Employment Relations Case Study: Top Trucking Company Analysis

This case study examines the employee relations at Top Trucking Company, focusing on the shift from a poor working environment under autocratic management to a more constructive one. The analysis highlights the need for changes, including improvements to the workplace environment, i...Read More

Employment Relation
EMPLOYMENT RELATION
Case Study on Constructive Relations at Top Trucking Company
Submitted on: 16/04/2017
Submitted By: Submitted to:
Varinder Singh Linda Colley
Student ID: 12053413 (Subject Coordinator)
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Employment Relation
Executive summary
This report argues about the company named Top Trucking Company. The report focuses on
the new practices introduced at the workplace to change its environment; this is because the
company was analyzed to be the worst place to work for the employees. This reports initiates
with the analysis of the situation at the company and then throws some light on the changes
that have been implemented in the company’s operations (Armstrong & Taylor, 2014).
Further, it discusses about the alignment of the changes made and how these changes
complement each other in the company. Later, it also explores the knowledge of the intensity
of involvement of blue collared unions in the workplace changes and the involvement of
white collared unions in the workplace changes.
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Table of Contents
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................3
Situation analysis of the company:........................................................................................................3
Need for changes in the company:.........................................................................................................4
New workplace practices:......................................................................................................................4
How these practice complement each other:..........................................................................................5
What is union?.......................................................................................................................................6
Inclusion of transport workers unions in workplace changes:...............................................................6
Inclusion of public or service sector unions in workplace changes:.......................................................7
Conclusion:............................................................................................................................................7
References:............................................................................................................................................8
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Introduction
Employee relation is the term that deals with development of the relationship between the
employer and the employees. There are many practices implemented by the organizations
these days to maintain the employee relations. According to the case analysis, it has-been
analyzed that the old owner family of the company were not using any of the employee
relation policy for motivating and retaining the employees (Beharrell & Philo, 2016). They
were only concerned about the output of the operations and not about the process and the
safety of the workers, these results in running the scenario and the company has become the
worst place to work for the employees. Although the company was among top of the firm but
still cannot be able to retain and maintain the relation with the employees. Therefore,
employee reaction processes and strategies should be implemented by the company.
Situation analysis of the company:
As per the case, it has been analyzed that the company is growing in terms of business but it
is becoming a very hard place to work for the employees. The prior manager of the company
was autocratic in nature (Biddison, Paine, Murakami, Herzke & Weaver, 2016). The
managers like this delegate the duties to the employees according to their will and also show
the path to complete those duties. They did not involve the views of the employees in the
decision making process and takes the decision according to their knowledge. The company
was experiencing a bad phase as there were no spending on the benefits of the company and
its procedures. The company was owned by the family and they were not spending the money
on repairing of trucks and other things those results in many accidents and dissatisfaction of
the employees. The resulting scenario is because of the autocratic behavior of the company’s
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manager. He was not interested in development of the employees but only looking forward to
the development and achievement of the company’s goals (Fossum, 2014).
Need for changes in the company:
After analyzing the situation of the company, it has been identified that it is very difficult for
the company to manage the employees. The manager of the company is showing interest only
in development of the company and not the employees. This results in dissatisfaction of the
employees and occurrence of many accidents at the workplace (Kersley, Alpin, Forth,
Bryson, Bewley, Dix & Oxenbridge, 2013). Changes are required in order to retain the
employees and also to motivate them for effective performance. In the condition like this, the
employees can perform effectively for shorter period of time and not for long term. For
longer performance of the employees, it is necessary to being about the changes in the
employee relation policies of the company so that employees feel happy and satisfied to work
with the company. It is to only from the manager’s side but the company owners also need to
make some of the investment in order to make the workplace of the company safe for the
employees to work. Safe working environment and the beneficial policies of the employees
develop the employees and the organization as a whole.
New workplace practices:
According to the case, it has been analyzed that after shifting of the ownership of the
company from the family to the new big national transport group, the company has come
across many changes after that. Some of the changes have been discussed below:
Change in workplace environment: The new company has a big capital to invest in repairing
the company’s property (Lăzăroiu, 2015). Cleaning of the yard and issuing of new uniforms
to the employees results in better workplace environment for the employees. The installation
of the computer system has also change the workplace environment and motivates the
employees to work effectively. All these steps or the strategies that have been implemented
by the new manager of the company are related to the employee relation. As the company is
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running well with its operations so the new managers needs to make efforts in developing
relations with the employees.
Involvement of employees and participative approach by manager: Involvement of
employees in decision making process is very important for the companies to motivate the
employees or effective working. The new manager of the company’s has started the practice
of taking into account the views of the employees before making any decision and this
supports the company to motivate the employees (Markovits, 2016). The approach of
investigating the scenario at the time of any issue by the mangers also helps the company as
well as the employees to deal with that issue easily. The new manager of the company does
not take decision according to his knowledge but tries to find out the cause of the issue raised
and then give the decision.
Occupational health and safety: The new manger has also introduced the practices that
support the health and safety of the employees during working hours. In regard to this, the
employees have given training for customer service and some of the technical trainings have
also been given to the employees (Őnday, 2016). This helps the employees to develop their
skills and knowledge. Provision of trainings to the employees not only grow them
professionally but also helps them to grow personally.
These changes at the workplace helped the employer as well as the employees to achieve
goals. The efforts made by the managers in context of employee’s benefits are worth
effective. The changes have been experienced in the performance and the behavior of the
employees towards the organization. Developing employee relation by such practices helps in
retaining the employees and reduces the turnover rate of the company (Saracel & Berberoğlu,
2016).
How these practice complement each other:
The practices that have been discussed above, results in many changes in the organization.
All the changes were positive in nature, this is because all the new practices implemented by
the new yard manger of the company deals with the employee relation policies (Schaufeli &
Taris, 2014). The introduction of new uniform was done in order to create a fresh
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environment in the company. This helps in motivating the employees and helps in creating
the feeling of belongingness among the employees. All the new practices in the organization
complement each other because all of them relates with motivation of the employees and
developing relationship with the employees (Shields, et.al, 2015). Spending money in
cleaning of the yard and repairing of the trucks is done for the sake of safety of the drivers.
Training has been given to them in order to develop their skills.
What is union?
Union can be defined as the group of people working towards a same goals and one of their
representative represents their views to the company owners. Unions are made in the
companies so that the business owners can communicate with the employees with the help of
the union leaders or representatives. The process of communicating with the union leaders
ease out the process of communication between the employees and the employers (Storey,
2014).This is because it is not possible for the employee to communicate with every
employee of the organization one to one. This is the reason why representative has been
selected for the unions.
Inclusion of transport workers unions in workplace changes:
Transport workers union is also called as blue collared union. This is because the workers
under blue collared job generally involve the labor class people that deal with machinery
works and their work is not so clean. They are the workers that work manually and are not
that much educated in their fields (Toubøl & Jensen, 2014). They are generally posted at the
lower level jobs of the department. As far as their union is concerned, it has been analyzed
that the unions of blue collar workers are concerned only with the changes of the workplace
that affect their lives and salaries. They are not concerned with the long term, growth of the
company or the long term growth of their careers. This is because they are people with low
economic background and thus earning money is the primary goal of their life (Van
Wanrooy, Bewley, Bryson, Forth, Freeth, Stokes, & Wood, 2013). This suggests that they are
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not much involved in the management of the company as well as in decision-making process
or workplace changes decision until and unless it affects their earnings and wages.
Inclusion of public or service sector unions in workplace changes:
Public and service sector union can be defined as the unions that are related to the service
sector or white collared jobs. The unions in these types of jobs have higher authority and
involvement in the management practices as compared to the blue collared unions. This is
because the employees under the white collared jobs are educated enough to take the
decisions for the management of the company (Cotti, Haley & Miller, 2014). They have the
skills to judge what is right and what is wrong. For example, it has been observed that the
organizations like hospitals have Board of Directors. This Board of Directors is not only the
shareholders of the hospital but also involves the doctors who are employed in the
organization. These doctors who get the chance to be in Board of Directors act as the
representative of the whole team of doctors working in the hospital.
Conclusion:
This report concludes that employee relation is one of the components that should be
included in the policies of the organization. Autocratic behavior of the managers at the
workplace can only last for short term performance of the employees but long term
performance can only be attained if the employees feel satisfied and happy at the workplace.
That can only be possible if the mangers of the organization make some of the employee
relation policies of the employees. Involvement o the employees in decision making and
investment in making the workplace safe for the employees helps in retaining the talent to the
organization and also improved the performance of employees. Develop of employees at
individual level not benefitted the individual but also the firm as a whole.
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References:
Armstrong, M., & Taylor, S. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management
practice. Kogan Page Publishers.
Beharrell, P., & Philo, G. (2016). Trade unions and the media. Springer.
Biddison, E. L. D., Paine, L., Murakami, P., Herzke, C., & Weaver, S. J. (2016). Associations
between safety culture and employee engagement over time: a retrospective analysis. BMJ
Qual Saf, 25(1), 31-37.
Cotti, C. D., Haley, M. R., & Miller, L. A. (2014). Workplace flexibilities, job satisfaction
and union membership in the US workforce. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 52(3),
403-425.
Fossum, J. A. (2014). Labor relations. Mcgraw Hill Higher Educat.
Kersley, B., Alpin, C., Forth, J., Bryson, A., Bewley, H., Dix, G., & Oxenbridge, S.
(2013). Inside the workplace: findings from the 2004 Workplace Employment Relations
Survey. Routledge.
Lăzăroiu, G. (2015). Employee Motivation and Job Performance. Linguistic and
Philosophical Investigations, (14), 97-102.
Markovits, A. (2016). The Politics of West German Trade Unions: Strategies of Class and
Interest Representation in Growth and Crisis. Routledge.
Őnday, Ő. (2016). New Trends and Comparative Analysis on Unionization among
Professionals: The Case of Turkey.
Saracel, N., & Berberoğlu, A. (2016). The Search for New Union Strategies: Turkish Cypriot
Trade Unions. International Journal of Research in Social Sciences, 6(7), 265-282.
Schaufeli, W. B., & Taris, T. W. (2014). A critical review of the Job Demands-Resources
Model: Implications for improving work and health. In Bridging occupational,
organizational and public health (pp. 43-68). Springer Netherlands.
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Shields, J., Brown, M., Kaine, S., Dolle-Samuel, C., North-Samardzic, A., McLean, P., ... &
Plimmer, G. (2015). Managing Employee Performance & Reward: Concepts, Practices,
Strategies. Cambridge University Press.
Storey, J. (2014). New Perspectives on Human Resource Management (Routledge Revivals).
Routledge.
Toubøl, J., & Jensen, C. S. (2014). Why do people join trade unions? The impact of
workplace union density on union recruitment. Transfer: European Review of Labour and
Research, 20(1), 135-154.
Van Wanrooy, B., Bewley, H., Bryson, A., Forth, J., Freeth, S., Stokes, L., & Wood, S.
(2013). Employment relations in the shadow of recession: Findings from the 2011 Workplace
Employment Relations Study. Palgrave macmillan.
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