Unit 20 Employee Relations

This assignment examines the importance of employee relations in Marks and Spencer (M&S), a UK-based retail enterprise. It analyzes various aspects of employee relations, including employment laws, psychological contracts, stakeholder engagement, and the impact of positive and negative relationships on conflict resolution. The assignment provides insights into how effective employee relations contribute to organizational success.

Unit 20 Employee Relations

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
Activity 1.........................................................................................................................................1
Mechanism to cover the employment relationship and provide suitable solutions for the
fundamental of employment laws...............................................................................................1
Activity 2.........................................................................................................................................3
Evaluate psychological contract and support employees work life balance with various rights,
duties and obligations of employment relationship....................................................................3
Appropriate advices related to rights, duties and obligations related to employment
relationship..................................................................................................................................4
Activity 3.........................................................................................................................................6
Stakeholder engagement and contribution to have positive employment relationships within
M&S............................................................................................................................................6
Activity 4.........................................................................................................................................7
How positive and negative employee relationship can infect conflict avoidance and resolution
within M&S.................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Maintaining an effective relationship with the employees is an important part within an
organisation. A good employee relationship is an effectiveness of the interactions and
communication that persist between various employees at the work place. An effective employee
relationship will assist an organisation to have a good rise in the capabilities and effectiveness of
the organisation. Thus, will include the proper assessment of business activities and operations
that is undertaken within the firm. The present report is been presented in context of Marks and
Spencer (M&S). It is a UK based retail enterprise that operates on global level.
The report will lay an emphasis on the employment legislations and relationships with the
fundamental employment law. Also, different legal rights and duties at workplace with
employment relationship is been presented. Other than this, stakeholder analysis and both
positive and negative impact of employment relationship is being presented with reference to
various stakeholders within firm.
MAIN BODY
Activity 1
Mechanism to cover the employment relationship and provide suitable solutions for the
fundamental of employment laws
The employee relationship is an approach to engage the workforce and carrying out of
various business operations that are been carried out within the firm. The employee engagement
operations which are taken within the firm will help in proper assessment of the operational
requirements of the firm and thus, will lead the organization to have a good productivity and thus
will lead the suitable gaining of a market share that will improve the overall performance of the
organisation (Teoh and et.al., 2016). The employee relationship will help the organisation to
improve the services and productivity of the firm. It will also develop a positive work
environment within M&S. Besides this, for the employee's it will pave a path of their
development and will improve their personal and professional skill sets within the firm.
There are various types of employment relationship basically classified as vertical and horizontal
relationship within the enterprise. Different measures or steps are followed within the
organisation that will help in suitable placing of employee relationship within the M&S.
Some suitable measures of employee engagement that are been carried within the
selected retail enterprise organisation are:
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 Setting and communicating objectives: This is a very important aspect of setting up of
operations that are taken within the organisation. The major advantage of communicating
the objectives or goals are that it will improve the overall operations and thus will lead
the firm to improve the quality of services and action plans. It will help in developing a
better understanding of employees with the management of M&S to have a good
relationship.
 Developing interpersonal skills: This is also an important attribute that is required to be
carried out by management in order to improve the interaction with the employees and
the other staff members that will help in suitable maintaining of employee engagement
within the firm.
 Conflicts management: As the employees will be working within the organisation, they
are susceptible to have differences and conflicts with each other. Hence, in this case,
management of M&S will look after the rectification of the different sort of conflicts that
takes place within the firm, in order to pertains their productivity and revenues (Wang
and et.al., 2015). This approach will help in setting up of communication and relationship
among the peers and will help to improve the productivity of the firm by reducing and
removing indifference's.
 Training and development: the HR management of the firm will look after the proper
assessment of the operational needs and following different attributes in order to facilitate
the growth of skill sets and operations of the individual. The management will look after
these approaches to improve the employee's efficiency to carry out their operations
effectively. It will help in improving employee relationship by increasing the skill set of
employees at M&S and will lead the organisation to have a good team building and
bonding among employee's.
Besides this, the organisation will look after the different employment laws and their
fundamentals that will assist the organisation to manage their performance in much effective
way. Some major legal obligations that are taken within the enterprise are:
 Equality Act, 2010: An organisation will look after this measure in order to carry out the
operations and thus will lead the firm to improve their performance. It will guide M&S to
provide suitable training and resolve any sort of conflicts or indifference's at the
workplace.
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 Minimum wages act, 1948: this will help the management of organisation to handle the
operations and carry out their functionality in much effective and suitable manner. It
guides the management of skilled and less skilled workers which will improve their
performance.
 Health and safety at workplace act, 1974: This legal obligation will look after the
effective handling of the operations and thus, ensures implementation of effective safety
and health care measures at workplace of M&S. It will contribute to induce proper
encouragement of employee's bonding towards the firm (Terglav, Ruzzier and Kaše,
2016).
The above factors will improve the significant employee engagement using different
employment laws and legal measures which will increase the overall performance of an
organisation.
Activity 2
Evaluate psychological contract and support employees work life balance with various rights,
duties and obligations of employment relationship
Work life balance is a practice of maintaining the coordination between the work
practices and personal life. It is a very essential component that is required to be followed. By
providing the suitable and effective employee's rights and obligations, M&S can ensure
employee's loyalty. Other than this, based on various operations that are taken within the firm,
this can be said that it will help the organisation to allocate the duties and get them fulfilled
effectively. It will play a very deep and crucial part in the carrying out of the employment
relationship and thus will help in suitable planning of business operations and action plans
effectively. The mutual understanding between the form and employees regarding the work,
quality and behavioral aspects will be a key foundation of having a suitable balance and meeting
the needs and demands of organisation in a very suitable and effective manner (Kalidass and
Bahron, 2015).
The psychological contract is a significant set of expectations and explanations which are
maintained within the firm to maintain relationship. Along with the codified, legal employment
contract, it plays a very significant role in maintaining employer- employee relationship and
suitable employee engagement operations. It includes the informal beliefs, perception and ideas
related to any obligation or operations that will improve the quality of services and thus, guides
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the organisations within the firm to encourage suitable work life balance to have a good
connectivity with their work force, having a good relationship at the workplace. Effective
following of psychological contract will help in improving the performance and employee
engagement at M&S. Both employer and employees are obliged to follow their respective duties
and have access to their rights as per the psychological contract drawn between them (Li and
Sun, 2015).
Legal rights and obligations like following of Equality act, Anti discrimination measures
and carrying out of suitable planning of business activities within the firm with a significant rise
in customers loyalty towards the firm and improving the performance on global level. Both
employer and employee will have certain obligations which will be followed by both.
The employer has the obligation to provide effective services and action plans within the
organisation. They will look after the appropriate adoption of measures which will lead the firm
to have a good relationship with their workforce. Other than, paying appropriate wages and other
benefits is the major factor that can be effectively carried out within the firm (Albrecht and et.al.,
2015). Other than this. The employer like M&S will see through the proper arrangement of the
business operations and lead the management of organisation to carry out the business activities
of the organisation in an effective way. On the other hand, the employees have certain
obligations too. They are bind to provide quality work to the firm, under the mutual
understanding within the firm. Also, they have to follow the code of conduct and policies that are
been set within the organization and thus will lead organization to carry out their operations and
activities in much effective and significant manner. All these attributes will lead the organisation
to carry out their activities in much effective manner (Ugargol and Patrick, 2018).
The legal rights will include the right to have safety and security at workplace, rights of
having equal job opportunities and right over the essential information's that are been produced
within the firm. On the other hand, it is employee's duties to follow code of conduct of the firm
and give high quality performance with no conflicts at workplace.
All this rights, legal measures and obligations will lead the firm to improve their
performance and meet the operational requirements and improves the employee engagement
within M&S on a global level.
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Appropriate advices related to rights, duties and obligations related to employment relationship
Various measures can be undertaken by the management of M&S in order to induce and
sustain the work force engagement within the organisation (Hsu and Chen, 2017). They will
undertake a wide range of operations and other activities that will lead to the rise in effectiveness
of the organization to improve the quality of services and other facilities to sustain the workforce
and reduce the employee related issues like interpersonal conflicts, lack of proper
communication, unfulfilled need of skills and growth attributes that are required within the firm
to carry out other related operations.
Maintaining the employees’ rights like getting safe and secure workplace, having a
supportive work environment and sustaining the personal space and dignity are certain measures
that can be incorporated by the firm on a global scale at its stores or outlets (Suh, 2016). Besides
this, as the practice of psychological contract is been observed within the firm, it will involve an
effective communication process which will lead the organisation to have a good assessment of
business operations and thus will lead the firm to improve the quality of services and other action
plans. Some major suggestions or advice's that are been carried out within the organisation for
suitable employee engagement and relationship are:
 Incorporating the rights and legal aspects within M&S will help in carrying out of the
business operations and other objectives which will help in suitable planning of business
activities and hence lead to carrying out of employee engagement measures. For example,
M&S will help in proper assessment of employee rights and operations, in an effective
way.
 Any sort of conflict or indifference at the work place can be undertaken within M&S and
will improve the quality of services. Hence, will lead the organisation to have a good
assessment of employee engagement issues which are been undertaken within the firm
(Hsiung and Tsai, 2017). For instance, if a conflict will occur at M&S, the management
will look after the solution by assessing the reason behind the conflict.
 Innovative employee engagement measures can be undertaken by management of M&S
in order to have a good accessibility to needs and requirements of their work force and
providing them with high quality facilities which will improve the operations of the firm.
For example, M&S will incorporate the latest training and employee engagement
measures in order to maintain the productivity of the firm.
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Following of the above discussed legal obligations and giving the employees with
suitable working measures will lead the organisation with carrying out of operations with
efficiency. Based on this, effective training and employee development measures can be
incorporated.
All these measures will lead the organization to have a good accessibility of operations
and meeting the needs of the organisation as well as the work force that will help in improving
the employee's loyalty and satisfaction level towards firm (Han, Bonn and Cho, 2016). This will
help in proper assessment of the business operations and this will lead the organizations that will
help in carrying out of the business actions and thus will lead the firm to have a sustainable
growth and rise in the employee engagement measures within the organisation. The following of
different rights, ethics and concepts will help M&S will help in proper assessment of the
organisation and thus, guides the management of organisation for improving their relationship
with their work force. I will lead the organisation to enhance the quality of services and thus will
guide the organization to have a good accessibility of various operations and thus will lead to rise
in effectiveness of firm to improve the quality of services and employee satisfaction level (Wang
and et.al., 2015).
Activity 3
Stakeholder engagement and contribution to have positive employment relationships within
M&S
The stakeholders are the concerning entity within an organisation that will look after the
proper assessment of the employee engagement within M&S. Stakeholders contains the
operating people or individuals within an organisation, that are interested in company's growth
and contribute in one or the other way to have a good accessibility of operations such as
employees. Investors, support staff and suppliers (Lombard, 2014). Especially the workers or
employees plays a very vital part as the stakeholder within the firm. It also helps the organisation
to have a good accessibility of the business operations and thus will lead the firm to have a good
rise in business operations and activities within the firm.
The stakeholder engagement is a very important and effective role in the operations and
maintaining the operational capability of the firm (Eldor and Harpaz, 2016). Tjhis is beemn
carried out using the stakeholder analysis matrix chart which is as follows:
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It involves the details of different stakeholders that are operating within the firm. This includes
the following sub categories:
 Latents: They have high power but low interest within firm, tyhus they should be kept
satisfied.
 Apathetics: They have low power and interests and are required to be monitored by
management.
 Defenders: They have low power to practice but have higher interest withing operations
of firm. Hence, they are required to be informed by management.
 Promoters: They have high power and interest within the operations aof the fiorm and
are required to looked after by the firm.
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Illustration 1: Stakeholder analysis matrix
Source: Stakeholder Analysis Grid, 2019

All these involves the measures like identifying, prioritizing and understanding the
stakeholders and their needs within the firm. It will improve the performance of M&S to a higher
level.
It is very essential for an organisation like M&S to carry out the effective planning of the
stakeholder engagement approaches that will lead the firm to improve the quality of services and
leads to have a good bonding between the employer firm and the stakeholders or employees of
the firm. Some major steps that can be taken within the firm for the stakeholder engagement are:
 Internal equality: this is the major approach that can be undertaken within the firm for
stakeholder engagement and will lead the management of the firm to have a good
relationship with their employer and thus, can also assist in meeting the operations within
the firm. The removal of any sort of indifference at the workplace will lead to creation of
a good bonding at the workplace and thus will lead the management of organization to
have a good management of operation's within the firm. This will also increase the
organization's loyalty towards the enterprise and increase their productivity.
 Training for external competitiveness: this will help the organization to have an
improvement of the operations and thus will lead the management of M&S top have a
good accessibility of various operations and functions within the firm. This will also help
in suitable planning of the employee or stakeholder engagement operations within the
organisation. This will make management of M&S to train their employees to have a
good accessibility of the skilled labor and thus will lead the organisation to have a good
employee satisfaction level (Farooq and et.al., 2018). It will also help in getting the
suitable wages and thus, lead the organisation to have a good relationship with their
stakeholders.
 Rewards and appraisal: this is also a very important component of the organisation that
will assist management of M&S to provide suitable planning of operations and
stakeholders engagement. This will help in gaining of the operations and meeting of
operations and thus will lead the organisation and thus will lead the organisation to
improve their productivity. Rewarding will also improve the employee satisfaction level
and thus will lead the organisation which will increase the profitability of the
organisation. Other than this, the performance review techniques that are been taken
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within the firm will help in enhancing their satisfaction level (Gawke, Gorgievski and
Bakker, 2018). This will also help in inducing the healthy competitiveness of M&S.
 Determining employee relationship: this will help in suitable management of business
operations. This will lead to the proper assessment of stakeholder engagement of the
M&S. It will also assist in gaining a good market share and have a high level of customer
satisfaction level and their loyalty towards the selected retail enterprise. As the
management of the firm will look after the handling of employee engagement approach,
this will lead to improving the satisfaction level of the firm and thus will help in meeting
the set goals and objectives of the selected retail enterprises.
Activity 4
How positive and negative employee relationship can infect conflict avoidance and resolution
within M&S
A good and effective employee relationship will help in proper assessment of the
effective engagement of the employees within the firm (Karanges and et.al., 2015). This will
help in carrying out of the business operations and thus will lead the firm to handle their business
activities and other objectives of the enterprise in an effective way. Hence, it will lead the
positive rise in the gaining of the high level of market share and meeting of operations within the
firm. Adoption of this approach is also beneficial for the firm as it helps the individual to gain a
good accessibility of operations and thus will lead the organisation to have a good rise in
involving the work force of the firm. Based on this analysis, this can be said that the employee
engagement operations that are been taken within the context are beneficial for the firm.
This may have negative or positive impact on employee relationship and hence, will look
after the proper management of relations and carrying out of business activities within the
organisation (Steinberger, 2017). A positive employee relationship will aid to improve the
loyalty of organisation which helps in proper assessment of business activities and action plans
that will help in suitable rise in placing of business operations within the firm. It also guides the
management of firm to improve quality of services and thus, will help in improving interactions
and communication between the firm. It also assists management to take suitable measures for
engaging the work force and meeting the operational needs of the firm. The measures like
conflict resolution, improving customer's performance and thus will lead the rise in overall
productivity of M&S on global level.
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However, the negative employee engagement will also impact the overall operations that
are been followed within selected retail enterprise. The lack of proper employee engagement
operations will lead to decrease in encouragement of work force and may cause a reduction in
productivity and effectiveness of the firm. It may also influence the interrelation between the
management and employees or on interpersonal level (Supanti, Butcher and Fredline, 2015).
Thus, it will lead the organisation to have a weaker functional structure and hence will lead to
reduction in the revenue generation of the firm. The management of M&S is required to look
after suitable planning of employee engagement measures within the firm on global level.
CONCLUSION
On the basis of the evaluation carried out showcases that in the present global era, the
employee engagement is very vital. It helps the form to improve the quality of services and thus,
will lead the firm to have a good level of operations and this will lead the improvement in the
productivity and revenue generation of the firm. The measures and solutions that are been
analyzed for the assessment of the business s operations and activities to engage the work force
within the enterprise. Other than this, the importance of work life balance and psychological
contract is been evaluated that leads to development of a mutual understanding between
management and employees. It helps the organisation to have a positive employment relationship
measures and get the idea about the positive and negative measures undertaken within the firm.
All this factors will lead M&S to have a good employee relationship within the firm.
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REFERENCES
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Ugargol, J. D. and Patrick, H. A., 2018. The Relationship of Workplace Flexibility to Employee
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