Title: MGT 674 Employee Relations Management
1MGT 674 Employee Relations Management
Ajaya Mishra
2 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
3- 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.
4Employee Relations
Overview
5What 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.
6Traditional 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
7Why 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
8- 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
9The 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
10The Employment Relationship
Parties to Relationship
- Substance
- Individual reward, job, career
- Collective joint agreements
- Operation
- Level
- Process
- Style
Employment Relationship
- Structure
- Formal rules
- Informal understandings
Source Kessler and Undy 1997
11The 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.
12Article 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
13Group 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. - Employees perspective Vs Organizational
perspective - Impact on Organizational performance and employee
satisfaction - Others specific, if any.
14Employee Relations
15Employee 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
16Historical 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
17Historical 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
18Traditional 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
19Industrial 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
20Coverage 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.
21John Dunlop and an Industrial Relations System
CONTEXTS ACTORS PROCESSES OUTCOMES Economic Emplo
yers Managerial Reg Pay and Social Managers Coll
ective Conditions Legal Trade Unions Bargaining I
nc Productivity Political Employees Legal
Reg. Conflict Techno Customers CP Less
Conflict Logical Shareholders Feedback
Shared Ideology
22IR 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.
23Challenges 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
24Is 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
25Changing 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
26Employment 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
27And 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
28Main Parties Engaged in ER
Managers
Individual Employees
Employer Employee Relations
Employers Association Representative
Trade Union Representative
Courts and tribunes
Government
29Different Perspectives of Employee Relations
30Managers perspective
- Creating and maintaining employee motivation
- Obtaining commitment from the workforce
- Establishing mutually beneficial channels of
communication - Achieving high level of efficiency
31- Negotiating terms and conditions of employment
- Sharing decision making with employees
- Engaging in power struggle with trade unions
32Trade unions 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.
33Individual employees perspective
- Improve their conditions of employment
- Voice and grievances
- Exchange views and ideas of management
- Share in decision making
34Third 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
35?