Employee Relations: A Critical Review

This assignment delves into the critical field of Employee Relations, examining various aspects through scholarly articles. It investigates topics like performance appraisal justice, corporate social responsibility disclosures, the impact of religiosity and spirituality on employee performance, and more. The analysis highlights key themes, issues, and future trends in the dynamic world of employee relations.

EMPLOYEE
RELATIONS

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
In the modern world of business, there are many issues arise in the firm that were not
previously considered to be very important for the smooth working of organisation. One such
issue is employee relations. ER is termed as the relation that is maintained by the employer with
employees (Allen and Aldred, 2011). It is highly important for the firms either big or small to
have positive employee relations with workers as this is the reason of achieving employee
satisfaction which is necessary for increasing the productivity of firm. For understanding the
characteristics of employee relations in UK, company that is taken in this report is British
Airways. It is one of the biggest firms operating in airline industry in UK and around the world.
This report highlights the ways in which employee relations can be maintained. It also describes
the approaches that are followed by employers so as to maintain healthy relations. It showcases
conflicts that arise in firms and ways it can be resolved by the management. This report describes
the characteristics of employee relations as well as role of negotiations in joint bargaining.
1.1 Unitary and pluralistic frames of reference
There are various characteristics of employee relations so as to understand the
significance and nature of employee relations. There are several ways that are present in front of
managers of British Airways like pluralistic and unitary frame of reference. It is a fact that both
the approaches depend on diversified views and thoughts but are focused on creating relationship
between employer and employee in a firm. Main aim that is associated with these approaches is
to ensure that workforce is managed in effective manner. Unitary approach of ER underlines that
power and authority remains in the hands of people that are sitting at managerial level in any
company and workers are not involved in the affairs related to strategy making. Adding to this,
By using this approach, direction uniformity is retained (Atkinson and Hall, 2011). Since single
person is responsible for making decision who ensure that ER is maintained in professionally
acceptable manner. This also helps in promoting the commitment and loyalty among workforce.
This approach relies on the impression that conflicts among employer and employee in British
Airways can be confronted.
On the contrary, Pluralistic approach resides on the impression that values, behaviours
and attitude are the means using which better workforce can be generated. In this approach, trade
unions plays a valuable role and often takes judgement in the favour of workers so as to be
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motivated and their driver demands and needs can be fulfilled appropriately. In this approach, it
is crucial to follow series of negotiations so that workers may also feel that they have importance
in their firm. This approach suggests that company should take initiatives so as to involve staff
members in the process of decision making by understanding their views in a strategic matter. In
British Airways, issues faced by workers are communicated by UNITE representatives to the
officials of company. Hence, these two approaches can be used by the management of British
Airways so as to manage relationship with is most significant stake holders and hence carrying
out different functions in effective manner.
1.2 Changing trade unionism effects on employee relations
Trade unions are present in almost every organisation. They are there so as to remove any
kind of conflicts in a firm between employees and employers. Change of legislations in trade
unions have direct effect on relations between the workers and management. It is the association
of workers and leaders that work together with an motive of falicitating safe and secured
environment for working as well as promoting common interest related to pay scale as well as
other monetary and non-monetary benefits (Bach and Kessler, 2011). First movement related to
union movement was conducted in 19th century. In 1824, many workers joined this when it was
formed so as to ensure that they may get proper pays for their work as well as it will safeguard
them from exploitation by employers. Some of the changes that affect employee relations are as
follows:
 Technological: There is constant and valuable changes that are going on in British
Airways that lead firms to reduce the use of labours that indirectly affects employment
rate adversely. There is regulations and legislations associated with the retrenchment of
employees. In these situations, British Airways play as a shield for workers and safeguard
them from being retrenched.
 Legal and Political: These two are the major factors that directly affects potential related
to employee relations in British Airways. Adding to this, top officials of company has to
follow various regulations and rules formed by the authoritative body so as to avoid
conflict of interest between employees and employers (D'Cruz and Noronha, 2011).
It is a fact that trade unions are created with the motive of safeguarding rights of people
as well as boosting the interest of both parties through evolution of effective strategies and
collective bargaining. They also focus on removing child labour and work for the welfare of
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society. They also organise trainings for employees so as to increase their abilities and skills as
per the need and shape their functionality as per the demand of environment and emerging
trends.
1.3 Role of main players in employee relations
In a firm, there are different kinds of people that are responsible for managing the
relations in between management and workers. However, to maintain ER in a better way, it is
important for managerial level individuals to take initiatives so that they can listen to their staff
members and take efforts to resolve them.
Some of the major players that help in maintaining employee relations at British Airways
are: Managers: They are one of the most important players in developing and maintaining
employee relations. However, manager should ensure that they are involved in practices
that are unethical. Adding to this, they are crucial at the time when criticism arises among
employees which may disrupt the functionality of the work place (DeLellis and Sauer,
2015). Managers also have role of motivating employees so that they can conduct their
assigned duties and tasks in a better way.
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Sources 1: Employee relations, 2017

 Workers: In British Airways, there are many workers that are at various levels. It is their
duty to maintain the employee relations within company. Their main obligation in the
firm is to execute assigned tasks or activities in an effective manner so that company may
achieve their desired objectives within a given time period (Dasgupta, Suar and Singh,
2012). They have a role to become loyal towards the firm they are working in thereby
following the guidelines within firm for conducting their work. Following these
guidelines in a proper manner can achieve ER in a better way.
 Government agencies: They are the key drivers of ER in the case of British Airways as
this company belongs to the category of Public Ltd Company. Change in policies made
by government or authoritative bodies directly affects the employee relations as they both
have to amend all these rules and regulations. Different Acts such as minimum wages and
child labour as well as health and safety act can be beneficial for making a better working
environment for the workers.
 Trade unions: They are also important player in the employee relations as they act as the
bridge between employee and employer. They present the views and issues of employee
in front of the British Airways.
TASK 2
2.1 Process that are followed by organisations to deal with different conflicting situations.
In the present competitive environment where companies are focusing on increasing their
market share there are several situations that arises in the firm related to the interest of various
stakeholders especially employees. These situations leads to lockouts and strikes if not handled
properly on time. There are several approaches that will help management of British Airways to
deal with these conflicting situations.
Commonly disputes that are taking place in various situations while working in an
environment arises because managers are distributing the work in appropriate manner as well as
when managers do work work ethically (Doherty and Norton, 2013). This leads to degradation in
the motivational levels of the employees and hence they raise their voice instead of following the
guidelines. If in case top management of British Airways discriminates with the workers and
allocating the work to them as per their age then this may lead to state of conflict. However in
similar situations employees at various levels gets affected by this and they do not carry out their
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operations with the desired precision that may directly influence the sale or profitability of the
organisation. Adding to this it may lead to quality of services to the target audience of the cited
firm and they cam get more complaints and feedbacks (Gupta and Kumar, 2012). So as to avoid
this kind of situation management of the firm has to set up clear dialogue with the employees
which ensures that they can express their views, feelings and thoughts.
However the major conflict arises in British Airways when employee starts complaining.
Apart from this to execute smooth functioning of operations that are carrying out in the firm
senior authority has responded to the workers regarding improper treatment, unfavourable
working conditions etc. By conducting ethical code of practices officials can provide solutions
and compromise with workers.
Adding to this there are many injury that occurs to an employee while conducting their
operations. Its the role of senior HR managers to make sure that proper facilities are available to
workers at workplace so that they can conduct their task in safe environment. Health and safety
guidelines needs to be prepared by British Airways that will ensure that there is less job related
injuries. However if such situations arises due to employer's negligence then potential lawsuits
can be forced and hence workers receives the proper medical attention as well as compensations
for their lost wages and injuries.
2.2 Key features of employee relations in selected situation
In this above part of the report there are various kinds of conflicting situation has been
underlined which may lead to collective disputes.. However due to improper work allocation
disputes arises in different functional units of British Airways.. By this situations overall internal
environment of the firm gets negatively affected which may lead to impact on the profit margins
and sales of the organisations. Some of the key features of selected conflict situation is as
follows:
 Dissatisfaction with the corporation: One of the primary reason behind the arising
conflicting situation is because the employee are dissatisfied with British Airways.
However top level of management is unable to assign the work to the employees in a
better way which directly affect the business of British Airways. In order to overcome the
presented situation top management may indulge in having constructive dialogues with
the employees so as to understand their problems (Hamblett, 2013). It is important to
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provide a platform where employee can present their views, thoughts and feelings which
leads to smart and effective solutions to this situation.
 Obstructing the relationship among male and female workers that are present in
British Airways: This type of situation may directly affect the relationship among the
male and females and can lead to collective disputes inside the firm. In this kind of
situation they may confront each other and may hesitate to work as a team. This may
have the serious implications on the ER relations and environment inside the workplace
and hence directly affecting the services of the firm (Hou and Reber, 2011).
2.3 Effectiveness of procedures adopted in this kind of conflicting situations.
In the times of conflicting state it is the role of the senior managers of British Airways to
undertake several approaches in order to resolve all these conflicts in a proper way. However to
overcome the above mentioned conflicting situations senior managers can take help of dispute
handling procedures that facilitates in providing suitable platform where workers gives their
views and feedbacks about their problems and issues so that appropriate measures can be
enforced. At the time of discussion they can address their queries appropriately as they have all
authorities to speak and raise their concerns. If the conflicting situations arises in the male and
female staff members then top management can talk to the both the parties individually and
hence real cause of conflicts can be underlined. Adding to this it will also help in providing the
best possible solutions facing problems of the staff members employed at British Airways.
TASK 3
3.1 Role of negotiations in collective bargaining
Collective bargaining showcases the procedures of negotiation among the employers and
employee group so as to establish an aggrements related to salaries, Working timings,
promotions and other terms os employment so as to handle various disputes that arises at the
firm. This kind of aggrement allows employer and workers to reach at several circumstantial
aspects. The number of employees that are working at British Airways are large in number so as
to carry out various operations (Kim, Park and Wier, 2011). They choose collective bargaining
process so as to negotiate with the management and use techniques to present their view point
that assist in resolving several key issues that are faced by workers that are employed in British
Airways. Taking the help of Union in this regard is a better method to put their views in front of
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the management. Employer adopts the process of collective bargaining using that they develop
several tactics in order to meet the employees demand and create favourable working atmosphere
for them Various roles of negotiations are underlined below:
 Negotiations helps to improve the work quality: At British Airways the employees are
free to put their views in-front of management regarding their necessities. This is done
by taking the assistance of union officials and hence negotiating with them so as to carry
out various functioning. They bargain with the management to improve the quality of
work.
 Negotiations helps in enhancing effectiveness: It has been seen many a times that
negotiations helps in enhancing the effectiveness of the firm. With the help of collective
bargaining process issues related to employees can be addressed properly (Kunju Kunju
Mathew and Jones, 2012). In this kind of discussion various type of issues that are raised
by the workers can be discussed in this and hence elaborated solution can be generated. It
also helps in making the atmosphere of the organisation fairly better.
 Negotiations act as helpful system for the company in order to reach at productive
conclusion: By adopting the collective bargaining the firm and its employee negotiate
with each other in relation to several aspects that may affect the working practices of the
workers that are working in British Airways. Employee chooses their representative who
negotiates with management and determine the proper solution to the issues that are faced
by the workers. This helps in communicating the several modifications that may assist in
reaching to productive solution to the arisen problems.
3.2 Impact of negotiation strategy in the provided situations
As it can be seen from the above part of the report that negotiations are the methodology
that is adopted by the organisations so as to settle down the differences of opinions that has been
raised inside the firm while carrying out different activities. Negotiation is a aspect that assists in
achieving best possible results. British Airways negotiates with workers in order to meet the best
possible results for several disputes that are present in the working environment as well as it
negatively impacts the performance of the firm (Mather, Worrall and Mather, 2012). With the
assistance of strategies of negotiation the influence level can be determined and hence ways can
be created so as to resolve these kind of conflicting situations that are raised in British Airways.
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Negotiating strategies helps to determine the best tactics so as to achieve best results. Various
strategies are as follows:
 Competing strategies: It is the strategy that showcases the contest that is present in the
working environment. As the airline industry is having higher scope and hence there is
huge competition that is increasing everyday. British Airways undertakes this strategy as
rivals are winners and losers. They analyse each and every aspect as it has win win
influence on the work culture which may lead to attaining success within a short time
duration. There is one bigger flaw tat is associated with the this strategy that employee
just works as per adopted strategy and hence in return demands large benefits.
 Accommodative strategies: It is the strategy that is adopted so as to resolve the major
issues that is influencing the performance of British Airways in a larger context. This
strategy is taken so as to meet the financial crisis by confronting the situation of huge
termination and turnover (Osman-Gani, Hashim and Ismail, 2013). They give several
offers to the employees in order tom remain with them. So that various operations can be
carried out smoothly.
 Avoiding strategies: This strategy is adopted by the workers and the management so as to
avoid the major issues that is being faced by the cited firm. This company adopts this
strategy so as to focus on crucial issues that is being raised by the workers related to
schedule of work. If management are not in the condition to modify it as they are
regulated by government bodies, they try to confront it to a certain time span and adopt
the several tactics to resolve it.
 Compromising strategies: It is the strategy that is adopted while the workers negotiates
for position they have been offered in British Airways. As there are several time time
constraints that affects employee performance because of the work environment.
TASK 4
4.1 Influence of EU on industrial democracy
Industrial democracy refers to as the practices that are used inside the firm in which
employees also have their say in the strategic decision making (Rodriguez and Mearns, 2012).
In this workers are considered as partners of the firm and hence they are being empowered so as
to take decisions. British Airways follows procedures and policies while performing their various
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activities. It is the fact that cultural dimension differs from place to place these policies
underlines the level of differed aspects that directly influences the industrial democracy in UK.
EU passes different kind Acts that has impact on the working dynamics of the British Airways as
in this company workers are also included in the process of taking decisions (Van Buren III and
Greenwood, 2011). So in this kind of situation company has to abide by with the guidelines
issued. Further if the firm do not follow it then there can be more adverse situations like strike
and Lockouts by its workers. Ever firm has different cultural values that may not comply with
the set policies of EU. For example in the multinational firms having there works in many
countries do not take employee as a part of their decision making process but they have to take
care of this if they are working in European region and in case it is not adopted by the enterprise
then it gets difficult for them to carry out their activities in EU region. In EU region partner
based relationship takes pace between management and union towards specified or common
goals. So by this it can be stated that ER relations gets affected by policies that are set by EU.
The impact of EU policies is considered to get reduced after the Brexit gets implemented.
It is better for the trade unions and British Airways to make plans effectively so as to check that
complications of employee relations does not increases. Level of impact on industrial democracy
post Brexit depends on the trade negotiations that will be made by British Government and
European Union.
4.2 Compare methods used to gain workers participation and involvement in the process of
making decisions in firm
There are various methods that are present which can be utilised by the firm with the
target to gain workers participation and involvement in decision making process. It also
undertakes tools such as suggestion scheme, attitude survey, consultation etc. Consultation is
understood as one of the most used exercise undertaken by enterprise with a goal to boost its
workers to get involved in the process of making decisions. In this methodology officials provide
chance to workers so as to present their ideas and perceptions in front of high level management
so that firm can enhance its overall performance (Wood, 2013). This directly supports in
increasing the motivational level of workers and they take initiatives in favour of the firm. On
the other hand survey is one another method that is also taken into account as effective through
which British Airways can boost its employees to take progressive participation in the company
affairs & hence present their perceptions on specific matters. It also takes account of
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performance and job evaluation, Pay identification etc. After understanding the view point of the
employees firm can accomplish different alterations in its existing policies. Apart from these two
suggestion scheme is another technique that can be utilised by British Airways. This helps
managers in increasing the motivational level of the employee. Workers are boosted to take part
in the process of making decisions and through these employees that are discontented with the
company can present their opinion in front of higher level management. Further this
methodology provides opportunity to firm to carry out all its operations in impressive manner. In
less words all these methodologies helps employee and employer to share platform where they
can have dialogues with each other. For instance suppose the British Airways thought of making
and implementing any kind of policy that is linked with the overall performance of the British
Airways or related to the working condition inside the firm. Its effectiveness can be understood
by the whole firm by taking valuable suggestions of staff members (Employee Relations. 2017).
This also helps in providing suggestion that whether they should be adopt this strategy or not
and hence by adopting different techniques workers can be involved in the decision making
process.
4.3 Impact of human resource management on the employee relations
In any organisation one of the most valuable asset that a company has is its human
resource and it is important for the firm to manage it. This is ensured by the department of
Human Resource management. So this department has a critical role in enhancing the employee
relations. It directly effects the employee retention and using this workers that are working in the
welfare of the firm can be retained easily. Adding to this in this regard it may be stated that rules
and policies created by HRM of British Airways has direct influence on the prevailing
relationship between employee and employers. This relationship can be reinforced easily if HRM
of the enterprise provides suitable environment for working for the individuals that are present at
the work place. This helps in holding workers in the firm and assist in increasing the
motivational level. Such kind of atmosphere can be created by adopting person culture within the
company. In this kind of culture views and importance are given major value and directly
supports in enhancing motivational level of workers and hence relationship between managers
and employee gets improved (Employee Relations. 2017). In order to develop relationship in a
better way British Airways can follow Pluralistic approach and it can be guided by HRM. Its
major roles is to conduct activities that will help in embedding the company's values in the minds
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of workers so that can feel themselves attached with the company. This will also help for
employees to understand better relationship among functional managers and Subordinates. Better
HRM always leads to better employee satisfaction which ultimately leads to better facilities to
the consumers and hence increasing the brand name of the enterprise can be improved.
CONCLUSION
From the above based report it can be concluded that in the modern time business it is
important for the firm to apply employee relations in a better way. This is due to the fact that
employee relations helps in achieving the worker satisfaction which is important for the overall
performance of the firm. The role of management as well as workers becomes important in
enhancing the level of ER. There are two basic approaches to ER namely Unitary and Pluralistic.
The role of trade unions becomes very significant in improving ER. The policies made by EU
has a direct effect on the internal democracy of the firm. In enhancing the relationship between
employee and employer the role of HRM becomes most significant.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Allen, M.M. and Aldred, M.L., 2011. Varieties of capitalism, governance, and high-tech export
performance: A fuzzy-set analysis of the new EU member states. Employee Relations,
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Atkinson, C. and Hall, L., 2011. Flexible working and happiness in the NHS. Employee
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Bach, S. and Kessler, I., 2011. The Modernisation of the Public Services and Employee
Relations: Targeted Change. Palgrave Macmillan.
D'Cruz, P. and Noronha, E., 2011. The limits to workplace friendship: Managerialist HRM and
bystander behaviour in the context of workplace bullying. Employee Relations. 33(3).
pp. 269-288.
Dasgupta, S.A., Suar, D. and Singh, S., 2012. Impact of managerial communication styles on
employees’ attitudes and behaviours. Employee Relations. 35(2). pp. 173-199.
DeLellis, A.J. and Sauer, R.L., 2015. Respect as ethical foundation for communication in
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Osman-Gani, A.M., Hashim, J. and Ismail, Y., 2013. Establishing linkages between religiosity
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Rodriguez, J. and Mearns, L., 2012. Employee Relations: Special Issue on Employment
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Employee Relations. 2017. [Online] Available through: <http://www.hr.pitt.edu/employee-
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employees/employee_relations>. [Accessed on 30th October 2017].
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