Employee Relations Issue in Singapore

Employee Relations
in
Asia
Employee relations Issue in Singapore

1
The employee relation has become very important in modern day business irrespective of the
industry and the country. It is a relation that helps bringing smoothness in the business
process. There are several factors that affect the employee relations among the employees and
employers (Leat, 2012). Asia is developing into the centre for international business for many
companies and most of them have expanded their business in this region. This has led to
intense competition. Such a high grade of competition has called for maintaining the higher
standards in employee relations. Inefficient management of employee relations might lead to
situation such as strike outs, dissatisfaction among employees, high employee turnover which
is not good for the future of the company. Singapore is a country that attracts lots of investors
towards their business. The employee relations in the country are facing many kinds of
challenges. These challenges can ruin the image of the company and can hamper the growth
rate of the firm. A lot of change in the employment relationship can be noticed in the past two
decades. Employee relationship has become one of the major concerns for the business
function such as Strategic Human resource management in the firm (Kelly, 2012).
Singapore has been following standard dispute settlement procedures along with the
collective bargaining. The collective culture is embodied by the employee strength present in
the country. Labour unions have become very much important in the modern day
employment environment. They are acting as a bridge among the employees and the
employers so as to maintain the balance of power among the employees and employers
(Shields, Brown, Kaine, Dolle-Samuel, North-Samardzic, McLean ... & Plimmer, 2015).
Singapore is a traditionally bounded value and custom driven society and it emphasises on
everyday life. A psychological contract has been developed among the workers and the
employers and such contracts are inevitable that too in the given business environment.
Organisations have to develop their human resource practices on regular basis so as to stay
competitive.
The biggest challenge in front of the Singapore is that it needs to deal with traditional and
capitalist values. This is also necessary for the motivation of the employees. The employee
relations are conscientious and competent in terms of job (Hendrix, Hayes & Kumar, 2012).
Organisations are changing and developing criteria so as to improve the employee relation at
any place. Negotiations between the employees and the employers are more based on
accommodation approach. This calls for the reason that employees feel receptive as all the
contracts are not managed successfully.

2
Government of Singapore has introduced many policies and regulations so as to make
structural changes in the mind-set of both employers and employees. They have trained their
employees in terms of direction and level of power symmetry in the employment relationship
(Luo, Wang, Raithel & Zheng, 2015). The employers are fighting for making the cost cuts
and at the same time employees are concerned about reducing salaries in the country. It has
also resulted in reneging as the expenses of the company are exceeding the benefits of the
company. It is to be noted that till the time more numbers of trained employees gets emerged
in the country, more power in the employment relationship is enjoyed by the employees. In
Singapore many firms have taken steps to avoid cognitive dissonance among the various
parties. Along with this firms are enhancing the motivation, making elicit organisational
commitment as well as limiting the intention to leave the firm (Mishra, Boynton & Mishra,
2014).
In Singapore most of the organisations have hierarchical organisational structure along with
patriarchal systems. It has become difficult for the firms to understand the needs of the
organisation and respond to the flexibility in the business environment. With the increasing
inflation in the country, the economic challenges have not only emerged for the employees
but have also tensed the employers (Singh, 2011). This is because both of them are looking
for their interest whenever any policy change takes place within an organisation. Innovation
and creativity is promoted in the organisation and hence training to the employees has
become highly crucial. Singapore is compelling the workers to conform to procedures and
policies as well as rules and regulations. This has made the working environment more rigid
and inflexible which has generated issues such as frustration of external users, power
concentration, and alienation of employees (Sriramesh, Rivera-Sánchez & Soriano, 2013).
For resolving the conflicts, employees and employers have been encouraged so as to resolve
the matter internally before going to the adjudication in the Industrial Arbitration Court or to
the conciliator (Chi-Ching & Keng-Choo, 2017). Any failure to the outside agreement let the
matter to go into the adjudication to the IAC, hence the provision for conciliation; collective
bargaining and arbitration of the IRA apply mutatis mutandis. Open manifestation of conflict
is still impossible in the modern times. It is the efforts of the Singapore government that after
minor strike in 1986, there is no big strike being conducted in the country after 1978. Most of
the organisations have taken the Western View to the conflict situation. It is supposed to be
resolved systematically, openly and rationally that may lead to benefits for the firm (Long,
Ajagbe & Kowang, 2014).