1954) and the generation of employment rules

Led to a focus on trade unions and collective bargaining – CB ‘pivot’ of industrial relations

‘High point of traditional IR’ in Britain 1970s – collectivist, concern with reform of collective bargaining – 55% of the workforce were trade union members, 75% covered by collective agreements

Historical Perspectives

Event-driven

Government change Technological change Demographic change Management change Changes in

ownership and organisation

Unique events and conditions - linear

Structure-driven

Economic trends Political trends Changes to social

institutions

Regular, patterned, repetitive - circular

Historical Perspectives

In practice history reveals patterns of both change and continuity

Change may be abrupt but may still be affected by path-dependency

Short-term and long-term change

Significance in employee relations for how history is experienced, how it shapes the present – often casts a long shadow

History in culture – stories, rituals, rules

Employee relations today the outcome of past struggles – defeats, victories

Importance of history in custom & practice

Traditional Concerns of IR

Theoretical origins of industrial relations/employee relations focused on order and stability within a developed ‘system’

Influence of US writers, particularly Dunlop (1958)

Such a ‘system’ in Britain and other western economies based on collective bargaining – seen as democratic and most effective form of regulation

Copied by many other countries

Outputs of the system – earnings, productivity and minimising of conflict

Industrial Relations …

IR is concerned with the systems, rules and procedures used by unions and employers to determine the reward for effort and other conditions of employment, to protect the interests of the employed and their employers and to regulate the way in which employers treat their employees.

K. Aswathappa

Coverage of IR

Collective bargaining

Role of management, unions, government

Machinery for resolution of industrial disputes

Individual grievances and disciplinary policies and practices.

Labor legislation

Industrial relations training.

John Dunlop and an Industrial Relations System

CONTEXTS ACTORS PROCESSES OUTCOMES

Economic Employers Managerial Reg Pay and

Social Managers Collective Conditions

Legal Trade Unions Bargaining Inc Productivity

Political Employees Legal Reg. Conflict

Techno – Customers* C&P Less Conflict

Logical Shareholders*

Feedback

Shared Ideology

IR to ER

Employee relations is more comprehensive and includes all aspects of HRM where employees are dealt with collectively.

It covers … Participative management Employee welfare Employee development Employee remuneration, safety, welfare, etc.

Challenges to the ‘system’ - crisis and re-regulation

Post 1979 ‘Thatcherism’

Public policy – lack of support for old ‘adversarial’ IR system, trade unions, failure of collective bargaining

Moves to regulate IR through legal means – restrictive

labour law to ‘curb the power of trade unions

Re-establishment of managerial prerogative

Re-regulation of industrial relations against a backdrop of high unemployment and weakened TU bargaining power

Is talk of a system still useful?

Can we still talk about ‘national systems’?

Often more diversity within as between countries (Marchington 1995)

Argued that if we can still talk about a ‘system’ it is now organisation-based Purcell (1989)

Greater diversity in employee relations as managers have sought to re-regulate employment and employment relationships

Changing Focus – Managerial agenda

Today management-employee relations in Britain more about involvement, engagement, participation and partnership rather than collective bargaining and conflict resolution

Employee involvement and high performance work systems, employee engagement.

The role of management choice in shaping employee relations and employee relations strategy

Employment Relations and HRM

HRM and the ‘individualisation’ of employment relations

Focus on the individual worker and relationship with management

Mainstream HRM – concern with involvement and commitment and relationship to business performance (Guest et al. 2000)

Business-model of HR dominant

And Now….

Increased concern with both individual and collective aspects of employment

Re-focusing on how the employment relationship is regulated.

Theoretically, this marks a return to a focus on power and authority relations in employment

Main Parties Engaged in ER…

Employer – Employee Relations

Managers

Employer’s Association

Representative

Courts and tribunesGovernment

Trade Union Representative

Individual Employees

Different Perspectives of Employee Relations …

Manager’s perspective …

Creating and maintaining employee motivation

Obtaining commitment from the workforce

Establishing mutually beneficial channels of communication

Achieving high level of efficiency

Negotiating terms and conditions of employment

Sharing decision making with employees

Engaging in power struggle with trade unions

Trade union’s perspective …

Collective bargaining about terms and conditions of employment

Representing individuals in conflict with management

Improving abilities of employees to influence events in the workplace

Regulating relations with trade unions.

Individual employee’s perspective …

Improve their conditions of employment

Voice and grievances

Exchange views and ideas of management

Share in decision making

Third Parties' perspective …

Creating and maintaining harmony at work

Creating a framework of rules for fair conduct in relationships

Establishing a peace making arrangements

Achieving a prosperous society with justice

?…………