Employee Relations: A Literature Review

This assignment presents a literature review on various aspects of employee relations. The provided sources delve into topics such as employee voice and participation, stakeholder theory, stereotyping in international labor markets, the influence of religiosity and spirituality on performance, gender biases in perceptions of success, the role of unions and high-performance work practices, coping mechanisms for workplace bullying, flexible working arrangements and happiness, organizational and psychological empowerment, employment relations in the context of migration and mobility, and effective reward management strategies.

Employee Relations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................4
TASK 1.......................................................................................................................................................4
1.1 Unitary and Pluralistic Frames of References.................................................................................4
1.2 Influence of change in trade unionism on staff relations................................................................5
1.3 Role of key people in employee relations.......................................................................................6
TASK 2.......................................................................................................................................................7
2.1 Process which has to be followed while dealing with conflicts......................................................7
2.2 Key characteristics of employee relation in dispute situation.........................................................7
2.3 Effectiveness of methods used at the time of dispute situation.......................................................8
TASK 3.......................................................................................................................................................9
3.1 Role of negotiation in collective bargaining...................................................................................9
3.2 Influence of negotiation strategy in certain scenario. ...................................................................10
TASK 4.....................................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Impact of EU on industrial democracy in UK. .............................................................................10
4.2 Comparison of methods utilised to gain staff and involvement in decision making.....................11
4.3 Impact of HR management on relation relation............................................................................12
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................................13

INTRODUCTION
Employee relation is a relationship between staff and management of the organisation and in
order words it can also be called as interaction between these two. For success of company it is
necessary that staff present in the company are free from any kind of stress and motivated. It has crucial
significance in any of the organisation so it needed that there should be a healthy environment at the
workplace so that staff can perform according to their skills and abilities. This way the firm can achieve
their goals and objectives easily with the help of such people (Bach and Kessler, 2011). This report will
be highlighting various aspects of employee’s relation through considering scenario of British Airways.
This is a company who comes from aviation segment and over the years has made their spot in one of
the most successful organisation in this sector. In future, if they have to carry on their success it is
necessary that they adopt various strategies and techniques to bring coordination with their staff thus
convincing them to work in proper manner, motivation staff do efficient work thus bringing more
productivity and profitability for the organisation.
TASK 1
1.1 Unitary and Pluralistic Frames of References.
These are the concept with are concerned with employee relations and can be analysed based on
this. They are of quite different perspective and related to the process through which relations among
the employees can be managed in British Airways so that there can be proper functioning. As analysed
by Unitary approach decision making power for certain issues in an organisation lies in hand of any
one individual which handle the management of company. The people who has this power are normally
board of directors of company and possess power to make crucial decision which can impact the staff
relation. It depends on their decision that it would make profit in future or not. It is responsibility of
leaders in British Airways to bring motivation and increase the moral of employees thus bringing a kind
of trust among staff (Morris, 2012). If they get success in doing what they have been doing, then staff
will work in more proper way and will find it easier to handle and manage different obstacles coming
in their way at workplace. This way the organisation will also able to gain competitive advantages thus
reaching to their goals and objectives set by them. Such thing can happen only when there are no
disputes between staff and manager of British Airways on any issue. On the other side Unitary
approach believes that trade union acts as barrier in the relationship between staff and company as they
do not have good role in promoting relationship and coordination. They create disputes which reduces

efficiency which makes the operation little difficult and then cannot be done with full efficiency as the
staff are not satisfied from the conditions.
As stated by Pluralistic approach which says that workplace consists of various attitudes,
values, beliefs and behaviours. According to it the most important role in staff relation is of
management thus they act as mediator between both the parties (Klarsfeld and et. al., 2014). They have
defined same role of trade union who makes sure employees become the part of decision making
process in any organisation. If the company adopts this approach they can easily able to bring stability
in Employee relation through performing the concept of negotiation strategy in between staff and
managers. The other way to do so is to adopt collective bargaining process.
These two approaches have its own significance and British Airways has to analyse all its
aspects and looks for the best approach which can be implemented at their workplace.
1.2 Influence of change in trade unionism on staff relations.
Any kind of change in trade union widely impact relation of staff and company. Trade Union
can be called as group of individuals having same interest coming together for a common cause which
is basically their protection of rights. They normally ask for hiking their pay scale, demands for better
working environment and etc. are various demands done by staff (Fossum, 2014). It was considered as
a legal body in year 1824 with lots of people were demanding increase in their pay width and work
conditions in which they are working. There were various changes over the year in trade unionism and
it directly impacted employee relation in British Airways also. Most of the changes were talking place
to do variations in external factors that are stated below: -
Political and Legal: - Any implementation of new law by British Government affects staff
relation in British Airways. Like government has made a law which prevents inequality at the
workplace regarding the distribution of roles and operations thus creating a sense of dialogue between
trade unions and employers and the dispute can only be resolved if particular company provides equal
opporti8nities to everyone who is part of company (Singh, 2011). This will directly impact the profit
margins of British Airways.
Technological: - It can be easily analysed that with the adoption of technological advantages
decreases the demand of employment thus workers want to stay in the company at whatever condition
given by British Airways. In this trade union has role of ensuring that staff are not eliminated from the
organisation and also it does impact the relationship between both the parties. In such situation the

employees may also go on strike to save their jobs and this will decrease the sales and profitability.
Trade Unions has the role of ensuring that communication gap between both of can be reduced
but if they have to sustain themselves and the concept of trade unions it is necessary that bring certain
modification on regular time period. After year 1979 trade unionism become one of the important part
of organisation as there were almost 7.3 million in world (Martin and Burke, 2012). From longer time
they have been fighting for the rights of staff who are part of some or other industry. They have brought
different approaches so that they can be effective on whatever they are doing.
1.3 Role of key people in employee relations.
Proper relation between the staff and employees can only be maintained if there is better
coordination between these bodies. So it is quite important to gain knowledge about the individuals
who can work to bring alignment in them. Stated below are some of people who plays a crucial role in
this context: -
· Managers: - They ensure that in British Airways employees are getting better working condition
at workplace and the other role of this actor is to make sure that they resolve and handle any dispute
arising in organisation. To bring improvement at the work they try their effort to create a healthy
competition. Different ideas and strategies are used to increase moral of individuals thus motivating
them to work more efficiently at work place (Wilkinson and Fay, 2011). The impact of this can be
attained in longer period of time and at the same time this will create a understanding among both of
them. If there will be coordination between employees and employer the business goals can be easily
attained. They can be called as a mediator between both of them and try to negotiates between them.
· Government Authorities: - They are bodies who improve relation through farming different
laws like Health & Safety Act, Minimum Wages Act and other different legislation concerned with the
businesses. When such laws will be incorporated the staff will try to perform their task in better way
thus helping British Airways to attain their goals and objectives.
· Workers: - They are the individuals to pit their efforts in achieving the mission and vision of
companies thus acting as an asset for British Airways. It is their duty to understanding their
responsibilities and acts to the give instructions (Gupta and Kumar, 2012). They have to follow all the
laws and regulation farmed by British Airways so that there can be proper working culture at the
workplace. To ensure that workers show interest in doing the things they organise different events as
through it there can be coordination between both of them. If staff feels any kind of issues at workplace

have the rights to put their problem in front of management of British Airways.
TASK 2
2.1 Process which has to be followed while dealing with conflicts.
It can be said BA can come over different kinds of situations where they have to handle
different disputes. In such conditions they can utilise different procedures to deal with different
conflicts arising at workplace. Ineffective physical environment, changes in contract of employment
and uneven allocation of work can give rise to collective dispute. If such thing happens they can blame
managers thus protesting against him to higher authority. Such thing will increase conflicts in British
Airways and it is required that they should listen to every person and come out with an appropriate
solution. Manager should ensure that there is no inequality and discrimination with staff on basis of its
caste, religion, sex, colour and etc (Hou and Reber, 2011). If problems have to be analysed from deeper
end they can organise different counselling session and can ask them about the issues which are
troubling them. With this they will easily able to uproot the issue and take action on the accused who
were involved in the problem making. So for this they have to initiate a discussion so that they can find
solution of certain particular issue. This issue should be noted to Human resources managers and after
that they set a time limit in which appropriate decision will be taken to come over a solution. The body
who has been established to resolve the issues will coordinate with them and still if there is no
improvement take place they can switch over to Alternative Dispute process.
In this context workers of British Airways are on strike against the company decision on
increasing the working hours. This can be solved through collective bargaining procedures.
2.2 Key characteristics of employee relation in dispute situation.
This is the scenario in which dispute is concerned with collected disputes that has been taken into the
account. It has been analysed that dispute is related to uneven distribution of work in between male and
female who are part of British Airways. It has been seen that such condition brings negativity at the
workplace and directly hit the profit margins and sales of British Airways (Budd, Gollan and
Wilkinson, 2010). There are some of selected situation which has to be analysed that are as follows: -
Hindering the relationship female and male staff who are employed in BA:- It can be seen
that collective dispute brings bitter relationship between male and female members of company. The
reason behind this is that the male employees are not happy against the uneven work distribution so

they are demanding that in this case both male and female should be treated equally. It is directly
impacting them and both are not able to work with their full efficiency. This way the overall
productivity of British Airways has gone down thus passengers are not satisfied with the services
delivered by them.
Dissatisfied with company:- The staff are also not happy from the management who has the
duty to allocate the equal workload to each side without favouring any one of them. So it can be said
that staff are not happy with the work allotment at the workplace. This might decrease their moral and
can develop bad relation with employers. Organisation have to take various steps to ensure that they
obstruct such conflict at workplace (Van Buren III and Greenwood, 2011). After analysing if they feel
that the problem is quite complicated and can be solved through simple techniques then they have the
option of adopting arbitration method. For this a arbitrator can be appointed who will be analysing and
evaluated the dispute from both the sides and then can make a decisions favouring both the parties.
2.3 Effectiveness of methods used at the time of dispute situation.
To know if the process used in the situation was effective or not can measured in collective
dispute of conflicting situation. British Airways have to look for help from dispute handling procedure.
This can be defined as the process through which certain parties sit together to interact with each other
on the situation which has become trouble for the company. This is the only process through which
they can solve this kind of problem and male staff gets also chance to put their views in the following
matter in front of managers who are employee of British Airways (Al-Waqfi and Forstenlechner, 2010).
They can also ask them that what are the reasons behind discrimination for the distribution of
workload. Now, it is duty of manager to give them the proper valid reason thus they manager have to
convince them that what were the circumstances in which such decision was made. This way they can
eliminate the dispute and in the scenario if the employees are not happy with decision they can consult
with the board members of British Airways who are the top authority.
Such decisions and solution creates a positive influence on British Airways again as this is
considered as the easiest way to solve the issue. It had been noted that the time which has been given to
executive director is very less for making an appropriate decision. There might situation arise wher
decision taken can be ineffective for the scenario so in such case it can be transferred to collective
dispute resolving team . This is a team which consists of certain people who are well aware that what
approaches can be adopted for different conflict situation. They will look at the issues which are
coming in between the goals of British Airways thus bringing a solution for the conflicts and problems.

In all, it can be said that the overall result of using such method has shown positive outcomes.
TASK 3
3.1 Role of negotiation in collective bargaining.
It has been observed that in the business environment whenever organisations come over any
issue or dispute they try to solve it through collective bargaining process only. This is process in which
various staff interact with each other and out their demands to employers in a discussion between them.
The discussion is done on certain key features which are crucial to be noted in the situation. A
negotiation is done through considering a contract between them and in this the interest of both the
parties are included. This is a key tool to bring a better relationship between the staff and employers.
They can understand each other and with this method they can easily understand that what each of
them wanted (Osman-Gani, Hashim and Ismail, 2013). Employees will find it easier to put forward
their views to the top officials of management. It directly supports in case of resolving the disputes thus
creating a better positive environment for the staff of British Airways. In this there is use of negotiation
strategy and some of them are as follows:-
Negotiation is done to achieve a proper conclusion:- There are people who are from the
employees and acts as leaders who talks on behalf of all employees. They interact with the employers
and they to negotiate with them so that a middle way can be taken out where both the parties can get
something or other benefit (Heilman and Wallen, 2010). Negotiation way can be only taken it there is
analysis of conflict situation from all angles and for that it is required that there should be a discussion
between both of them that is representatives of employees and director of human resource management
department which exists in British Airways. They are aware of the fact that with this they will able to
bring settlement between the employees and employers.
Negotiation helps in improving the effectiveness of collective bargaining process: Through
collective bargaining process they are trying to resolve the conflicts which has game between the
employees and employers of British Airways. Employees will easily able to explain reason behind
taking certain action at the workplace. Once again they can interact with male employees and take the
feedback about the distribution of work. By this they can know what are the issues prevailing in British
Airways and how it is influencing the growth and overall performance (Gill and Meyer, 2013).
Negotiation strategy will be beneficial for both the parties as employees can bring efficiency in their

working and employers will easily able to attract more number of passengers towards British Airways.
On the other side the process of negotiation can assist them in increasing effectiveness of collective
bargaining method in suitable way.
3.2 Influence of negotiation strategy in certain scenario.
Through this influence of negotiation strategy on bargaining can easily be evaluated. Certain
condition coming in British Airways can be handled and managed through certain negotiation
methods. Forcing, smoothing, compromising and a sector are various activities which can be taken into
account for analysing and accessing negotiation strategies (D'Cruz and Noronha, 2010). All the staff
and employees of British Airways interact with each other on common platform but due to various
negotiation does not take place properly. In the situation where collected dispute as arises and then after
manager adopts burning strategy which will decrease the moral level of staff. This will directly affect
the efficiency of workers and they will not able to contribute properly at the workplace. British
Airways will find it difficult to motivate the staff who are male in proper manner. Forcing is one of the
methods which comes under negotiation strategies and in this goals are attend through expense of
others. It can be said that in this personal goals are given more priority than the organisation objectives.
Manager at British Airways try to focus on their personal objectives rather than putting note on targets
of company. So it can be analysed that this strategy would bring negative outcomes this creating bad
image of British Airways among its customers (Atkinson and Hall, 2011). They will get failure in
retaining there dedicated employees through this strategy as they will not show their interest in
different important operations performed in organisation.
After having knowledge of all the strategies and methods it can be seen that for British Airways
the most appropriate method will be something strategy. This decision has been made after analysing
various aspects. This strategy has been chosen as because of this manager will put opinion of staff on
the priority level (Kazlauskaite, Buciuniene and Turauskas, 2011). Such methods and strategies boost
up the motivation level thus ensuring that the negative feeling which has came in can be easily
obstructed out with the help of collective bargaining process. If they choose to used any one of the
negotiation strategy which is mentioned above then it will create better relation between both the
parties.
TASK 4
4.1 Impact of EU on industrial democracy in UK.
The freedom given to staff of British Airways so that they can take part in crucial decision of

organisation are referred to as industrial democracy. Through certain Rules and responsibilities given to
them increase there moral so that they can contribute in gaining business goals. There are many ways
through which European Union directly or indirectly can impact the industrial democracy in United
Kingdom. But one of the factors which has to be considered is the laws framed by them. This can be
understood through an example like when EU has developed some laws thus empowering staff to take
part in decision making program (Rodriguez and Mearns, 2012). The industrial democracy present in
United Kingdom have to follow those rules as they have been framed by European Union Council. In
the case if they don't abide rules and regulations made by EU then as a result they have to face certain
consequences which may include their staff going for strikes.
On the other hand cultural differences at different level is one of the Other factor which can
impact the industrial democracy. Any multinational organisation who are part of nation which comes
under European Union Council then they have to follow those rules and incorporate them in their
culture. They might have culture of not including employees in any decision making activity but they
have no other option instead to follow guidelines. European Union has impact on partnership based
relationship and they emphasis on developing this in industrial democracy of UK. It is the relationship
between unions of staff who are working there and the management of British Airways. They focus on
certain operation so that various goals and objectives be easily attained.
It has been analysed that most of the activities which are related to business are regulated by
European Union so that they can ensure there is proper working conditions and environment. Ignoring
these kinds of laws will impact their brand image.
4.2 Comparison of methods utilised to gain staff and involvement in decision making.
If organisation wants that there staff are engaged in every bit of activity performed at workplace
they can use attitudes survey, suggestion method and consultation. After analysing all these methods it
can be said that consultation is the most suitable techniques for them regarding this process. Through
this they will allow their staff to put there valuable suggestions and ideas in front of senior authority of
company and this will directly will increase there motivation level (Armstrong, Brown and Reilly,
2011). This way the staff will work with more dedication as he thinks that the organisation which he is
employed value them thus directly increasing their confidence. In comparison of various methods,
attitude survey can be considered as effective for Airlines like British Airways thus assisting them in
making sure that most of the stuff participate in different affairs and show their interest in them.
Reviews of people who are directly or indirectly attached with organisation are taken thus analysing the
business through different perspectives.

They can know what are their needs and perception related to certain needs and what changes
can be incorporated in the business. Suggestion method is the other way through which the motivation
can be increased. Through this, employees who are not satisfied with management or facing any kind
of issue can easily report to higher authorities. Involving staff in decision making Wings or positive
impact on the business and with this a good communication can we made between both of them. British
Airways have to come with various Strategies and policies related to working condition and their
effectiveness can be analysed through taking feedback from employees of organisation.
4.3 Impact of HR management on relation relation.
Through proper HR management potential employees of organising can be retained collective
efforts there can be improvement in employees and employers relationship in British Airways. Through
introducing person culture in the organisation and the staff can be given certain attention Thursday will
feel that they have been valued at the workplace.
Through providing them training and taking there used on particular decision HR department
can ensure increase in employees motivation. To know that which strategy will be beneficial in
satisfying the needs of employees (Lavelle, Gunnigle and McDonnell, 2010). They can carry out
certain service which will give them better idea about the issues which are prevailing in British
Airways and affecting the working of staff. For better performance British Airways management can
adopt pluralistic approach through allowing Trade union to play its role. This will ensure that British
Airways achieve their goals and objectives in set time.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be analysed that if any organisation needs to achieve their set
business goals and expand their market share it is required that they should emphasize on strategies
which can help them in motivating the staff thus increasing their moral to perform more better. This
way they can bring efficiency in the work they are doing thus yielding positive results. Management of
company should know that employees are assets to them thus they need to take care of their training
needs and make sure that they are encouraged. For this they can use certain strategies. To reduce the
conflicts in the organisation negotiation, collective bargaining methods and etc. are various options
available with them which can be incorporated in their organisational culture.

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