Employee Relations Report: Analysis of Conflicts at British Airways

This report provides an in-depth analysis of employee relations within British Airways. It begins by exploring the unitary and pluralistic frames of reference, highlighting their impact on organizational dynamics and employee satisfaction. The report then examines the role of trade unions and their influence on employee relations, considering political, legal, and technological factors. The report also identifies key players in employee relations, including managers, government agencies, and workers, emphasizing their respective responsibilities. Furthermore, the report delves into conflict resolution, addressing issues such as workplace discrimination and strikes, while analyzing the characteristics of employee relations that contribute to conflict, such as hindering relationships between male and female employees and employee dissatisfaction. Finally, the report concludes by discussing different working styles and perspectives and their potential to create conflicts within an organization.

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
1.1 ..........................................................................................................................................1
1.2 ..........................................................................................................................................2
1.3 ..........................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
2.1 ..........................................................................................................................................4
2.2 ..........................................................................................................................................5
2.3 ..........................................................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
3.1...........................................................................................................................................7
3.2 ..........................................................................................................................................8
TASK 4 ...........................................................................................................................................8
4.1 ..........................................................................................................................................8
4.2 ..........................................................................................................................................9
4.3.........................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Relationship between the employee and the employer of the organisation is known as
employee relationship. An organization with good employee relationship programs provides fair
and consistent treatment to all workers so that they can be made committed towards their job and
loyal towards its operations. These programs are aimed at providing effectiveness and efficiency
in resolving all such problems which are generated from working situations. This includes the
development of human resource strategies as a way of resolving any concerning matter at the
workplace by together considering a smooth functioning of work (Greenwood, 2013). The
present report is based on a similar consideration of employee relations where it has involved the
description of such significant aspects of all organisations. It has also enlightened the fact of
different frames of references in an organisation. The current report is based on a selected
organisation called British Airways where it is a well-known company profoundly operating in
the field of airlines and is recognised all over the globe. Herein, various conflicting situations
have been analysed and on whose basis, certain effective means such as negotiation and
collective bargaining have been analysed as a way of resolving the disputes.
TASK 1
1.1
There are two main processes which need to be adopted for providing healthy relations
between employees. These are unitary and pluralistic frames of reference. These frames are
beneficial for developing different types of approaches used in generating results. Unitary frame
refers to the way of thinking, a mind-set, assumptions, values and principles as well as practices
relating to management and organizational membership (Batista, 2013). It is a concept on the
employment that lay stress on the shared interest of the members of an organisation. This
viewpoint assumes that conflict is abnormal and is caused by the troublemakers, bad
communication and poor management. This frame states that in order to achieve success,
members of enterprise must develop same types of goals, objectives and values which are
essential for the overall development of firm. The unitary perspective finds its way through
implementation of mission statement and measures actual success through achievements of
objectives. In pluralistic frames of reference, organizations are made up of powerful and sub
different types of groups each with its own values and methods. In this, two major subgroups are
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management and trade unions. In pluralistic framwork the organisation is perceived as being
made up powerful and different sub groups, each with its own legal loyalties and with their own
set of objective and leaders. The two main sub-group in the pluralistic perspective are the
management and trade unions.
Unitary process helps in analysing different types of teams that will be beneficial for the
accomplishment of organizational goals and objectives which will increase overall efficiency of
company. Pluralistic perspective will help in providing both organizational and personal
objectives. Company plays an important role in developing both types of frames as it will affect
employees and organization in different ways suitable for generating better results and analysis
(Greenwood, 2013). For employees, it is most important as it will provide satisfaction to them by
developing their personal and professional skills which can be beneficial in developing ethics
and cultures based on working of an enterprise. For managers and top authorities of British
Airways, considering the aforesaid frame of references, it is important to undertake efficient
measures for a sustainable continuation of employee- employer relationship at their workplace
for a long-term period. This is mainly on considering the fact where British Airways is known to
believe upon the application of unitary frame of reference.
1.2
The trade unions are the community which is working for the well being of the worker
class of any organisation. They always try to maintain the relationship between the worker class
and the management team. And any changes in the trade union will directly affect organisation
employee's relationship directly or indirectly. Other benefits may be like increasing pay scale,
developing healthy and positive as well as fair working environment (Trkman, 2010). In the mid
of 19th century in London, it used to develop moderate union models which were not so
beneficial for employees. But as time increases, their model started diminishing and new
methods are created which helped them in developing benefits of workers and organizations
both.
With development of various resources, trade unions have created various operations in
United Kingdom which will help them in developing effective systems used in communication
and also supports in generating better results. On the other hand, different changes are taking
place which helps British Airways in developing better employee relations. There are various
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factors of trade unionism which are to be analysed for maintaining employee relations in
organization.
 Political and Legal Factors: -The factor which are related to the policies, procedures
and methods which are ruling the economy are known as Political and legal factors.
Which help them in maintaining their relationship in the organisation. This type of
development generates conflicts among trade unions and employees (Cavalcade, 2011).
Further, if new policies are developed which are against the working systems of staff
members, they will not take active participation in developing positive relations between
them and management.
 Technological Factors: - It is a well-known fact that companies adopt new types of
technologies based on demand with respect to various types of benefits which will be
generated by it. But this reduces number of human resource in organization. For firms
like British Airways, it is very important to understand the latest technical software and
tools which will help in retrenchment of employees and will also reduce the cost of
workers (Cavalcade, 2011).
This will generate issues in between trade unions and British Airways which will create a
negative impact on final results. Due to this unionism, workers try to adopt practices of strikes
and lockouts which decreases the sales and profits of firm.
1.3
It is not easy to maintain healthy relationship among all members and employees of
organization as it is not the work of single individual to manage all such relations but it is a
collective effort of employees and other authorities to develop relations (Bretton, 2014). So,
there are various types of individuals that play an important and significant role in developing
coordination among different members of an organization. The main players are described as
below: -
 Managers: - Managers are the person responsible for controlling and administering an
organisation or a group of staff. Their work is to maintain relationship between the
different class of workers and employer. They have the duty to provide effective
environment to the staff members so that the performance level in them increases.
Furthermore, criticism which generates among different employees must be managed by
different managers (Storey, 2014). Along with this, employees also need to be
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encouraged at all levels so that they can perform effective and efficient results. By
developing motivational level of employees, an organization can easily attain positive
and healthy relationship among staff members.
 Government Agencies: - Government is said to have develop many laws and regulations
which British airways has to strictly follow at the workplace. The various types of acts
include child labour laws, minimum wages act, employee's discrimination and health and
safety laws. Through these acts, British Airways will help in developing such relations
which will create a string bond in between employees and the organisation.
 Workers:- The duty of the worker class is to perform tasks provided by the employees.
They should also need to follow all the rules and regulations which are developed by both
the company and the government. (Armstrong, 2014). These projects will help them in
developing their organizational skills and benefits. Staff members need to analyse all
issues generating in British Airways and must provide proper results beneficial for
creating positive results for the organization.
TASK 2
2.1
There are different types of procedures that British Airways follow at the time of dealing
with different types of situations. These are being regarded as three major types of conflicts
which must be analysed and implemented by the enterprise.
 Discrimination in Working Environment of Organization: - the discrimination can
occur within the enterprise between the employee's regarding many aspects as ineffective
environment and alteration in terms of employment conditions. In all these
circumstances, it is important that staff members raise their voice against managers
(Haider, 2012). So, it will result in raising the conflicting situations within British
Airways. Main areas of conflicts can occur when employees of various departments are
assigned their duties. But with a main concern of occupying only female employees
rather than provisioning the work to male employees of British Airways as well. British
Airways also needs to adopt different procedures through which difficult disputes can be
handled effectively.
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The process starts by carrying out discussions and analysing problems. After that,
problems are developed in an effective way to generate proper and beneficial solution required
by British Airways. In this regard, HR manager should be allotted with time limit of 6 days and
during these days, an action is to be taken regarding conflicts which needs to be solved. These
projects will help the organization to analyse effective alternatives that are beneficial for its
resolution.
 Strike: - This is another important factor of conflict which takes place in every entity.
Sometimes, company also needs to face conflicting situations because every time
employees cannot be satisfied with all their demands (Lee, 2012). These situations create
conflicts in business to develop and grow which affects its working in a negative way. It
ultimately creates conflicts among staff and the management.
Thus, to resolve the issue of strike, they must understand the needs and problems of all
employees. The whole process starts with selection of appropriate union and teams which will
help in generating needs and helping employees in satisfying their demands.
2.2
For any organization, conflicting situation is linked with collective disputes which is
important to be considered. In the companies like British Airways the main matter of
discrimination is the allocation of work between male and female. This type of condition
develops negative environment within enterprise (Bretton, 2014). As a result of this, sales and
profitability will be affected and organization may have to face loss. Thus, key characteristics of
employee relations are: -
 Hindering relationships between male and female employees of British Airways:-
The conflict is between the male and the female workers on part of working structures of
British Airways, as more male workers are raising their voices against female workers
now a days in the company. This will result in the negative relationship between amle
and female workers.
 Dissatisfied with the entity: - It is another key characteristic that develops conflicts
among conflicting situations. Workers of British Airways always show their
dissatisfaction towards entity and if managers do not take appropriate steps then
grievances occur. It will create a negative impact on relations between employers and
employees (Batista, 2013). However, this relationship can be improved by undertaking
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suitable actions which will help them to generate positive results. By keeping the
requirements in the mind the company can easily solve the problem of administrator and
can play important role.
2.3
The main conflict which can arise in organization can be working style of employees where
it can vary from one set of individuals to another. This is on considering the fact where every
individual is known to operate with different set of skill and abilities and believes in the
applicability of distinct measures for the accomplishment of a given task. This could lead to the
existence of several concerning aspects for the organisation where they may find it difficult to
suit into their own perspective of work. The other reason can be the difference in the wages
which are paid to male and the female employee's as in this industrial work the female
employee's get high payment for their work. They are being provided with less wages and their
working structure is also not flexible which generates various types of issues pertaining in
organization. For this issue, company has taken the help from conflicting procedure handling
authorities (Truman, 2010). Basically, they conduct some discussions within organization
between employees and employers. The conflict handling process in the industries by the
authorities is appropriate within the organisation in resolution to the conflict in various types of
people working in the British Airways.
The management has been provided by the 6 days time to resolve the employee's problems
or giving them alternative process. If the management failed to do this the problem would be
transferred to the higher authorities. These procedures will enable the cited company to have a
positive impact on their undertaken goals and objectives by fulfilling the same on time with
proper measures. The HR and the mangers provide conflict resolution at the work place to
simplify the process by this the relationship between them built up and communication becomes
more effective and also conflicts are resolved effectively. There are various types of goals and
objectives which are common to both the parties. So, for providing healthy and smooth working
of business relations, it is important for an organization to understand all its policies and
procedures and if they are common in nature then they should work together for achieving better
results. This will enable them in developing better relations between various employees working
together. It is important that both must work together in all aspects which will ensure positive
and healthy competition in firm along with attaining development of group goals.
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TASK 3
3.1
Collective bargaining is the method through which employees and managment carry out
activities of negotiation by the way of developing employment activities effectively and
efficiently. Furthermore, it can be said that collective bargaining can provide effective ways
which will help in generating healthy discussions among managers and staff members that will
result in positive growth of business enterprise (Cooper and Baird, 2015). In this process,
workers in British Airways will aid in developing role of staff members up to a higher standard
which will be considered as beneficial for future growth and success of business venture.
Through this element, members existing in firm can kept their issues and problem in front of the
top management. and it will help in generating solution of their required problem. Therefore, it
assists in solving out all types of conflicts and favourable environment will generate based on
working conditions in British Airways. So, with regard to it, various function of negotiation are
existing in collective negotiation process: -
 Reaching to effective conclusion: - Here in this scenario, mangers or employees
management or employees can develop such standard. in British Airways through with
it become easy for both management and workers to complete the negotiation process
successfully (Van Buren and et. al. 2011). They will discuss with employees of business
organization about such types of issues which will provide effective solutions that are
being faced by them at the workplace. With the help of negation process it becomes easy
for the firm and employees to work with satisfaction without. So, it is important it is
essential for the fir to take out right solution of the problem which will help in developing
better results for the organization.
 Improving effectiveness: - Collective bargaining process has main aim of providing
solution to disputes which will help them in getting and improving effectiveness in
solutions and working in organization (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). Through effective
solutions to all types of problems, British Airways will help in developing various types
of structures which will generate effectiveness and efficiency in working. Thus, it will
enable employees to perform effectively and efficiently which will generate positive
results that are beneficial for the growth and development of business venture.
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Thus, it can be said that because of these two important factors, negotiation plays an
important role in developing business enterprise with providing effective solutions.
3.2 Impact of negotiation strategy
The overall impact of negotiation on collective bargaining is based on collective disputes
which are related to overall conditions and operations of British Airways. It is way through
which conflict between two partise can effectively and efficiently solved with regard to British
Airways (Zott and et. al, 2011). In this respect, various negotiation strategies are analysed and
process is being signified in order to influence the situations of organizations. It takes into
considerations the activities like smoothing, compromising and forcing which are started as
below:
 Here manage and employees of the firm sit and discuss the to various types of issues
faced by employers presently in organization. In this strategy, individuals need to
compromise their goals and objectives (What are Employee Relations?, 2017). For
instance, if disputes occur then managers need to develop so much types of motivational
strategies which will assist in creating affirmative results and decrease disputes of the
business enterprise. If company like British Airways needs to comply with given
situations then circumstances should be developed in such a way that it will create
benefits for raising the level of motivation in workers by effective means of growth and
development.
 Forcing is the major negotiation strategy which must be analysed to accomplish personal
and organizational goals at expense of others (Devonish, 2013). In these types of
strategies, managers must give importance to personal goals rather than organizational.
TASK 4
4.1
industrial democracy is known as the way through which with responsibility to take
crucial decisions of business enterprise. There is direct affect of EU on the industrial democracy
and it impacts every aspect of economic development of its policies and methods. Within
economy they are being affected by various types of laws and legislations prevailing in European
Union. Union (Trkman, 2010). Here the case related to firm gone through in EU more
outstanding acts than function essential be provided to different types of personnel members
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regarding decision making process. So, in this case, guidelines issued have complied with
commercial enterprise democracy regarding its existence. If company does not follow these
policies then it has to go through various adverse situations of strikes and lockouts. Furthermore,
cultural differences in political systems affect the industrial democracy in country.
For example- Any country operating in multinational markets do not focus on various
aspects such as decision-making process of enterprise. As its main focus is on developing
products and services which can cater to benefits of society at large. If any business enterprise is
working in European Union, then it has to comply with all such aspects which can provide
benefits to business ventures (The professional body for HR and people development, 2017). But
if employees working in organization adopt similar type of procedures used in enterprise then
company can carry out its business operations effectively and efficiently by analysing specified
goals and objectives which are common in between union labour and management.
Industrial democracy helps in the growth and development of business relationship where
it specifies about a vital involvement of European Union enterprises. European Union has direct
impact on industrial relations as many laws and objectives are being introduced which company
has to comply with. Further, any act which is being passed by EU needs to be complied by the
firm and if not considered then there will be adverse effects on results gained by business
organization (Boons and Lüdeke-Freund, 2013). In short, each and every organization that has
been in practice with European Union legislation has to highly regulate business activities in
such a way that effective and efficient measures can be achieved in the favour of society.
Moreover, if organization does not follow all these guidelines then it can lead to unfavourable
situations of strike and lockouts. Union has several types of responsibilities which has set several
standards as per the requirements of job and working environment of any firm which will help
staff members to be protected from various types of harms and negative effects. This will
generate positive impact on the entire business venture. Therefore, it can be said that business
enterprise has positive relations within organization.
4.2
Different methods are present which are used in providing aims and activites of firm
with the goal of achieving employee’s engagement and participation in different types of
decision making processes (Devonish, 2013). Further it considers different types of methods like
schemes, attitudes and consultations.
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 Consultations is considered as an important factor which must be developed as per the
practices adopted by business firms. It will encourage more worker required to take part
in decision making process. In these techniques, managers supply opportunities to
employees for providing complete information in front of top level managers so that they
can generate better performance of employees in the long run. This directly supports
various types of motivational levels of employees in any organization which will help
them in making initiatives.
 The cited organisation can force the workers to taking part in affairs of business
organization and they can state their problem and vierw directly linked with them (Purge,
2014). It taken into consideration various types of job evaluations and performances.
Understanding the process, perception of workers that so that changes can be done in the
policy which are already implemented in business organizations being developed can be
analysed.
 Moreover, idea schemes are considered as another important technique and it must be
analysed and developed in such a way that company will it lead to enhance the
motivation level of staff and encourage them to involve in decision making process.
It lead to give opportunities to organization to carry out its business operations in an
effective manner (Cantwell and et. al., 2010). If company has adopted different type of policies
linked with working structure of enterprise then efficacy of new enterprises will be evaluated
from the appreciated suggestions. It is where the company is required to care about the
implementation of staff decisions that are taken at higher level.
4.3
HRM has a direct consequence on workers relation and through this, they can develop
staff members easily. Furthermore, all policies which are formulated by human resource
managers of the cited firm have direct effect on relation betwixt employees and employer. If
relationship needs to be stronger then they must provide favourable working environment to
people present there (Van 2011). This directly supports policies which are directly linked to all
employees which help them in retaining and enhancing level of motivation required for effective
and efficient performance. Such types of surroundings can be developed by providing personal
culture and ethics within workplace. In this method, different types of cultural opinions and
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