HRM523 - Australian ER: Individualism, Regulations & Reviews

This assignment comprises a discussion board post focusing on Australian employee relations, specifically examining the increasing trend of individualism in the workplace and the role of statutory regulations. The first part of the assignment involves posting responses to discussion questions, drawing on credible sources to support arguments about the changing dynamics of employee relations. The second part requires peer reviews, analyzing and critiquing two posts from classmates, again backed by evidence from academic literature. The content covers topics such as the impact of individualism on decision-making, the influence of government regulations on company strategies, and the decline of union density. The student has provided a comprehensive overview of the key elements of the assignment including individualism, statutory regulations and peer reviews. The document includes a review of the posts from other students and their perspectives on the topics. The student has followed the instructions and provided a detailed discussion on the subject.

Advanced Studies
in
International Relations

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Part 1
Topic 5: The Role of Management in Australian ER
There is an increase in the Individualism in the employee relations (Herriot, 2013).
Companies are looking at interests, behaviour and demands of each of the employees and are
fulfilling it to make a better employee relation. Employees are also leaving unions and are
focusing on their self-development. This is irrespective of the fact that what is done by the
government for them. It is seen that people are from different parts of the world working in
any organisation hence a feeling of collectivism is reducing day by day (Bonoli, 2017). Even
the efforts of the governments to improve the employee relations through its policies are not
very much entertained. People are thinking for their own benefits and companies are also not
aiming to go into the complex mechanism of negotiation with trade or employee unions. But
this is reducing the employee’s power in the collective areas such as participation in the
decision making process. However the increasing individualism is due to the fact that
employees need to have more control over their own professional life and career development
(Guest, 2016).
References
Bonoli, G. (2017). Labour market and social protection reforms in international perspective:
parallel or converging tracks?. Taylor & Francis.
Guest, D. E. (2016). Trust and the role of the psychological contract in contemporary
employment relations. In Building trust and constructive conflict management in
organizations (pp. 137-149). Springer, Cham.
Herriot, P. (2013). The employment relationship: A psychological perspective. Routledge.

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Topic 8: Statutory Regulation
Statutory regulations were made by the government in order to ensure that companies are
following all the legalisations and rules that could help them in improving their processes
(Cunningham, 2012). In today’s time companies are trying to make innovative strategies for
improving the employee relations. But in the implementation of these strategies, statutory
regulations play a role of impeding factor. For instance if the company aims to make a better
and long term plan for the health and safety of their employees which could also improve the
employee’s trust with the company, statutory regulations of the government in this regards
plays a negative role as it will force the companies to implement strategies as per the rules
and regulations defined by the government (Leat, 2012). This is also true in terms of wages
and salaries where if the company tries to provide some extra benefits to any employees, then
they will have to look towards the statutory regulations. Sometimes companies cannot make
their own insurance plans because they will have to significantly follow the one that is
mentioned in the statutory regulations and is acting as an additional burden (Singh, 2010).
References
Cunningham, I. (2012). Employment relations in the voluntary sector: Struggling to care.
Routledge.
Leat, M. (2012). Exploring employee relations. Routledge.
Singh, P. N. (2010). Employee relations management. Pearson Education India.

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Part 2
Topic 5
Author: Chaturanga Sajith Weerathunga AMARASINGHA LEKAMGE
Review
Increasing individualism is a trend in the modern day business employment relationship but it
will have impact on the way decisions are being made within the industries (Beale & Hoel,
2011). This post suggests this trend is also increasing with the fact that there is shift from
collectivism to individualism. However it would have been better if there would have been
illustration of data regarding this. This would have made the post more authenticated and
would have illustrated the point in a better manner. In this post it has been illustrated that
support for the collective bargaining has been dismantled and it is preventing people from
any kind of collective support (Gould, 2010). This is actually true as the people are checking
for their self-benefit rather than collective benefits. Changing laws has also made
organisations to concentrate more on the individuals. This post also illustrates the fact that
due to effect of unionisation the bargaining structures have got decentralised. This posts does
shows the views of the individuals due to which collective bargaining is in the trends,

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however it illustrates the fact that why managers in today’s time is stressing more on the
voices of the individuals rather than collective voices (DeCenzo, Robbins & Verhulst, 2016).
References
Beale, D., & Hoel, H. (2011). Workplace bullying and the employment relationship:
exploring questions of prevention, control and context. Work, employment and
society, 25(1), 5-18.
Gould, A. M. (2010). The Americanisation of Australian workplaces. Labor History, 51(3),
363-388.
DeCenzo, D. A., Robbins, S. P., & Verhulst, S. L. (2016). Fundamentals of Human Resource
Management, Binder Ready Version. John Wiley & Sons.

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Topic 6
Author: Senevirathna Wasala Mudiyanselage umanga charithri Hulangamuwa
Review
It is a good post where the representation of the point it aims to say is illustrated through the
help of graph. This post illustrates the views of different researchers in this area. Gilfillan
(2019) illustrates about the fact that in the past few years Australia has noticed a decline in
the union density which has ultimately resulted in the decline of the worker’s bargaining
power (Holland, Pyman, Cooper & Teicher, 2011). He also illustrates the fact that industrial

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disputation has reduced rapidly. His views illustrate the fact that union density is a cause
however other stronger causal factors have their impact on the wage movements (Peetz,
2015). This post also illustrates the opinion of Bishops & Chan (2019) who also suggests that
union membership rates cannot be the material contributing factor for determining wage
trends as despite of declining numbers in the membership of unions, there is no change in the
workforce percentage covered through enterprise agreements negotiated with unions and at
the same time the fact that in the private sector, the size of “union wage growth premium”
remained constant at the value of 1/3 % per years and at last there is no identification of
evidence on other agreements of the firm where the density of the union had impact on the
wage growth (Preston, 2018).
References
Holland, P., Pyman, A., Cooper, B. K., & Teicher, J. (2011). Employee voice and job
satisfaction in Australia: The centrality of direct voice. Human Resource
Management, 50(1), 95-111.
Peetz, D. (2015). Are Australian trade unions part of the solution, or part of the problem?.
Autralian Review of Public Affairs.
Preston, A., (2018). The structure and determinants of wage relativities: evidence from
Australia. Routledge.