Employee Relations: A Stakeholder Perspective in British Petroleum

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EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................3
Company background................................................................................................................3
LO3: Role of stakeholders in supporting positive employment relations..................................3
M3: Contribution of stakeholders in a positive employment relationship.................................5
LO4: Influence of negative and positive employee correlation at a broader level....................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Employee relations are defined as the efforts that an organisation make in order to manage
the relationships among employees and employers. The purpose of this study is to evaluate
the role of stakeholders in supporting positive employment relations and effect of negative as
well as positive employee correlations on stakeholders. An organisation that maintains a good
and friendly employee relationship program is always successful in providing consistent and
fair treatment to its employees. This allows the employees to remain committed to their
works and as a result, employees remain loyal to organisation. Good relationship programs
also prevent and help in resolving problems that arise due to several reasons in the workplace.
Workers and employees are important for any business organisation. Hence, it is important
for organisations to develop a good employment relationship program.
Company background
British Petroleum Company is a multinational oil and gas company with its headquarters in
London. The net income of BP is around $9.58 billion with annual revenue of about $303.73
billion. The company operates with almost 74000 employees and produces approximately 3.6
million barrels of oil per day (British Petroleum, 2019).
LO3: Role of stakeholders in supporting positive employment relations
P5: Stakeholder analysis in British Petroleum
According to Stinchfield (2016), stakeholders are an individual, group of individuals or
organisations, having an interest in the success and prosperity of a project and the
organisation. Stakeholders may be both outside and within the organisation. They sponsor a
project and hence the outcome of that particular project has an impact on them. However,
stakeholders may have both negative and positive impact on a project. Project leader, project
team members, senior managers, project customer, project testers are some examples of
stakeholders. An important procedure of identification of stakeholders and analysing their
needs is called stakeholder analysis. Stakeholder analysis is used for the identification of all
important primary as well as secondary stakeholders. Development of a strategic view of
human landscape, as well as institutional landscape and correlations among different
stakeholders, is the main aim of stakeholder analysis (Kazadi et al. 2016).
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In employee relations, the main stakeholders are employers, employees, trade unions,
employer associations and sometimes even the government. Employers handle several issues
regarding employee relations on a regular basis. Employees demand interesting and
challenging works and also demand their involvement in several decision-making processes.
Trade unions work for the welfare of the employees and pressurise the organisation to
safeguard the rights of the employees (Cohen, 2017). They also put the effort into
improvement of employees' wages and their working conditions.
There are several stakeholders in British Petroleum including several NGOs. Stakeholders of
BP include several environmentalists, wildlife experts, Transocean, Chevron Corporation,
Anadarko Petroleum, Indian Oil Corporation, The Vanguard Group, and the Barrow Hanley
Mewhinney and Strauss. It is to be noted that Barrow Hanley Mewhinney and Strauss LLC is
a company based in Texas, US. It is the largest shareholder and internal stakeholder of BP
with $29.8 million worth share from BP ADS. The firm has invested around 2.2% of their
total portfolio along with 0.89% outstanding shares in British Petroleum (British Petroleum,
2019).
Stakeholder analysis in British Petroleum
Stakeholder analysis in British Petroleum will help in the identification of those individuals
or organisations that are influenced or can influence the strategies and objectives of British
Petroleum. Employees, shareholders, and suppliers are the internal stakeholders of British
Petroleum, whereas, competitors, customers, media, NGOs and several other local
communities form the external stakeholders (Amernic and Craig, 2017). Shareholders play a
central role in the huge operations within British Petroleum because they sponsor several
projects and hence, invest capital in huge amounts. These capitals are essential in operating
and setting up a business (El Akremi, et al. 2018). In return, these shareholders receive a
share of profits as dividends. Almost 74000 employees working in BP are also the
stakeholders because they are affected by the performance of the company and are also
influenced by the company's operations.
Suppliers play a significant role in Bp’s production chain (van Essen et al. 2015). BP’s main
objective lies in understanding the expectations of customers and to deliver their customers
products of high quality (Griffin, et al. 2015). Environmentalists and wildlife agencies have
become aware of the pollution issues and hence BP has a challenging task of appeasing its
customers as well as environmentalists and wildlife agencies. British Petroleum also operates
jointly with several groups of media, government, academics, and NGO. The UK government
and the US government have a degree of influence and power over British Petroleum. Since
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BP operates across several other countries, the governments of those respective countries are
also key stakeholders of BP. The interest of the governments lies in the collection of taxes
and securing the vital energy resources of the country (Carrillo, 2019).
M3: Contribution of stakeholders in a positive employment relationship
The stakeholder analysis with respect to British Petroleum will contribute to developing a
positive employment relationship. In meeting the need of the customers, employees will have
to work harder and hence there shall develop a feeling of teamwork among the employees.
This would develop a positive relationship among them and hence increase the productivity
of the company (Noe et al. 2017). The pressure from environmentalists and wildlife agencies
will also help them to work colalboratively. With such a positive employment relationship,
BP may see additional investments from its partners and shareholders, thus, implying growth
in their business.
Figure 1: Stakeholders in British Petroleum
(Source: Noe et al. 2017)
LO4: Influence of negative and positive employee correlation at a broader level.
P6: Influence of negative and positive employee correlations on stakeholders
Employees are the greatest asset of a company. If employees are motivated and valued they
shall work harder for the company and will help the business thrive. Due to positive
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employee relations, there are lesser conflicts in the workplace. Due to conflicts there
develops distrust among the employees and the employers. This distrust may affect the
efficiency of the company. By developing a positive employment relationship, it is possible
to reduce conflicts and employees shall be concentrated on their work. Positive employee
relationship increases the productivity of the organisation. As a result, both internal and
external stakeholders are benefited because the project will now propagate smoothly.
Moreover, good employment relationship leads to less absenteeism in work and hence entire
work goes on smoothly. Thus, there is increased revenue within the company and this
benefits the people those have invested in the company (Griffin et al. 2015). Developing
positive employment relations promotes greater productivity and business remains stable.
However, the poor relationship with the employees may prove fatal for the organisation and
its stakeholders. Due to negative employee relationship, employees will not be willing to
deliver their best. This results in decreasing the productivity of the company. Employees are
also important stakeholders of an organisation. Due to negative employee relations, the
morale of employees is lowered and hence, the project does not go on smoothly. Hence, the
efficiency of employees is greatly reduced and profit reduces considerably, thereby, harming
the investors of the company (Cohen, 2015).
M4: Assessment of employee correlations and their effect on conflict avoidance and
resolution
● Role of positive employee relations in reducing conflicts: Conflicts are inevitable
in any organization or workplace. Conflicts mainly occur whenever employees from
different priorities and background work together. Conflict may be expressed in
several ways like non-cooperation, insults, anger, and bullying. Developing positive
employee relationship largely helps to reduce conflicts. By developing interactive
methods of communication among the employees, there develops trust between
managers and employees.
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Figure 1: Types of conflicts faced by British Petroleum staffs
(Source: Noe et al. 2017)
Development of trust plays a great role in reducing conflicts within the workplace
(Amernic and Craig, 2017). Employees working in an organisation should be treated
in a fair and consistent manner. Superior work performance should be rewarded and
praised. Positive employee relationship help employees to positively respond to the
policies, practices, and strategies of the organisation and hence there is less conflict
within the company.
● Role of negative employee relationship in maximising conflicts: Deteriorating
relationship among the employees increases conflicts within workplace and thereby,
reduces productivity of the organisation. Misunderstanding among employees
maximises workplace conflicts and hinders work operations. Negative employee
relationship also gives rise to power conflicts, interpersonal conflicts, personality
clashes (Stinchfield, 2016). These conflicts give rise to poor performance and hence
hinder the growth of the organisation. Due to negative employee relationship,
employees become the foe of each other and wishes to become more powerful in
order to maintain greater influence over other employees. Thus, there is no team effort
observed in accomplishing a task and hence the quality of the work deteriorates. Due
to poor employee relationship, there also occur personality clashes among the
employees.
Conclusion
Hence, it can be concluded that stakeholders play an important role in supporting positive
employee relations. From the brief stakeholder analysis of British Petroleum, the contribution
of stakeholders in positive employee relations within British Petroleum has been inferred.
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Moreover, it can also be concluded that there are several impacts of employee correlation on
stakeholders. Additionally, it can be concluded that positive employee relations can
effectively increase the productivity of a company and also reduces conflicts in the
workplace. However, negative employee relations increases conflicts between employees and
therefore, reduce the productivity of the company along with decreasing profits.
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References
Books
Carrillo, R.A., 2019. The Relationship Factor in Safety Leadership: Achieving Success
through Employee Engagement. Routledge.
Noe, R.A., Hollenbeck, J.R., Gerhart, B. and Wright, P.M., 2017. Human resource
management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Journals
Amernic, J. and Craig, R., 2017. CEO speeches and safety culture: British Petroleum before
the Deepwater Horizon disaster. Critical perspectives on accounting, 47, pp.61-80.
Cohen, E., 2017. Employee training and development. In CSR for HR (pp. 153-162).
Routledge.
El Akremi, A., Gond, J.P., Swaen, V., De Roeck, K. and Igalens, J., 2018. How do employees
perceive corporate responsibility? Development and validation of a multidimensional
corporate stakeholder responsibility scale. Journal of Management, 44(2), pp.619-657.
Griffin, J.J., Bryant, A. and Koerber, C.P., 2015. Corporate responsibility and employee
relations: from external pressure to action. Group & Organization Management, 40(3),
pp.378-404.
Kazadi, K., Lievens, A. and Mahr, D., 2016. Stakeholder co-creation during the innovation
process: Identifying capabilities for knowledge creation among multiple
stakeholders. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.525-540.
Stinchfield, B.T., 2016. Stakeholders and corporate environmental decision making.
van Essen, M., Strike, V.M., Carney, M. and Sapp, S., 2015. The resilient family firm:
Stakeholder outcomes and institutional effects. Corporate Governance: An International
Review, 23(3), pp.167-183.
Website
British petroleum, About: https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/what-we-do/bp-at-a-
glance.html [Accessed on 10 May, 2019]
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