Work and the Employment Relationship: TESCO Plc Analysis Report

This report delves into the intricacies of the work and employment relationship, examining its context and the crucial roles of key stakeholders such as trade unions, the government, and employers. It explores various theories underpinning the employment relationship, including Unitarist, Pluralist, Radical, and Marxist theories, highlighting their significance in shaping organizational practices. The report further analyzes employee involvement and participation, emphasizing the importance of employee voice and engagement in achieving organizational goals. A significant portion is dedicated to the development and role of employment law, including its impact on companies like TESCO Plc. It also discusses the role of employment relations legislation and policy and the context of industrial relations. The report concludes by touching upon emerging issues and challenges for organizations in sustaining positive employment relationships, offering a comprehensive overview of the subject matter.

Work and the Employment
Relationship

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Putting the employment relationship in context..........................................................................3
Key stakeholders..........................................................................................................................3
Theories of the employment relationship....................................................................................4
Employee involvement and participation (employee voice and engagement)............................5
Development of employment law................................................................................................6
The role of employment relations legislation and policy............................................................7
The industrial relations context...................................................................................................7
Emerging issues and challenges for organisations in sustaining the employment relationship. .8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Employment Relationship is explained as the process where employer and employees agrees
to perform work where all of the activities are based as per the guidance of employer. It is
necessary for employer and employee to perform each and every work as per the requirement of
law because that is one of the way through which they can attain their targets in an effective
manner. The report is based on TESCO Plc which is one of the UK multinational retail sector
industry. It was established almost 100 years ago which itself shows how well company is
performing in current scenario. This assignment report will have number of information which is
related to employment relationship, involvement of the key stakeholders. Along with this,
various key theories will be explained in context of the employment relationship. Detail
explanation regarding the employment law will be tough. Also, discussion will be upon various
issues and challenges which can be seen in current scenario.
MAIN BODY
Putting the employment relationship in context
Talking about the employment relationship, it is necessary to understand that both the
parties play crucial role where they have important role for the purpose of accomplishing the
goals of an organisation. It is crucial for the entity to ensure that company takes every single
decision on the basis of contract which has been made between the involved parties. In any of the
condition, employer and employee must be able to work as per the guidelines and if in case they
fail to do so then legal actions can be taken (Bidwell and et. al., 2013). There are some of the
implied terms and condition as well which includes automatically whenever employer and
employee enters into the contract. Business like TESCO Plc is one of the Macro industry, where
they are required to develop a healthy relation with each and every employee because that is one
of the way through which positive results can be attained. But, it is necessary for the employee to
work as per the guidelines given by the employer as that can be effective to perform any of the
task. This relation is performed smoothly just because of the consideration where employee has
to perform duty in return of Salary or wages.
Key stakeholders
In any of the organisation, there are different stakeholders who plays their part of work on a daily
basis which is helpful in number of ways. But, there are number of stakeholder who has a great

influence towards the decision making process of an organisation. Looking at this, it can be said
that stakeholders has a huge role in the organisation if the becomes able to work as per the
guidelines (Ackers, 2014). In context of TESCO Plc, there are different stakeholder who can
have an influence upon the relation of employer and employee. Below, there is the discussion
about some of the stakeholder in detail:
 Trade Union: It is defined as an association which works for the welfare of employees.
Here, representative head works and agent of the employees and tries to put some of the
important agent which are required to be followed by the employer or the management of
a company. It can directly influence the employment relationship because decision taken
in favour of trade union might not give right to include some of the important points at
the time of forming the contract.
 Government: It is one of the most important stakeholder within the relationship of
employer and employee. It is because each and every guideline are needed to be prepared
as per government who has introduced law relation to employment. There are certain
terms and condition which might not be allowed to include so it means employer and
employee can only include those terms and condition where government has given the
permission. In simple words, there is a huge influence of government within the
employment relationship.
 Employer: In any of the employment relationship, role of employer is huge because they
are the one who prepare guidelines regarding employees and how they are required to
perform their task. In simple words, employer also has the responsibility to ensure that all
of the work is being performed as per requirement and if employee fails in it then proper
guidance must be provided to them so that effective results can be obtained (Castilla,
2012).
These are some of the key stakeholders within the business organisation where employment
relationship plays the crucial role but the main thing which is required to understand in
employment relations is to perform all of the task in an ethical manner.
Theories of the employment relationship
Employment relationship is crucial for the purpose of performing the business activity but
there are some the theories and approaches which are necessary to be followed because that

plays the crucial role in it. In context of TESCO Plc, they are also needed to maintain healthy
employment relationship for attaining their targets but, it becomes mandatory for them to take
the help of different theories and approaches because that can be beneficial. Below, some of the
theories related to employment relationship has been discussed in detail:
 Unitarist Theory: It is one of the theory where an organisation like to work as per the
concept of loyalty culture. Here, company assumes that if they are needed to accomplish
their target then they must be able to work as per the requirement where they will not
follow any of the rule related to trade union or something else.
 Pluralist Theory: This is the theory which strongly believes that organisation can
perform better only in that respective situation where they work as per the requirement of
management or trade union. It is because whenever there is the involvement of number of
people then there will less chances of discrimination or unlawful activity which plays the
crucial role in attaining the goals. In addition, this theory emphasis on interaction,
communication, discussion and many more (Main Theories Of Employment Relations,
2019).
 Radical Theory: This theory is connected with the development of industrial relations of
employees which helps to protect the employees from the larger businesses. Theory
speaks about the company where they only look for earning profit without focusing
towards the employees and enforces the legal obligations upon them.
 Marxist Theory: It is the theory which explains about socioeconomic analysis which
mainly focuses on social conflicts and helps to maintain the relation. It is said that if both
of this area can be focuses wisely then there is higher possibility to run business
successfully.
Employee involvement and participation (employee voice and engagement)
Working within the organisation, employee has the huge importance because they are the
one who has to perform each and every single work for the purpose of attaining the goals of an
organisation (Finkelstein, 2015). Talking about involvement and participation of the employee,
both has different meaning in current scenario. It is said that participation is that where employee
of the company gets the opportunity to involve themselves within the decision making process

which helps in attaining the goals in a very short time of duration. On the other side, involvement
refers to the job performed by employee for which they have been hired within the company.
Talking about the company like TESCO Plc, they have given the opportunity to their
employees where they are not just allowing to involve themselves in daily basis work but even
they can participate themselves in decision making process. It is because they have a concept that
if employee will be involved within the decision making process then there is higher possibilities
of attaining better result because they will suggest those work where they can work easily for
effective result (Estlund, 2018). In short, employee voice and engagement within the business
organisation plays the crucial role in attaining the goals of an entity and there will be very less
chances of mistakes or errors while performing any of the operational activity.
Development of employment law
Employment law is the law which governs the relation of employer and employee. It is
necessary to understand that all of the guidelines which are there within the employment law
must be followed by employer and employee both. It is among one of those law which is very
crucial because it successfully allow the company to accomplish their goals and target. Behind
the development of employment law, it becomes mandatory to understand that there are number
of laws and guidelines which are included in it. Such as Wages Act, Child Labour Act, Factory
Act and many more. The concept of employment was started in 20th century where it relates with
wages, injured worker, standard working time in a day and a week. Also who is allow to work
within the premises of a factor and who must not be given the opportunity. Main purpose of
development of this particular law was to ensure that dispute should not occur within the
premises of a company and that is only possible in that respective condition where both of them
will know about their guidelines and boundaries (Suleman, 2015). Talking about TESCO Plc,
their management is able to manage each and every work in a systematic manner because they
have the guidelines regarding the decision which they can take and what must they avoid for
effective result. This law has a huge positive for the company because they get the opportunity to
attain their goals on specific time period without having any sort of dispute and problem. Thus,
development of employment law has been effective where there are some of terms and condition
implies automatically where some of them must be included by employer and employee but any
of the term must not contradict the law.

The role of employment relations legislation and policy
There is a huge role of legislation and policies within the employment relationship
because it simply indicates about the necessary requirement which an employer can expect from
employee after joining the organisation. There are number of role which are includes in it such as
what are the essential facilities that employer must provide to their employees. In any of the
situation terms and condition cannot be breached in it and that happens then legal action can be
taken by the organisation (Worth and Squelch, 2015). With the help of legislation, employer and
employer and employee can easily solve any of the issues which takes place on a regular basis
within the premises. Some of the other role helps to state about measuring employee satisfaction
and morale as well as proving support and input to the company’s performance management
system. Employment relation also allows to determine about the mistake performed by either
side so that appropriate decision can be taken for resolving the problem and reducing the effect
of a decision.
The industrial relations context
Industrial relation is defined as the relations which is required to be developed within the
industry between management and workers. On a daily basis there are hundreds of issues which
is required to be solved by the management so that all of the work can be performed in a
systematically manner by the business entity. This is one of those relation which allow to
conduct all operational activity that has a direct impact on attaining the goals. Talking about the
main roles which are covered within industrial relations are mentioned below:
 Regulatory body simply try to find out the effective way for resolving any of the
industrial disputes (Perraudin, Thèvenot and Valentin, 2013).
 To consider labour Legislations in order to make employee work on a daily basis.
 Providing training to the employee related to industrial area.
 Trying to work as per the requirement of law.
These are some of the important role of management as per industrial relations. If in any of
the situation management fails to work as per the guidelines, then legal action can be taken upon
the business organisation. On the other side, maintaining the healthy industrial relations will
allow management and employer to tackle any of the situation. It will also allow the company to
resolve any of the issues which can create issues in accomplishing the goals.

Emerging issues and challenges for organisations in sustaining the employment relationship
In current scenario, there are number of issues and challenges for an organisation in
sustaining the employment relationship. It is one of those relationship where different challenges
and issues can be seen on a regular basis. Some of the emerging issues and challenges for
company like TESCO Plc has been mentioned below:
International Competitive Pressure: On a daily basis, the competition within the market is
increasing which is not allowing the company to perform to perform better and even it create
issues in maintaining relationship (Nolan, 2012). It is because management directly pressurise
their employee to improve their working style which creates further issues and challenge in
maintaining the relation.
Technological Changes: In regular interval, technologies are changing which creates
number of issues for the business organisation. It is said that whenever any of the entity
introduces changes, worker faces the problem as they are completely unaware about new
technology due to which chances of errors increases and problem issues between management
and worker increases.
Changing Individual Expectation and Behaviour: It has been found that the expectation
of the employee and management changes on a regular basis which is one of the reason for
increase in issues. For example: if expectation of employee is not fulfilled then there is very less
chances that he will perform as per the requirement of a company and that is the place were
dispute and issues occurs between management and worker (Dieuaide and Azaïs, 2020).
This are some of the main area due to which sustaining the relations between employer and
management get suffer and even difficult arises in accomplishing the goals.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it can be concluded that employment relationship is crucial for
any of the employer and employee. Any of the company can only perform better in that
respective situation where both employer and employee has good understanding of the situation.
There are some of the implied terms as per employment law which is necessary to be followed
and if those are breached then innocent party gets the option to sue defaulter company. Also, all

of the work which will be performed will be based on the terms and condition included within
the contract agreement.
REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Bidwell, M. and et. al., 2013. The employment relationship and inequality: How and why
changes in employment practices are reshaping rewards in organizations. Academy of
Management Annals, 7(1), pp.61-121.
Ackers, P., 2014. Rethinking the employment relationship: a neo-pluralist critique of British
industrial relations orthodoxy. The International Journal of Human Resource
Management, 25(18), pp.2608-2625.
Castilla, E. J., 2012. Gender, race, and the new (merit‐based) employment
relationship. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 51, pp.528-562.
Finkelstein, L. M., 2015. Older workers, stereotypes, and discrimination in the context of the
employment relationship. In Aging workers and the employee-employer
relationship (pp. 13-32). Springer, Cham.
Estlund, C., 2018. What Should We Do after Work: Automation and Employment. Yale LJ, 128,
p.254.
Suleman, F., 2015. The employment relationship in an (almost) structureless labour market: the
case of domestic work. Cambridge Journal of Economics, 39(3), pp.733-750.
Worth, R. and Squelch, J., 2015. Stop the bullying: The anti-bullying provisions in the Fair Work
Act and restoring the employment relationship. UNSWLJ, 38, p.1015.
Perraudin, C., Thèvenot, N. and Valentin, J., 2013. Avoiding the employment relationship:
Outsourcing and labour substitution among French manufacturing firms, 1984–
2003. International Labour Review, 152(3-4), pp.525-547.
Nolan, P., 2012. Understanding the employment relationship: markets, hierarchies and
power. Industrial Relations Journal, 43(4), pp.359-369.
Dieuaide, P. and Azaïs, C., 2020. Platforms of Work, Labour, and Employment Relationship:
The Grey Zones of a Digital Governance. Frontiers in Sociology, 5(2).
Online
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