Analysis of Contemporary Developments in Employee Relations

This essay delves into the multifaceted realm of contemporary employee relations, exploring the evolution from traditional industrial relations to modern, trust-based approaches. It defines industrial and employee relations, tracing their historical roots and emphasizing the importance of fostering positive relationships between employers and employees. The essay highlights the significance of trust-based relationships, psychological contracts, and individualization as key elements in creating a productive and engaging work environment. It examines the impact of de-collectivization and functional flexibility on employee relations, discussing how these concepts shape the modern workplace and influence employee behavior. Furthermore, it emphasizes the role of employee competencies, integrity, and effective communication in building strong employer-employee relationships, ultimately contributing to organizational success. The essay underscores the importance of adapting to changing social and political systems to maintain effective employee relations, especially within the context of the industrial revolution and globalization.

Contemporary Developments in Employee
Relations
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Industrial and employee relations can be defined as the process of maintaining good
relationship between the staff members and different types of industries which are operating
business in the same market. It is very important for all the organisations to make sure that they
are able to focus on those factors which can help them to maintain effective relationship between
industries and employees. In order to sustain in the market, it is very important for all the
business entities to make sure that they are able to perform all the operations systematically. For
this purpose, appropriate and good relations with the staff members are required. It can help to
enhance involvement of staff in operations so that the organisations can attain success.
Contemporary employee development is the key element which is required to be focused by all
the organisations as it will help to enhance skills and abilities of staff members and train them. It
will be beneficial for companies accomplish all the business goals in future.
With the emergence of industrial revolution, the importance of employee relations is
being increased. It was originally originated in the first industrial revolution. It took place
because of lack of focus of companies upon the welfare of employees. It resulted in lower
engagement of them in the tasks that were allocated to them and due to this the companies have
faced difficulties in attaining their objectives. At this time industrial and employee relations were
focused as it was the main element which can facilitate to attain success in attaining objectives.
In the not so distance past the religion of employment relations in Ireland was heavily
supported by collective bargaining, with a heavy presence of Trade Unions having a say on the
regulation of pay and conditions of employment from a collective perspective.
It can be argued that there is a complicated bond between the employee and employer one that
will always have disputes because both parties ultimately have differing priorities . In order to
maintain a positive relationship in employee relations, the organisation can view the employees
as a stakeholders in the company rather than the paid workers. The aim of this essay is to discuss
the fundamental approaches of both industrial and employee relations, including the
identification of the focus of employee relations by establishing the true-based relationship. The
essay will discuss the definition of industrial and employee relations along with its historical
origins.
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The focus of employee relations is to manage the strengths of the relationship between the
employer and employee, on the other hand, industrial relations is a three-person relationship
between the firm, the workforce and union. The employee relationship-related business mainly
focuses on the identification of the employee relationship along with the higher engagement,
improved productivity, profitability and the higher motivation (Kaplan and Kaplan, 2018). Good
employee relations help to provide the necessary information to the employees on the
organisation’s values, goals and objectives and how their role will help to achieve these goals.
HR teams that communicate clear policies and procedures will assist and enhance
employee relations. A business that buts a strong importance on employee relations often result
in higher engagement, higher motivation, productivity and ultimately profitability. The industrial
relations help to develop the knowledge of conflict resolution, employment law and productivity.
Each of the specific unions helps to represent the employees as the specific and the collective
workforce regarding achieving the goals in the firm.
The industrial relations originated in the mid of the 20th century, while the industrial
revolution of the UK was taking place. It came as a way to understand the complicated
relationship between the employer and employees. The duration of the employee relation is
almost 30 years, and the specific generation has a broad and effective history with the rapidly
developed future. The upcoming changes in the employees' relationships have been observed in
the social system, along with the political system that created a negative impact on industrial
relations (Hakanenet al. 2018). Through the international business of 1990, employee relations
development has observed the growth of average where different foreign administrators
employed different workers.
The trust-based relationship is the approach which is focused by modern companies as it
helps to develop an effective and personal relationship in addition to the professional relationship
by exchanging the experiences and culture of different employees. The leaders in the firm
engage different workers to bring enough creativity and passion in their work by asking for some
necessary solutions for the streamline processes. The trust of the employees needs to be earned
by including effective ways to find and trust somebody by providing them with the necessary
tasks regarding developing the relation of the employees.
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The management of the established trust helps to ask the effective questions by following
the drilling down related information to follow up the actions to support different ideas and
concerns regarding the reinforcement to listen to the employees (Venter, 2019). The strong
employment relations develop a positive atmosphere in the work environment that helps to
increase employee motivation through improved employee morale. The companies get involved
in the development of employee morale with the improvement in productivity.
The trust-based relationship of the employee helps to develop a productive and pleasant
work environment by having a drastic effect on employee loyalty to the specific business. By
making the staff members skilled and experienced the companies can accomplish all the future
goals. With the help of it, the employee turnover rate could be reduced which will result in lower
cost of recruitment and less expenses on training of staff. Employee relations improve the work
environment to enhance the extent of the conflict within the reduction of the workplace. The
trust-based relationship improves regarding the development of the productive workforce where
the efficient work environment enhances the employer and employee relation to improve
business success (Guest, 2016).
Trust based relationship is very beneficial for all the organisations because it helps to
provide the necessary effort to align the behaviour of the employees with the development of
specific values. The effective support and the understanding of different team members help to
develop trust among the employees to build the necessary employee relations. The manager or
leaders in the industry allow the teams to necessary decisions to understand the benefits of the
business. Integrity is considered as the extent to which the actions of the managers reflect their
values to follow a different set of rules and ethical standard of the conduct. Effective
competencies and integrity are considered as the necessary characteristics of different co-
workers to build the necessary relationships (Frerickset al. 2016). All the organisations are
dependent upon employees as they contribute in the attainment of business objectives lack of
their engagement in their work may affect the attainment of goals and objectives. The employee
competencies can also be considered as the necessary element that helps to evaluate the
employee performance. Thus, the relationship between managers and employees can be built
where the responsibilities of the employee depend upon the competencies rather than different
dimensions of trust.
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According to Psychological Contract, there is an exchange in relations between an
organization and its employees as it helps to attain all the business goals. These are shaped by
legislation, enterprise agreements and employment contract. All these aspects are based upon the
concept of individualization that follows a separate approach than Collectivization. The
psychological contract provides a framework for understanding the hidden aspects of employee
relationships within the concerned organization (Triandis, 2018).
The individual solution in this regard helps to create multiple deals with the employer
with no interference made by the trade unions, government, and the other organizations and
institutions. In comparison to the individualization, Collectivization in an organization is
strongly indispensable for the workers (Jang et al. 2018). The main factor behind this is the
power of their demands, which is important for the development of counter-power in terms of
resources at their disposal. It is evident from the traditional practices of the organization that
collective consciousness is one of the critical approaches in employee relationships, which, many
times, remain atomized and divided (Onyango, 2017). Therefore, de-collectivization is the
process of one-to-one solutions, which sometimes or mostly, minimizes privatization and the
welfare state. De-collectivization is a type of individualization, which influences the activities,
for example, communication and transportation, water supply, healthcare, childcare, and
electricity.
Individualization is part of working life and society that undergo the changes
undermining traditional orientations in relation to collectivities, for example, family, working-
class, and local communities. Contemporarily, discussion on individualization by Thomas and
Rahschulte, (2018) reflects the social-scientific concept, which is one of the basic approaches of
institutionalized Individualism. With reference to employee relationship, it is another
contemporary approach, which states that individualization is the structural feature of highly
differentiated societies. In addition to this, there is a firm consideration that the integration of
different cultures would probably be central to a modern society, which is sometimes based on
social and political rights (Vaamonde and Omar, 2017). However, it is also based on paid
employment that provides necessary training and mobility to the concerned individual but not to
the group. In processing individualization, the labour market is treated as one of the central
factors, depending on the labour market position (Feldman, 2019). Individualization is also
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considered as the selection of individual characteristics to meet their expectations of upward
mobility, which is not expected from the collectivization perspective.
There are three different dimensions that are related to focus. These are education,
mobility and competition. All of them are interdependent upon each other that further reinforce
one another. All of them are not only promoting the process of individualization but also ensure
that the ineffective nature of Collectivization is dealt properly within an organization. One of the
crucial elements in understanding individualization is the class distinctions, which emphasizes
the necessity of self-understanding in relation to the others. Collectivisation, in support of
assumption, does not provide the importance of social factors, leading to individualization.
However, in view of Sirbu et al. (2016), individualization is the representative approach
to the collective solutions of multiple problems. According to them, individualization is highly
dependent on the psychological contracts of Collectivization, which is one of the politically
significant social forces in dealing with social problems. A specific view put forward by Lee et
al. (2019) in which it is evident that individualization in terms of class society induces the
concern of inequality in an organization, which affects employee relations, leading to individual
risks. The process of individualization, mentioned by Farooqet al. (2017) focuses on the
development that increasingly appears as atmospheric market actors, searching for high-quality
products and services. The psychological contract in terms of industrial and employee relations
is, therefore, a complex phenomenon in the validation of the concept of a mean and lean
organizational approach (Zeffane, 2017). In order to assess validation, the role played by the
concerned organization, based on the psychological contract in the context of the organization.
Functional flexibility is the concept that offers individualization rather than
Collectivization concerning an individual employee's adaptability and mobility regarding
multiple skills and tasks. Functional flexibility is mainly associated with modern development
where the concerned workers are more isolated and is a part of the functions of high
compartmentalization nature. In addition to this, it is mainly dependent on performance-related
pay (Kumar et al. 2018). Performative pay to the individuals is one of the essential symbolic
approaches of desire by the employers so that it would be helpful for them to connect with the
individually related cultures in an organization. Contemporary organizations do not use
collectivism since, collectivism is not able to isolate employee issues and personalizing issues
that negatively affect the design and evaluation of work (Campion and Wang, 2019).
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Psychological contracts are very beneficial to assess the relationship between the
employees and the organizations. Therefore, it is essential to provide the employees, a strong
motivation, to predict their performance, integrating desired outcomes. Thus, predictability is the
critical phenomenon in creating a sense of control to the employees, which is one of the
necessary factors in reducing stress from the employees. Solís and Leiva (2019) argue that
predictability is the term that can be combined with both the employee factor and organizational
factor.
Predictability, in association with the reliability, ability, and loyalty, reinforce each other, which
is an essential factor to continue harmonious relationships among the employees, managers, and
the organization. The essentiality for predictability might develop the psychological contracts
that provide the employees to meet their destiny in the concerned organization. In addition to
this, it is evident that psychological contract improves employee satisfaction, attitude, and
behavioural approach to the organization to exchange a good relationship between the employees
and the employers (GEARY, 2018).
Social connection is the key element which has been derived from the explanation of the
three important models of individualism. However, these models are helpful in the development
of psychological contract in the mind of the employees in the perspective of the employer.
Besides this, in comparison to the white-collar workers, especially who are in the higher grade,
the general workers believe that union is much more necessary for the sake of lower-grade
workers. In addition to this, they think that the workers must negotiate with employers.
Alcoveret al. (2017) said that Individualism is more critical for the informatization and
globalization for the better performance in each fragment of the organization. In this regard,
Collectivization is the collective action, which loses collective identity in terms of diversified
existence. Therefore, with respect to individualization, psychological contracts have been
assumed to play a critical role in the maintenance of industrial and employee relations.
From the above discussion it has been evidenced that there are several reasons for which
an organization selects Individualistic approaches despite Collectivistic strategies. The most
crucial purpose in this regard is the value approach that is ethically provided to the employees of
an organization. Selection of Individualistic approach is instrumental, which paves the way for
the collective actions. In addition to this, collective strategies have not been chosen by an
organization since it cannot be able to resolve the issues leading to the strong commitment to an
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organization (Lub et al. 2016). One of the critical approaches is, therefore, the deficiency in the
willingness to act collectively in certain situations. The other reason might be the role of the
social dimensions, which indicates the proponents of individualization approach with positive
feedback.
In the effective process of the necessary individualization, the employee relation and the
labour market are considered as one of the specific factors focusing on the position of the labour.
The effective individualization focuses on the dependency of the psychological contracts of the
collective approaches of the employee relation, which can be considered as the social problems
regarding dealing with different social issues. Based on the prospects of Babalola (2016),
individualization induces the compelling reasons to bring the inequality in the specific firm that
affects the employee relations leading the risks of the individual. It mainly focuses on the
development of business approaches with necessary aspirations for the development of the
optimum quality of life.
The demand for the active engagement of the employees develop a different number of
domains based on the over changing array of the options. Therefore, the individuals can devise
the necessary strategies to implement in their relationship development that can help them to
generate the necessary and the flexible term. Based on the social structure of the employees
regarding the individualization, it develops the expressions of the traditionalism. It increases the
condition of freedom while continuing to be enough dependent for the optimal functioning on the
social interaction.
Selection of Individualistic approach is instrumental, which paves the way for the
collective action for the development of industrial relations. Functional flexibility of the
employees' focus and progress with modern development drives the concerned workers to be
more associated, and it is considered as the necessary parts of the tasks of the nature of high
compartmentalization (Veen, 2018). Individualism of the employees is more critical for the
globalisation required for improving the performance in each change of the organization.
The formation of the persistent opinion creates the situation to justify the necessary
cluster evidence based on the desire of the increment in the adaptive strengths in the required
approaches. The collective relations of the employees can be regulated to develop the situation of
individualization to think about the rules on the work safety-related regulations. The individual
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employment relations have been considered as the vital interests from the inception in the
specific context to create the market of labour required for all different workers by guaranteeing
the rights regarding the social security (Trif and Paolucci, 2019).
The employment status also considered as the significant factor to influence the quality of
the work, which trend can bring the necessary flexibilities in the contract development
relationships. The legal rules and policies of Ireland’s Government are formed to develop the
essential impact on the individual employment relations that bring changes with the less
favourable treatments regarding the payment and essential working conditions. In short, the array
of management-related initiatives has developed the result in a significant shift in the base of the
development of employee relations.
The Irish model of industrial relations and employee relations evaluates the constitutional
right, which is enjoyed by the employees of Ireland. It is evident from the perspective of Low et
al. (2016) that the Irish employees will be able to request their employers to meet their needs
with the help of the Irish trade union. However, it is also evident that the employer might be free
to refuse the union recognition by abiding by the rules and regulation of the Government of
Ireland. In addition to this, it is possible for the employer to harden the rule against the
organization of the trade union, especially in the private sector. Moreover, the Irish organizations
will further be able to introduce an industry-based employee relationship model, which will help
to overcome the economic burden of the employees (Sahoo and Sahoo, 2019). This might
encourage the employees of Ireland Industries to devote themselves to their organization
positively. In this regard, corporate social responsibility might play a significant role so that the
organization would be able to increase productivity with the aid of the agreements, which
recognises the realities of power relationships in the industries.
In order to maintain positive employee relations an organization needs to adopt
participation practices, which helps to evaluate organizational values to the employees. This
helps in the recognition of the contribution of employees towards the organization in the
achievement of their goals by following the mission and vision. One of the most significant
aspects in this regard is the participation of decision-making that provide the employees' extra
opportunities in the utilization of their human capital. It helps to provide a signal to the
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organization regarding the input of the employees, which in turn associated with the positive
evaluations of the concerned organization's support.
In many cases, Irish organizations play significant roles in offering opportunities so that
the employees can participate in decision-making (Kumar et al. 2018). This might help to
increase the dynamic nature of the employees in terms of enhancing their commitment towards
the organization. Since many organization of Ireland are based on the financial aspects of
organizational development, an organization can support the employees in participating in the
financial aspects in increasing positive relationships. Many scholars discussed in their research
on group incentives, for example, profit sharing. However, other scholars believe that individual
incentives based on pay-rate might able to create a positive relationship with the employees
(Stinglhambeet al. 2019).
By providing a positive relationship with the employees, the organizations have been
focusing on improving the efficiency of existing operations. However, it is also evident for the
organizations to provide a base for innovative technological development in terms of modern
methods of operations. In many cases, it is evident that in order to develop a positive
organizational culture, the organization are not only looking for innovative approaches but also
to make employee relations. It helps them to gain a competitive advantage over other
organizations. Previous pieces of literature ensure three organizational strategies by which the
organization has been meeting their challenges. In addition to this, it is necessary for the
employees to participate in the Human Resource schemes that are designed in motivating the
employees in the utilization of the human capital. It is also true for the Irish organizations to help
the employees meet their designation since the employees are able to generate creative ideas,
which is extremely important for the productivity and effective input in the decision-making
participation practices (Lee et al. 2019).
The employees of the innovative industries have more expectations since their innovative
ideas have been helping the organizations to get massive profit with the aid of minimum
investment that might be the case of the private organizations. In the case of stable organizations,
for example, most government organizations provide the employees with minimum incentives
and rewards, which affect their motivational factors. It is also true for the employee relations that
innovative companies have more opportunistic activities that are provided to the employees so
that the employees would be more committed towards organizational development
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(Stinglhambeet al. 2019). Therefore, employee relations lead to innovative changes in the
organizational climate in a positive way so that the company would be able to come up with the
competitive challenges, best fit for the improvement of the individual employees.
The three types of organizational strategies that are helpful in the development of positive
industrial and employee relations are the necessity of examination of the interaction between the
employees and the employers to the principal organizational balance. In the case of financial
institutions of Ireland, it is evident that innovative organization believes in the creativity of the
employees by bringing together the individual employees to stimulate diverse knowledge and
skills. It helps them to be free within the organization because of the support of the organization
in terms of motivation. Employee relations further increases positivity among the individuals for
the extension of Human Resource practice and gain-sharing practices, which heightens their
work effort (Lee et al. 2019)
Organizational support is also helpful in the reduction of the gap between the employees
and the employers in terms of job satisfaction and employee turnover rate. In order to develop an
employee-based positive organizational climate, the leaders of an organization adopt two types
of justice policies: distributive justice and procedural justice (Vaamonde and Omar, 2017). The
justice perceptions, in the ground of different theories, are beneficial to reduce dissatisfactory
approaches of the employees to the concerned organization. In addition to this, by practising the
two justice perceptions, it has become possible for the organizations to provide social justice to
the employees. This not only influences the employees to judge the quality of exchange
relationship with the organization but also impact the decision-making procedure so that the
organization would be able to cope up with the challenges (Vaamonde and Omar, 2017). In this
regard, distributive justice helps the employees to get work-related positive outcomes concerning
pay satisfaction, organizational commitment, and job satisfaction. It further helps to make fair
decisions by the employees that help the organization to maintain a positive organizational
climate.
Industrial relations and employee relations in Ireland are the key elements which are
focused by all the organisations in Ireland. With the help of them all the operational activities are
performed in systematic manner. Employee relations in Ireland mainly focus on individualization
rather than Collectivization in the sense that psychological contract shaped the self-
understanding approach to the employees. Since individualization is the presentation of the
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social-scientific concept, modern society is based on political and social rights, which is
important for an organization to deal with. In this regard, functional flexibility is applicable for
the workers who are more isolated to modern development. Psychological contracts, therefore,
helps to increase the flexibility of the relationship between the employees and an organization.
Predictability also helps to develop a psychological contract, which is informative and globalized
for better performance in each segment of the organization. The organizations of Ireland have
played significant roles in the establishment of a positive climate in employee relations.
Apart from this, all the business entities are trying to meet the challenges by providing
rewards and remunerations to the staff members so that they can take interest to help the
companies in the development of innovative technological solutions. It is evident from various
researches that participation of the employees in the decision-making might help the employees
in the evaluation of the concepts that will be helpful for the organization to cope up with the
competitive challenges. On the other hand, justice-based organizational support is facilitating the
businesses to meet the requirements of the employees, which is helpful in the maintenance of a
positive organizational climate.
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