Managing employee relationship PDF

Running head: MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP 1
Managing Employee Relationship
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MANAGING EMPLOYEE RELATIONSHIP 2
Introduction
Industrial conflict refers to all the dissatisfaction expressed by employees
especially those pertaining to an employment contract in an organization. Industrial
conflict may be divided into formal or informal. Formal conflict is where employees
express their grievances through a trade union or work representative. Informal industrial
conflict is not based on any systematic approach. Informal industrial conflicts include
strikes, absenteeism, and others. Since conflict is natural and inevitable, they may cause
dysfunctional or functional outcomes to the organization. Management style may also
impact the occurrence of conflict in an industry. Therefore, conflict management is
important for the efficiency and effectiveness of an organization.
Conflict may arise in different ways such as differences in job definition,
codependency of jobs, organization structure and duties. The hospitality industry is
divided into different sectors, which are the accommodation and lodging and ranges from
the caravan grounds, camping, resorts and budget hotels, foods and beverage, travel and
tourism and the entertainment industry. Organizations in the hospitality and service
industry sell customer satisfaction. Hotels also sell customer satisfaction, not rooms and
beds (Dhanesh, 2014). Meeting customer service challenge may be a big challenge. For
the organization to thrive, the staffs should be skilled in conflict prevention among clients
and customers and recovery of complaints from customers.
Managers should help to prevent conflict within the industry and outside the
industry. Staffs of any organization should be prepared to deal with hostile customers and
difficult customers in order to prevent conflict. Since customers are the backbone of

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every organization they should be treated in a nice to gain their loyalty. Sometimes
employees may use a language that may put off customers creating problems which may
affect the entire hospitality industry. The organization should, therefore, teach staffs
cooperative communication, how to handle conflict and how they can solve if they arise.
This essay discusses the industrial conflict in the hospitality industry.
Types of Industrial Conflicts in the Hospitality Industry
There are several types of industrial conflict such as economic dispute. These
disputes arises due to economic reasons such as the demand for higher wages and salaries
by employees. This results from increased cost of living, demand for allowances and
bonuses due to extended hours of working and overtime, higher profits by the
organization hence employers may demand a certain percentage share in the profit
(Saeed, Almas, Anis-ul-Haq & Niazi, 2014). Another type is non-economic disputes. The
conflict arises due to several issues like unhealthy working conditions, working for long
hours without rest or breaks, modernization and enhancement of technology. As a result,
this leads to replacement of human labor with machinery, indiscipline and unfair
treatment of subordinates by managers or supervisors, weakness of the labor union. The
aim is to make sure that the employees’ rights are upheld by the employer and improper
communication between union and management (Ajayi & Buhari, 2014). A strike is also
a type of employee dispute in the hospitality industry. A strike is the temporary
withdrawal of employees from services contrary to the employment contract. It is a form
of industrial conflict which is usually organized by the trade union that represents
employees in that particular organization or sector.

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During the strikes, the members of the trade union ensure that there are no other
means of getting the services which the employers have refused to provide. Strikes
always prolong until the management addresses the cause or causes of dissatisfaction by
employees (Song & Tønnesson, 2013). Work-to-rule is a formal industrial action for
expressing dissatisfaction in the hospitality industry. It happens where workers strictly
adhere to the legal terms of the work contract. They become rigid and work like pre-
programmed machines and they do not accept any extra work that may be allocated to
them. For example, a nurse may intentionally refuse to answer a phone call for a doctor
since answering the call is not part of the terms and condition in the job contract. Work to
rule is not punishable since it does not go against the formal terms of the contract.
Additionally, sabotage is an informal industrial conflict that happens when workers
intentionally destroy the organization’s reputation and production (Zhang, Chen & Sun,
2015). Employees may slow down the process of production, disabling machines
temporarily or slandering the organization. Employees who engage in sabotage usually
use other people or hide there their identities.
Stages of Conflict
Conflict is born and grows in an organization. The following five stages cover the
start, rise and unfold among groups and individuals having different interest, goals, and
values of the hospitality industry. The first stage is the potential opposition where there
are conditions that bring about opportunities for the development of conflict. These later
lead to the creation of opportunities for rising of organization’s conflict (Serneels &
Verpoorten, 2015). Conditions which cause conflict include communication that is, noise