MGM309

Employee Relations

Ajaya Mishra

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 concernsTraditional 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

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

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.

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.

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

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

Thank You