Employee Relations: A Modern Perspective

This assignment delves into the contemporary landscape of employee relations. It examines key concepts, trends, and best practices shaping employer-employee interactions in today's dynamic work environment. Students will analyze various aspects of employee relations, including communication, conflict resolution, performance management, and the impact of technological advancements. The assignment encourages critical thinking and application of theoretical knowledge to real-world scenarios, ultimately aiming to provide a comprehensive understanding of effective employee relations strategies.

Employee Relations

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
1.1 The unitary and pluralistic frames of references..............................................................3
1.2 Changes in trade unionism that affect employee relations...............................................4
1.3 Role of main players in employee relations.....................................................................5
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................6
2.1 Procedures an organisation should follow while dealing with conflict situations...........6
2.2 Key features of employee relations in a conflict situation...............................................7
2.3 Effectiveness of procedures used in a conflict situation..................................................8
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Role of negotiation in collective bargaining....................................................................8
3.2 Impact of negotiation strategy for a situation in organisation..........................................9
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................10
4.1 Influence of European Union on industrial democracy in the UK.................................10
4.2 Methods to be used to gain employee participation and involvement in the decision
making process of organisation............................................................................................10
4.3 Impact of human resource management on employee relations....................................11
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Successful business depends on effectual management of work and employee
relationship at workplace (Newsom and Kruckeberg, 2012). Human resource management
includes strategies to maintain relationship and gain competitive edge in the market. Basically,
employee relationship focuses on issues like pay and benefits, working style and safety at
workplace. Communication is an important element of employee relationship.
Present report is about the giant retail company that is Tesco which serves wide range of
products and services across the world. However, the study revolves around managing the
employees relation at Tesco enterprise. (Edwards, 2009).
TASK 1
1.1 The unitary and pluralistic frames of references
Employee relationship is mainly focused on strategic and co-ordinated frameworks which
are based on commitment and interest of personnel towards work and workplace.Employee
relationship is more emphasized on strategic and integrated framework instead of traditional
managerial control and conflicts between employers and employees” (Bach and Kessler, 2011).
In this context, there are three models to describe the importance of employee’s relationship.
These are Tichy and Devanna's Matching Model, Beer's Harvard Model and Walton's Control to
commitment model. There are some frames of references to explain the impact of different
perspectives that are interpreted in employee relations to show the implications of successful
employee relationship. These are-
 Unitary frame
 Pluralist frame
Unitary frame is based on the values and assumption, it includes the behaviour,
conflicts and relation between employees and employers. If there is a conflict between
employees, it can prove to be a reason of harm for the work and the place too. However, a
conflicting situation between the employee and manager is also not good as it obstructs the
growth of employee's career development and indirectly affects the organisations productivity
(Morris, 2012). There are some elements of unitary frame-
 Management is the single authority in organisation which has all reserved rights in any
case.

 Leaders play an important role in context of loyalty and commitment among the workers.
 Management must ensure about the person who is leading the departments is an
effective leader. Further, it must have the quality of expressing his or her thoughts
efficiently towards the subordinates(Center and et.al., 2008).
 Conflicts are natural at the place where many individuals work with their different
opinions but it is harmful for the organisation and negatively affects company's image.
Pluralist frame - In this, management converts the entire organisation into different sub
groups, each group lead by its respective leaders and follow their regulations. The pluralist
frame is divided into two main sub groups that are management and trade unions. This theory
believes in some elements and these are-
 Organisation is made up of different set of beliefs and values.
 There are opposing factors of leadership and link in organisation.
 Management plays an important role of mediator between authority and workers.
 The employee relation stability can be achieved through concessions and negotiation
between management and employees through bargaining process.
1.2 Changes in trade unionism that affect employee relations
The role of trade unions has become changed in the present scenario. There are different
trends that occur in the business that is global competition, change in outsourcing, legal
constraints and employee participation that combined in unions and caused collective bargaining
process (Ngo and et.al., 2008). There has been a huge change in trade unionist movement and
the way they respond towards the challenges and opportunities. With the passage of time trade
unions have become very powerful but the regulatory firms decided that the it could be sued for
damages and harm that is cause by union if they held a strike. Public sector is the sole remaining
sector in which trade unions directly influence in employment relations. Furthermore, it has been
assessed that in the past period trade unions were less powerful as they were considered as
obstruction by the government. Therefore, these movement was banned in the 20th century due
to its high amount of intervention in the operations of business entities. Additionally, strikes and
lock outs were witnessed in high amount (Hooper and Martin, 2008).
However, with the passage of time and growing need to preserve the rights of employees
trade unions arrived in new form . This can be experienced in the way Tesco deals with
protecting the rights of its employees by providing them with safe and secure working

environment along with adequate salary that motivates them. Moreover, with the collective
bargaining and negotiation process the issues are effectively dealt by the management of
concerned company as well as the trade unionist.
1.3 Role of main players in employee relations
Main players of employee relation are first of all the employee himself and the others are
human resource manager, employee trainee, financial manager and the top management of
organisation (Runar and Edvardsson, 2008).
 Human resource manager- He is the mediator between employee and the management.
Manager has to design the job and need to do planning according to job about training
and other things which is important.. He or she is liable to maintain the relationship
between an employee and employer.
 Employee trainee - He or she is the one who introduces work and workplace to
employees and make them aware about the rules and regulations. Through proper
training, they ensure proper employee relations.
 Top management - Their leading role in maintaining the employee employer relationship
at Tesco PLC includes sharing power in decision making with their immediate
subordinates so as to create a sense of affiliation in their minds. Furthermore, they also
assist in creating policies and practices that are in the best interest of the employees
(Amstad and et.al., 2011).
TASK 2
2.1 Procedures an organisation should follow while dealing with conflict situations
Organisation is made up of different individuals and their different opinions or ideas.
Therefore, it is obvious that contradiction in between their opinions would occur and this will be
the cause of any conflict. Here, the role of management is to search for solutions of conflicts that
take place at workplace. Human resource manager looks after these issues related with conflicts
and employee relations. Tesco deals with these kinds of issues every day. There are some ways
to deal with the conflict situations. For this, human resource manager should identify the cause
of conflict and then identify the way of solving this along with assessing the implications of

same (Cooke, 2009). There are many causes of conflicts that occur day by day in the industry.
Some of them are-
 Inefficiency in training management
 Treatment with the employees
 Lack of communication
 Past related problems that appear in present
 Lack of strong leadership
 Risk at workplace
 Kind of harassments in organisation, etc.
The way manager identifies conflicts and solve them in organisation, it can be called as
managerial action to solve the conflict. Manager can take many steps regarding issues or the
person that are the causes of conflicts (Welch, 2011). To identify and solve the issues, manager
can use some steps which are like-
For instance in order to deal with the issues regarding risk at workplace, the employees
can form internal unions and raise the problems in front of the management of Tesco. Collective
Bargaining is the most efficient process through which the problems can revolved internally
rather then making it too big. In addition to the above, in regards to the problem of low salary at
respective organization, employees can demand for higher salary through the process of effective
negotiation. Herein, the managers and employees can effectively decide the working hours and
salary for the respective period by putting forward their points (Wilkinson and Fay, 2011).
2.2 Key features of employee relations in a conflict situation
Every organisation should concern about employee relations as it plays an important role
in the achievement of success in business. The key features included in employee relations
include employers giving rewards and recognition in organisation for improving the performance
of employees that will increase the overall productivity of firm. Another feature of employee
relation ensures providing flexibility within working style which ultimately increases the interest
of employee. One more feature of employee relation is increasing involvement of employees in
framing strategies and decision making of their related departments. (Macky, Boxall, 2008).
Employee relation means the body of concern to maintain employee-employment
relationship. The essential thing for satisfactory productivity, employee motivation and business
goal is employee relations. It is also necessary to solve different problems which arise in the

organisation. Tesco’s managers manage the employee relationship based on Pluralist frame of
employee relation (Sadikoglu, Zehir, 2010). The employee relation depends on some features
that are-Organisation is made up of different set of beliefs and values.There are opposing factors
of leadership and link in organisation.Management plays an important role of mediator between
authority and workers.
 -Employee relation stability can be achieved through concession and negotiation between
management and employees through bargaining process.
2.3 Effectiveness of procedures used in a conflict situation
There are many reason of contradictions or conflicts in the organisation, between the
employer or employee or between employee to employee. It shows the lack of understanding in
the organisation . In order to deal with these conflicting situations there are several methods out
which some has been enlisted underneth (Choi and Wang, 2009).
Through effective communication channel or process the conflicting situation pertaining
in the Tesco PLC can be eradicated. This can be done by free flow of information at all levels of
the management. It will assist in gaining the trust and loyalty of the employees and also aids in
conducting the operations in the most appropriate manner. Furthermore, when employees are
aware about the new practices, policies and objectives of the concern, then they will work in the
similar direction that is provided by their leaders or superiors. In this way the difference in
opinion and the problems regarding the work and finance issue of the business entity can be
minimised. For this human resource department manager should identify the cause of the
conflict and then identify the way of solving this and implication of the way.
There are several other ways in which the conflicting situation can be minimised from the
organizational setting of Tesco includes employee participation in the decision making process,
creating workplace safety and appropriate working environment, equal opportunity to each and
every individual, etc. (Boxall and Macky, 2009)..
TASK 3
3.1 Role of negotiation in collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is the process of negotiation between organisation or employer and
employees when issues arise. For instance, an incident of strike might happen among labours and
the organisation and then collective bargaining takes place as negotiation. The employees depend
on a leader who is one of them and represent them during bargaining process and negotiations

often relates to issues such as working conditions, employee safety, training, wages and other
related issues. When an agreement is reached, the resulting “collective bargaining agreement
becomes contract governing employment issues (Farndale and et.al., 2011). It is said that
“collective bargaining is process through which issues or conditions of employment are
discussed and thereafter through collective approach conflicts are dealt with." The aim of
collective bargaining is to reach an agreement that meets the needs of employees and labours.
Workers can contribute to discussions and their outcomes by communication while negotiation
takes place.
Negotiation plays an important role in collective bargaining such as-
 It will increase the productivity of labour or employee.
 It increases the interest of workers in work.
 The freedom of employer decreases by negotiation.
 It Become more easier to solve the issues at through bargaining processat management
level It is important to settle down and prevent rising issues.
3.2 Impact of negotiation strategy for a situation in organisation
There are two types of negotiation that is positive and negative. Both the positive and
negative negotiation highly impact on organisation. In the present report, retail firm, Tesco deals
with an issue between the labour who are currently working for confectionery and financial
department related with daily wages and cost of ready items. The labour of confectionery
department deals with the every day issues of salary and managing their daily livelihood (Procter
and Burridge, 2008).
In this situation, negotiation plays an important role to solve out the problems. By proper
negotiation between the management and workers, they come to a point where the interest of
both parties is maintained. By negotiation, they can reach to an agreement that meets the needs
of employees and labours. Workers can contribute to discussions and their outcomes by
communication while negotiation takes place. The manager and leader of labour union plays an
important role to aware the opposition with current situation and problems which they are facing
(Wood, 2008).

TASK 4
4.1 Influence of European Union on industrial democracy in the UK
European Union has many regulations that bind all the member states without need for
national legislation. Main objective behind this association is to achieve the objectives within
specific time limit and also, to leave national authorities to decide on the way to implement them.
In this procedure, directives have to be implemented in national legislation. Government and
European Union has a direct influence on business activity because it plays a crucial role in
managing financial and monetary policies of country (Johnson and Yang, 2010). Since, Tesco
works as a large business entity; therefore, it is vital for the organization to consider the
framework of European Union. The laws defined in European Union are imperative to consider
because that aids in process management and it also assists in different aspects of trade. As per
the concept of Industrial democracy, it is vital for Tesco to meet all the needs of employees. This
is essential so that all organizational prospects can be managed effectively.
Tesco operates business in UK; therefore, it is crucial to emphasize on the legal structure
determined by European Union. However, non-compliance of such rules can create issues for the
business entity. Further, it also aids in following suitable framework for business and employee
management (Lavelle and et.al., 2010). Government influences the business activities of Tesco
through making several changes in inflation, employment and taxation policies. Differences
prevailing among employees can also be managed in the best possible manner through involving
all employees in decision making procedure. Moreover, EU also grants several opportunities to
Tesco to enter into new market places through monitoring and controlling the existing business
activities. Similarly, Tesco has to associate the business activities with work council in which
various representatives discusses business objectives and accordingly, they come up with new
strategies to improve the future prospects of organization (Kumar and et.al., 2009).
4.2 Methods to be used to gain employee participation and involvement in the decision making
process of organisation
There are many methods in the working process that can raise the involvement and
participation of employees in the decision making process. It gives a sense of authority to
employees and increases their interest towards work as they feel to be recognized in the
organisation and management takes them as important units. Delegation of authority,

communication at every level along with training and incentives as well as authority are
important. Delegation of authority- In this process, manager can delegate his or her power between
the team and team leader. This will raise the responsibility in employee that he could
work with proper authority (Boxall and Macky, 2009).
 Training- This is the most prominent method through which employee involvement can
be increase in the work. Herein, the managemnt of the Tesco organization cane render
training on varied methods including the use of technical equipments. Apart from this, it
aids in maintaining their interest and also assist providing them with greater insight and
knowledge on the mission and vision of the company.
4.3 Impact of human resource management on employee relations
Main aim of human resource department is to manage all affairs of company so that there
will be no conflicts and chaos. The HR managers of the Tesco PLC has significantly contributed
their efforts towards maintaining efficient employee relationship at its premises. This can be
assessed from the practices adopted at the organizational setting so as to keep its employees
happy and content. the same has been enumerated underneath:
The training and development programmes conducted at Tesco helps the employees to
gain relevant information about their work and maintain the quality. In addition to the above,
appointing appropriate personnel at the workplace is the most import task done by the
management. This will help in reducing the amount of conflicts that may arise due to inefficient
and incompetent members. However, placing the right candidate at appropriate place is also
another important duty of HR managers. It aids in minimising the amount of conflicts between
the co-workers due to the difference of opinions and perceptions of each. If there will be proper
human resource management in the firm then there will be no more conflicts in between
employees (Choi and Wang, 2009). In addition to the above, accurate amount of bonus and
employee appreciation schemes adopted by the HR managers at the organizational setting of
Tesco Plc will also helps in minimising the conflicts at the workplace. Employees feel satisfied
when proper care and concern is being presented to their personal and professional requirements.
Therefore, it can be stated that HR managers play a significant role in managing employer
employee relationship at workplace of Tesco.

CONCLUSION
The above report it determined as relationship of employees in which unitary and
pluralistic approach has been describe. It also describe about the changes in trade union which
affects the relation of employees in organisation. An employee plays an important role as a key
players in an organisation. The cited firm contains the several procedure and they follow how to
deal in different situations . Company describe several features of relation of an employees
which divert the situation. The process which are effective and useful for an organisation which
changes the result according to situation. The essential role of negotiation in collective
bargaining is detailed above paragraph. The impact of the negotiation in the relation of
employees which is beneficial for an organisation.

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