Analysing Employee Relations and Stakeholder Influence at M&S

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of employee relations within Marks and Spencer, examining the value and importance of positive employee relationships. It delves into the fundamentals of employment law, including worker's compensation and the Equality Act, and suggests strategies for improving employee relations. The report explores the rights, duties, and obligations of both employers and employees, evaluating the significance of the psychological contract and its impact on work-life balance. Furthermore, it investigates various mechanisms for managing employment relationships and presents justified solutions. A stakeholder analysis is conducted to identify key players and their contributions to positive employment relationships, followed by an analysis of the impact of both positive and negative employee relations on various stakeholders. The report also assesses how employee relationships influence conflict avoidance and resolution, concluding with an examination of stakeholders' perspectives within the business environment.

How employee relations can
influence the behaviour of
different stakeholders

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Explain the value and importance of employee relations...........................................................3
Explain the fundamentals of employment law............................................................................4
Suggestions to improve employee relations................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Explain different types of rights, duties and obligations which employer and employee carry
at workplace................................................................................................................................5
Evaluation of psychological contract and support for employee work life balance with
employment relationship.............................................................................................................5
Explore various mechanisms to manage the employment relationship and make justified
solutions......................................................................................................................................6
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
Conduct stakeholder analysis to identify the involvement of stakeholders and their
contribution to support positive employment relationships........................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................8
Analyse the impact of both positive and negative employee relations on various stakeholders 8
Evaluate how positive and negative employee relationships can impact conflict avoidance and
resolution.....................................................................................................................................8
Examine the suitable perspective of stakeholders perspective and interest in business
environment.................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Employee relation refers to the prominent effort of an organisation which they do in
terms of managing their relationship with employees. A company must have good employee
relations as it tends to offer fair and consistent treatment to all the employees considering their
commitment regarding job and loyal to an organisation. The objective of this program is to solve
critical problems which occur from various situations at the workplace (Kang and Sung, 2017).
Employee relations is the significant part of human resource strategy which is developed in terms
of making sure for the effective use of individuals to accomplish their significant mission and
vision. For this, human resource strategies tends to depict effective plans and tactics which are
used by company in terms of gaining and maintaining prominent competitive edge in the market.
To carry forward the report, Marks and Spencer is considered which is the British multinational
retailer headquarter in London, England and deals in clothing, home and food products with its
own label. Company was founded by Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer in 1884. The report
tends to cover the suitable knowledge and understanding regarding the prominent approaches
considering the employment relationship and also tends to identify the roles and responsibilities
of stakeholders by influencing the employment relationship.
TASK 1
Explain the value and importance of employee relations
Every employee at the organisation tends to share effective relations with their
subordinates as an isolated environment tends to demotivate individuals and tends to spread
negativity around them. Therefore, it is essential for Marks and Spencer to have healthy relations
with their employees in terms of making them comfortable with each other and also work
collectively in terms of achieving common goals and objectives. Therefore, significance of
employee relation is mentioned as:
 By having healthy relations among employees and employers of Marks and Spencer
tends to share their work with themselves and makes their work quite easy that leads to
increase their productivity and overall performance (Bosse and Coughlan, 2016). For this,
prominent responsibilities are classified among team members to achieve their assigned
work within given time period.

 Healthy relations leads to eliminate conflicts and fights among the employees as
individuals tends to adjust prominently and stop finding faults among them. For this,
employees of Marks and Spencer does not waste their time for the senseless conflicts and
also concentrate on performing better.
Explain the fundamentals of employment law
Employment law is the significant area of norms and laws that leads to govern the
employee and employer relations. Hence, business must have more than one employee then they
are likely to use effective employment law by undertaking both state and federal laws with
common goals and objectives to protect rights of employees. Few laws are mentioned as:
Worker's compensation: This act is the form of insurance that leads to pay workers who
gets injured or disable while performing their job role (Punjaisri and Wilson, 2017). Accepting
worker's compensation is beneficial as in this, employee waives the right to sue the employer. In
terms of Marks and Spencer, they tends to undertake this law which is helpful to get trust and
faith of employees and also tends to motivate them to perform their job role.
Equality act: As per this act, no company can make any sort of discrimination on the
basis of caste, gender, religion and many more. It depict that each and every employee has equal
rights to get pay on the grounds of their overall performance. Therefore, Marks and Spencer has
huge amount of workforce in terms of dealing at the global level and also belongs from various
nations. Hence, the HR manager of Marks and Spencer need to develop prominent standard for
their employees that leads to eliminate discrimination among them.
Suggestions to improve employee relations
There are various ways which can be opted by Marks and Spencer in terms of improving
employee relation which are discussed as:
 The employer of Marks and Spencer need to involve their team members in terms of
assigning prominent roles and responsibilities as per their interest.
 Motivate employees to prominently share their work with each other as it leads to
eliminate burden from them at the time of taking decisions.
 Employer need to assign work considering the prominent targets for the team members in
terms of having effective contribution to accomplish desired outcome within stipulated
period of time.

 Along with this, the employer of Marks and Spencer need to engage their team members
in the decision making process to get new and fresh ideas.
TASK 2
Explain different types of rights, duties and obligations which employer and employee carry at
workplace
Rights, duties and obligations of employee of Marks and Spencer:
 Every employee must get safe and healthy working environment in terms of working
effectively as safety tends to control and properly arranged in terms of meeting any
emergency situation (Jones, Harrison and Felps, 2018).
 Employee need to work in terms of accomplishing their desired goals and objectives in
terms of reaching towards the prominent objectives. As employee is the one who take
responsibility about professional growth and development. Employee of Marks and Spencer need to be obliged and responsible for effective healthy
and safe working environment.
Rights, duties and obligations of employer of Marks and Spencer:
 It is the duty of employer of Marks and Spencer to provide healthy, safe and flexible
working environment and conditions to their employees in terms of retaining them for
longer period of time.
 Employer also have right to access prominent holidays which are assigned to them
including public, family, personal and other (Shen, Dumont and Deng, 2018).
 Employer has the obligation to foresee the laws, agreements and contracts including
religion, sex, age and political perspective.
Evaluation of psychological contract and support for employee work life balance with
employment relationship
The psychological contract depict the prominent relationship among the employer and
employees which is prominently concerned with mutual expectations of effective inputs and
results. In terms of Marks and Spencer, it is considered as the significant standpoint for the
feelings of employees in terms of effective appreciation which is required from both sides. This
contract is beneficial for effective employment relations in terms of making suitable top priority
that leads to make things easy for employees (Newman and et. al., 2016). For this, employers

also tends to look passionate and enthusiastic in terms of offering suitable and effective
experience to their employees. In terms of Marks and Spencer, it can be accomplished by
developing prominent and positive psychological contract that results in effective employment
relationships. In regard of this, it tends to prominently support the work life balance of
employees in terms of offering suitable and effective employee relations which is helpful in
effective growth and development of employees. Besides this, it is beneficial for the employees
of Marks and Spencer in terms of introducing suitable practices and also tends to develop the
sense of job security in terms of achieving prominent goals and objectives. Moreover, it also
tends to depict the suitable perception of psychological contract which is being impacted by the
process in terms of opting by company to align with the external environment.
Explore various mechanisms to manage the employment relationship and make justified
solutions
Effective employee relations tends to increase higher productivity and eliminate turnover
as it is important for the managers to make suitable efforts in terms of supporting and engaging
employees in terms of developing effective employee relations and offering prominent job
satisfaction. For this, if the manager of Marks and Spencer need to develop effective
employment relations then they need to have suitable and effective communication with their
employees in terms of offering prominent and effective management that leads to eliminate
unnecessary stress and confusion (Barakat and et. al., 2016). Besides this, employees are also
able to ask prominent questions by clarifying suitable ideas in terms of having safe space as it
leads to permit employees of Marks and Spencer in terms of having effective and suitable
discussion by clarifying prominent expectations in terms of finding effective resources.
TASK 3
Conduct stakeholder analysis to identify the involvement of stakeholders and their contribution
to support positive employment relationships
Stakeholder analysis is the process of identifying the effective functioning and analysing
the suitable ideas by prominently conduct suitable grouping as per considering the effective
levels for the participation, interest and also influence the project as well. It is undertaken as the
process in terms of assessing the overall system and prominent changes by relating with
prominent interested parties. The purpose of stakeholders is to analyse the key organisational

players by gaining effective alignment considering the goals and plans of stakeholders. It is
useful in evaluating the external environment of company and its concerning products and
services. This matrix is prominently discussed as below:
INTEREST LEVEL
POWER LEVEL
HIGH LOW
HIGH Employees, Shareholders Government
LOW Customers Suppliers
As discussed the above two strategies and variables are understood in terms of assessing
the stakeholders as the first variable is related with power which depict the prominent authority
and the second one is concerned with interest which represent that how they can be impacted
from the decisions of company and concerning strategies (De Roeck and Farooq, 2018).
Therefore, out of the above mentioned stakeholders few of them are discussed below as they
have major impact on the functioning of company. Employees: These are the individuals who are prominently concerned with stakeholders
of company. As in terms of Marks and Spencer, the power of employees are quite high
and it is due to the culture of company. Therefore, Marks and Spencer is required in
terms of opting prominent strategies which is helpful for employees in terms of satisfying
their personal goals and objectives. Furthermore, the suitable interest of stakeholders
group is also high in respective company (Adam Cobb, 2016). Therefore, it depict that
company need to opt significance pathway that leads to influence employees in positive
and beneficial manner. Customers: These individuals are the one who tends to purchase prominent offerings to
the company and by this, the significance interest is high but the power is low (Wu and
et. al., 2016). Hence, Marks and Spencer need to develop their products by identifying
the prominent trends and preferences of customers within the market and for this,
customers does not have significant authority in terms of deciding the effective strategies
by Marks and Spencer. Therefore, they have moderate impact on company.

 Government: These are the group of individuals and association of various members who
have low interest level but high power regarding the functioning and running of
company. In terms of Marks and Spencer, these individuals tends to develop prominent
laws and contracts within an organisation but does not take participate in the small
decision making process of company.
 Suppliers: These individuals have low power and interest level as they only make
presence regarding offering of suitable raw materials to company in terms of making
finished products which are consumable by customers of Marks and Spencer.
Therefore, stakeholders tends to prominently contribute in terms of motivating employees
regarding the effective functioning and overall performance of employees. They tends to conduct
prominent programs that leads to motivate and boost employees in terms of having effective
development of employment relationship.
TASK 4
Analyse the impact of both positive and negative employee relations on various stakeholders
Employee relations is a practice that leads to focus on both individual and collective
relationships at the organisation as it tends to put emphasis on the managers regarding training
and supporting them for developing suitable trust to have effective relationship with team
members. In regard of this, stakeholders of Marks and Spencer are prominent for suitable
communication and effective employment process considering the bargaining way and process to
deal with prominent difficulties. Stakeholders tends to positively impact the performance of
employees by significantly resolving their complaints and for this management tends to make
sure the majority for suitable complaints for prominently satisfying employees and managers
tends to attempt to anticipate for the prominent grievances of staff members in terms of capturing
the significant complaints before they become issues among them (Su and et. al., 2017).
Moreover, positive employee relations tends to effectively support the suitable development of
managers by offering clear process in terms of managing grievances to make sure that employees
are significantly trained for the effective operations. Somehow, stakeholders of Marks and
Spencer tends to negatively impact the overall performance of employees considering any sort of
discrimination and unfair pay tends to demotivate them regarding their overall performance.

Evaluate how positive and negative employee relationships can impact conflict avoidance and
resolution
It is analysed that positive employee relations among the subordinates helps in neglecting
conflicts among employees and also helps in resolving them with full efficiency. As workplace
conflicts are inevitable and tends to impact the background and overall performance of
employees in terms of sharing overall business objective. In regard of this, Marks and Spencer
must have effective and healthy relations with their employees that leads to positively impact the
running and functioning of an organisation and also helps in eliminating confusion and conflict
among them (Arikan and et. al., 2016). For this, the manager of Marks and Spencer need to
prominently manage team conflicts as an attempt to pursue common objective instead of
individual goals by effectively and openly communicating with their team members. For this,
conflict tends to neglect on the grounds of win and lose approach and it tends to cause low
morale by increasing tension within the team.
Examine the suitable perspective of stakeholders perspective and interest in business
environment
Stakeholders are the individuals and group within the organisation that leads to impacted
by the decision making of company and prominent actions. For this, stakeholders also tends to
impact the government agencies, employees, customers, suppliers and many more. Stakeholders
of Marks and Spencer plays an important role regarding the effective functioning of company
and within the business environment the overall perspective and interest of stakeholders are
important in terms of accomplishing prominent growth and success (Markovic and Bagherzadeh,
2018). Along with this, the stakeholders of Marks and Spencer has separate perspective that
strive towards the best interest of company and also tends to work for the execution of new
technology in terms of producing and delivering their products by offering effective customer
services that leads to attract maximum number of customers.
CONCLUSION
By considering the above discussion, it is identified that employee relation is important
regarding the growth and success of company and also helps in increasing the overall
performance and productivity. In relation with this, good employee relations tends to increase
value and belief of company by undertaking significant employment laws. In regard of this,

effective rights, duties and obligations are discussed for the benefit of employees by effectively
managing suitable employment relations. Besides this, stakeholders plays an important role in
terms of supporting or the positive employment relations and also tends to avoid conflicts within
an organisation undertaking their interest and perspective.

REFERENCES
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