Employee Relations in Changing Times: Marks and Spencer Report

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of employee relations within Marks and Spencer (M&S), a leading British multinational retailer. It begins by defining employee relations and its legislative context, then explores the company's approach through unitary and pluralistic frames of reference. The report examines the impact of trade unionism on employee relations, including collective bargaining and its effects on employee wages and working conditions. It outlines the responsibilities of various actors, including employers, employees, trade unions, government, and shareholders. Furthermore, the report delves into conflict resolution methodologies employed by M&S, detailing strategies such as identifying safe communication spaces, recognizing patterns, and developing plans to address conflicts. It also highlights key features of employee relations in conflict situations, such as negotiation, communication, and fair treatment. The report underscores the importance of effective employee relations in achieving organizational objectives and fostering a positive work environment.

EMPLOYEE RELATION

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION
Employee relations means relationship between employer and employee which is revised
and updated regularly and it is largely controlled by legislation. Employee relationship
management is based on employees to cooperate in handling difficult task. Marks and Spencer is
British multinational retailer company founded by Michael Marks in 1884. This organisation
sells different products like clothing, home products and luxury food items. The organisation has
secured first position to with total profit of £1 billion (Ahmad and et.al., 2014). In this report, the
main task is to understand employee relation against changing background. Further, importance
of collective bargaining and negotiation process are studied. Moreover, it includes nature of
industrial conflict and its resolution. Furthermore, this report will explain the concept of
participation and involvement of employees and the impact of human resource management on
employee relations.
Task 1
1.1 Explaining the unitary and pluralistic frame of references
Employee relation: It is the study of roles and regulations by which through individual
and collective relationship of employees are maintained. In order to understand the nature of
perspective, frame of reference is used. There are two types of frame of reference which are
described as follows:
1. Unitarism frame of reference: It is defined as team or one big family. It is used to give
the method of assumption, practises, values, thinking and with respect to management
and organisational membership. This aspect recognizes the organisation as having
individual and other members with common objectives, interests and values. The unitary
perspective is based on the statement which is used to gain the success (Alfes and et.al.,
2013). Members of Marks and Spencer employees must share the same goals, objectives
and values despite of their different roles. Marks and Spencer is perceived to be adopting
unitarism. The unitary frame of reference have searched the things with the help of target
and calculated its achievement. It has also considered that there is no need of trade union
to the employees which is represented by management as it will create situation at

workforce to strengthen the message. In this perspective, management provides
confidence and good work.
2. Pluralistic frame of reference: In pluralism, Marks and Spencer is recognized as it is
formed by different teams each of which has official loyalties. Trade union and
management are two major sub-groups of pluralistic perspective. In pluralism, the
management is confronted by Marks and Spencer which do not accept its rights to
manage (Allen, Ericksen and Collins, 2013). Its main role is to manage conflicts via
mechanism which emphasize the achievement of success. It focuses less towards
enforcing and controlling more towards influence and coordination.
In this frame, M & S makes different groups. Every group respects its leader and has its own
loyalty. The main sub groups of this reference are trade union and management.
1.2 Impact of trade unionism on employees relationship
Trade union is an organisation of employees which comes together to achieve their
common appeal like improving safety trends, regular wages etc. The main aim of trade union is
to provide better payment and working conditions to the employees. From historical perspective,
Illustration 1: Frame of reference
(Source:Ahmad and et.al, 2014)

in 1824, it leads to severe repression but later on it was legalized as number of employees joining
these associations increased in number. The employees whose pay is between £5 and £10 per
hour are majorly affected by the union bargaining. Over 15 percent of the employees of Marks
and Spencer whose income is between £10 an hour or more has directly impacted from this
agenda as they are benefited the spill over from the bargaining (Anwar, Warso and Paramita,
2016). The union bargaining strength is improved by the percentage of all employees which
leads to a more union payment premium. Trade union's success in raising the wages can be
improved if the price relaxation of demand products are decreased. This in turn gives the facility
to the employees of Marks and Spencer to meet their additional costs from the normal benefits.
Marks and Spencer operation has also forced the government as the largest company of
UK which has given large employment to the people of UK. M & S has launched the policy to
change pay rates for its shop staff from 2017. The retailer has increased the basic pay will rise by
15 percent. It leads to boosting up of the salaries of its staff at an hourly basis of £8.50 and to
£9.65 per hour in London (Armstrong and Taylor, 2014). The organisation stated that its 90%
employees are benefited from the new policy. Marks and Spencer believes that its policy of
giving pension and salaries can encourage and increase the confidence of the people. It also
helps in modernising their business and assist them to gain attraction of the people by giving
them best services.
M & S considers their employees as valuable assets so they take care all the employees related
polices. It increases their confidence and hence the organisation has effective environment in the
company. Effective relation among employees helps M & S to increase their productivity.
Impact of trade union on employee relations:
 Trade union helps in protecting the rights of employees.
 It prevents discrimination among the workers.
 It helps in regulating the employees welfare.
1.3 Responsibilities of different actors in employee relationships
The three main players which affects the employee relations are employer-employee,
employee organisation and employer organisation and EU institutions and government.
Role of employer-employee
The leader must show commitment, loyalty and productivity for the organisation.
Allocation of different jobs to employees is the main role of employer. The employee has to

obey the strategies which takes cares of the policies like verbal abuse and misconduct, health and
safety requirements. Effective environment is very necessary to maintain employees so that there
will be no misunderstanding between them and will increase their productivity. (Arshad and
et.al., 2016). Employer and employee of Marks and Spencer must feel comfortable with each
other and work in unity in order to achieve teams’ targets and goals.
Trade union and representative
Better pay and working condition can be achieved through union's work. Trade union
exists to represent team members’ interests with employment relationships. Therefore, M & S
treat them with full respect and dignity.
Collective Bargaining: The employer of the company has equal bargaining rights with
their employees. Marks and Spencer does not allow its workers to decide the rules of job and
salaries..
Unfair practises: Labour commit y check the unfair labour practises of employees.
Labour has to ensure that employees are obeying the law. The employees cannot dominate the
unions as this will discriminate against the employee's which are engaged in union activities
(Bamberger, Biron and Meshoulam, 2014).
Legislation: For effective protection of employees, unions are important in developing
the laws. In order to provide protection and fairness, the unions are more concerned with the
problematic areas of workers.
Role of Government
Government plays an important role in managing the economy of the country. It is
increasingly becoming the most prominent figure in Marks and Spencer relational arenas.
Employment relations results are affected by M & S organisation in different methods In order to
resolve the conflict management and unions of the company are fully dependent on the
government.
Managers:
Managers plays an important role in maintaining the effective relationship of their employees.
Their effective decisions increases the confidence and trust towards the organisation. This helps
them to increase their productivity.
Government:

Government of UK make certain policies which prevents discrimination, meeting
minimum wages among employees and contributes in maintaining effective relationships among
them.
Trade union:
Trade union plays an important role in maintaining employee relationships as they help in
providing human rights and essential policies related to their basic salaries and working
conditions.
Shareholders:
Shareholders are important as company's share are dependent on them. If company is
having more shares than their market value will increase which will directly impact on the
employee relation.
Task 2
2.1 Different methodologies used by the company to deal with different conflict situations
The employee and employer relationship is very essential for M & S to achieve its target.
Conflict between any two persons can be due to different opinions, ideas, personality etc.
background etc. Employees having different ideas and mind-set for solving same task or project
leads to disputes and conflicts among them which directly impacts the performance of the
organisation (Beadles and et.al., 2015). Marks and Spencer has followed various procedures to
resolve conflicts which are defined as follows:
Identify the safe place and time to talk: The issue must be resolved in the safe place that
is in the private room whose location is separate from the institution so that one can take risk for
honest communication about the issue. The amount of time for the meeting is appropriate for all
the teams.
Realizing the pattern of the problem: In order to resolve the conflict, it is very important
to realize and understand the problem in proper manner.
Recognizing the problem: To understand the source and origin of the problem, the
authority of M & S has to determine that something wrong has happened which should be
resolved as soon as possible(Chadha and Sharma, 2016).
Strategy to solve the conflicts: After recognizing the conflict, the authority has to make
different policies and strategies so that all the workers organisation get profits and employees
must be satisfied.

Talk with the other person:
In order to resolve the conflict, the manager of M & S take support of different persons
which were present at that time.
Identify the points of agreement and disagreement:
Conflict manager notes the points of agreement and disagreement. It asks both the parties
whether they are agreed with their point or not.
Develop a plan to work on each conflict:
Top authority of M & S develops effective plan which helps them to know the root cause of the
conflict.
Different strategies for resolving conflicts are as follows:
Compromising: Compromising means to settle down on a solution which gives the same
idea on which both parties to the conflict agrees to accept the decision. Both the parties never get
exactly the same thing which they want and not losses entirely.
Avoiding: Conflict are not liked by anyone, so many people try to avoid it.
Forcing: Ignorance of problem can never give the solution to any problem. A manager of
the company choose direct approach to end the conflict. One possibility is to force the solution in
which the person or group which is in power decides final outcomes.
Resolving: In conflict resolution strategy, the toughest way to manage the conflict is to
confront the problem. Marks and Spencer use this strategy to solve the problem and find final
solution of it.
2.2 Key features of employee's in selected conflict situation
Employee's commitment for the achievement of Marks and Spencer's objectives in
critical situation is the main concern of employee relationship. The conflict due to different
mentality and ideas can directly affect the performance of the employees. There are different key
features to address the conflicts in different situations are as follows:
Negotiation: Negotiation is the main feature to indicate the conflict situation between
employees and management of the organisation. Collective bargaining: It deals with employee relationship in a particular conflict
situation.

 Poor communication: Effective communication is very necessary among employees and
their managers because poor communication leads to the gap of understanding between
employees and employers (Chen, Lin and Zhu, 2017). Unfair treatment: Equal treatment with employees disappears when the employees have
different ages, designation work together and this leads to rise of conflicts in Marks and
Spencer. Employees problems must be listened carefully: The problems of the workers must be
listened carefully in order to find out the effective solution of the problem. Interpersonal
communication among the employer and employee must help them to solve the issue at
their end. Open mentality feature must be developed: The open opinion approach helps in clearing
the problem on the same time without leading to misunderstandings. This helps the team
member and leader of Marks and Spencer to solve their problem at that moment only
which prevents to large fault of the project. The organisation must be safe and secure: The policies and strategies of Marks and
Spencer must be strong enough such that no external force can affect the welfare and
success of the company (Dunlop, 2017). The organisation's safety and security will
increase the confidence of its workers by ensuring them that they are safe in the
organisation in which they are working Employer-Employee's recommendation must be taken: The employees’
recommendation and suggestion must be taken regularly so that Marks and Spencer can
resolve the problems and avail the necessary resources to its employees. Regular
feedback and advice from the employee about the problems of the projects helps the
organisation to improve its lacking area.
 The employees must be given opportunities to develop: The employees and employer of
Marks and Spencer must be given chance to find the creative solution of the problem
related task together so that motivation level of the employees must be increased. This
will in turn results in better performance and relationships (Flannigan, 2015). The team
members of Marks and Spencer must be given different opportunities to develop so that
they can feel that they are working for correct organisation which gives them chance to
grow their skills.

2.3 Adoption of effective methods in particular conflict situation
Sometimes conflict may arise between leaders and his followers. This due to disobeying
the orders of leaders by its employees. This has become the major reason of conflict in Marks
and Spencer. . Procedure used for given conflict situation includes the negotiation which solves
the problem, find out the origin of conflict etc.
Formal procedure: This process is proved to be successful when complex and typical
situation of conflict comes. For instance Minimum payment and payment range in the
organisation. Formal procedure is very effective when some mistake may results in huge costs
for organisation.
Win-Win approach: This approach is very popular as this method satisfactory solutions
to all the employees of Marks and Spencer. In this each party of the conflict wins something and
hence conflicts is resolved. The important topic must be solved with win-win strategy and trivial
conflicts must be managed with win -lose or loss-loss strategies (Gopal and Chowdhury, 2014).
Lastly one can make analyse that conflict can be managed properly when it will not interfere in
the current process and activities.
Conflict management: This process includes the removal of obstacles to the contract.
The focus of conflict management is on changing structure, changing process. Response to
conflict becomes harsh and tough of role structure when structural modifications are not creative.
These efforts can help in improving the conflict situation by providing proper outcomes.
The manager needs to determine the effects of conflicts on Marks and Spencer. The
manager has to find out the best way of dealing with the conflict. Various opportunities and
offers helps to increase the motivation among the employer and employee's which in turn results
in better relationship atmosphere in the organisation (Hirani and et.al., 2017). In addition,
interpersonal communication also helps to resolve the problems efficiently by discussing the
difficulties directly.
In M & S conflicts was arisen due to different salaries of the employees. The workers
have raised their voice because they do not get the equal amount they are on the same post. M &
S has resolved this conflict with the help of negotiation strategy. All the employees and
supervisor team sit together and make the solution which was midway between both that is
employees and top authority of the company.

Task 3
3.1 Role of negotiation in collective Bargaining
It is the process where negotiation takes place between employees and supervisor. The
main aim of negotiation is to arrive on the solution which will govern employment relationships.
Wages, working time and other working condition are the main issues which are covered by
negotiations. Collective bargaining focuses on a well-defined employment relationship, freedom
of employees and employees to work for Marks and Spencer organisation which can increase
their interest. Collective bargaining governs employees’ relationship, they also assign roles and
regulations to the team members (Marchington and et.al. 2016). It involves the procedure of
combine decision making procedures and therefore it is unique procedures from other form of
governance like individual contract, government regulations and unilateral decisions of
employees of Marks and Spencer Company.
Collective bargaining strengthens the trade union movement. It also used in preventing
the industrial issues. The main objective of negotiation is to reach the agreement of Marks and
Spencer employees. Negotiation helps the employer to build the satisfaction among its
employees. The collective bargaining distinguishes the negotiation from normal negotiation. In
normal negotiation, the employee's take their task elsewhere as they may be in stronger position
Negotiation from both the sides must be opened so that new challenges and ideas must be
welcomed(Morgeson and et.al., 2013). Negotiation will breakdown and union will report to
industrial action if no agreement is made. The worker's agreement could be placed safely for
specific period or until they are replaced by other employees.
Collective bargaining is the process in which employees and employers aimed to regulate their
regular wages, working conditions and their rights. In collective bargaining, all the employees
and supervisor of M & S seats together to reach on common solution. They negotiate on the
common solution which is the midway bewteen their problems.
Impact of negotiation strategy can be seen as positively as well as negatively as it cannot
be favourable for the conflict groups. Unison negotiation strategy is used because it provides
proper coordination between Marks and Spencer and its staff members. This strategy of
negotiation helps to bring better solutions and improves the performance speed of the employees
along with this it has increased the relationship between the employees (Moumita and Haque,

2013). The negative impact of unison negotiation strategy is that it creates higher possibility of
rising conflicts in future and it is very effective.
Negotiation strategy helps the organisation to resolve their problems effectively by
making common solution. This strategy increases the performance of the organisation and helps
them to maintain effective environment in the company. It also helps the company to deal with
the problem of high turnover of the employees.
3.2 Impact of negotiation strategy
M & S has adopted problem solving negotiation strategy which helps them to increase
their performance. This strategy takes place when manager and supplier wants to deal with some
big agreements. They sit together and discuss their problems and get to some common solution.
The main advantage of this strategy is that it provides secure solutions which lead them to top
opportunities.
Negotiation strategy impacts positively and negatively. It can be used in two aspects
which are based on results and effects on relationships. Achievement of objectives in the context
of results and put the relationship in corporate limits at that time successful negotiation occurs.
Marks and Spencer success and failure depends on the company's negotiation strategy. The
situation of negotiation between employer and employee generates when some big task or
problem arises. It also happens when long debates and morals arises to achieve the difficult task.
Negotiation plays an important role in solving organisational problems. The conflicts are
mainly due to low payment and safety issues in the organisation. With the help of negotiation the
employees and management reach to the solution of common interest. The employees problems
can be solved if the authority of Marks and Spencer and employees negotiate by finding the
solution of the problem (Paillé and et.al., 2014). The safety issue of the employees must be given
top priority so that they can focus on their targets. The employees must be encouraged so that
they can focus on their physical and mental fitness.
Task 4
4.1 Influence of the EU on industrial democracy
It ensures the involvement of employees and employers to share the power take decision,
and responsibilities between them. All countries in European Union do not follow the Industrial
relationship is not followed by all countries in EU. But European Union are playing major role in
improving the industrial democracy situation in European Union countries. EU has been proved