Employee Relations Report: Analysis of Employee Relations at Tesco PLC

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of employee relations within Tesco PLC, a major British multinational retailer. It begins by defining employee relations and its importance in retaining human resources and avoiding conflicts. The report then delves into key concepts such as the unitary and pluralistic frames of reference, assessing their application within Tesco. It examines the impact of changes in trade unionism on employee relations, explaining the roles of key players like HR managers, government, and trade unions. The report further analyzes conflict situations at Tesco, proposing processes for resolution, including collective bargaining, and assesses the effectiveness of these processes. It also investigates the role of negotiation in collective bargaining and its impact on strategy development. Finally, the report assesses the impact of the EU on industrial democracy in the UK and compares methods used to increase employee involvement within Tesco, concluding with an examination of the impact of HRM on employee relations.

EMPLOYEE
RELATIONS
1

Table of Contents
TASK 1.................................................................................................................................................3
1.1 Explaining the unitary and pluralistic frames of references......................................................3
1.2 Assessing how changes in trade unionism has impacted employee relation.............................4
1.3 Explaining the role of main players in employee relation .......................................................4
TASK 2.................................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Explain the process that Tesco should follow while dealing with different conflict situation . 5
2.2 Stating the key characteristic of employee relation in the selected conflicting state................6
2.3 Assessment of the effectiveness of process that is exploited in the chosen conflicting state...6
TASK 3.................................................................................................................................................8
3.1 Description of the role of negotiation in collective bargaining................................................8
3.2 The impact of negotiation on the strategy development ..........................................................8
TASK 4.................................................................................................................................................9
4.1 Assessing the impact of EU on industrial democracy in UK.....................................................9
4.2 Comparison methods utilized to increase employee involvement and engagement in the
decision making procedure in Tesco................................................................................................9
4.3 Identifying the impact of HRM on the employee relation.....................................................10
Conclusion..........................................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES...................................................................................................................................12
2

INTRODUCTION
The term employee relation refers to maintaining strong and effective terms with the human
resources so as to retain them for long run. It is saying that if individuals are financially invested
they demand something in return while if they are emotionally invested they wish to add worth to
business (Gupta and Kumar, 2012.). Therefore, it can be stated that employee relation is to assure
human resources contribute maximum towards the organization. With the help of employee relation
aspect the company can avoid the possible conflicts and industrial disputes. Thereafter, to retain
employees in long run and reduce the turnover ratio maintaining strong employee relation is must. It
further involve effective communication between management and employees to facilitate decision
making, resolution of issues, solution to grievances etc. In this report, various aspects of employee
relation will be studied in the context of Tesco Plc.
It is a British multinational grocery and general commodity retailer. Tesco was founded in
1919 and headquartered in Welwyn Garden City. At present company is dealing in more than 12
nations across Asia and Europe. According to the calculation of profits, Tesco is regarded as third
largest retailer in the world. In this report, learning will be shown regarding unitary and pluralistic
frames of references. The role of negotiation in collective bargaining will be explained. Thereafter
the impact of the EU on industrial democracy in the UK will be explained. Thereafter, learning will
be shown regarding the impact of human resource management on employee relations.
TASK 1
1.1 Explaining the unitary and pluralistic frames of references
The unitary frame of reference can be defined as one where company perceived as an
unified concept with all the members sharing mutually defined aims and objective. Due to one
goals the efforts are directed in particular direction only. There is one acknowledged leader, which
help in directing the efforts in specific direction and all the members works for one common
objective of the entity (Atkinson and Hall, 2011). This further help in avoiding confusion and
duplication of efforts. It is supported on the orientation that despite of multitude having contrasting
roles and prospect they should share common aims and purpose.
On the other side, the pluralistic frame of reference is the orientation where company is
reasoned to be built up of compelling and contrasting sub-groups. The different teams working in
the company has there own purpose and interests. These sub-groups are competitive as well as
have their own leaders and objectives (D'Cruz and Noronha, 2011). Trade unions play a important
and influential role in pluralistic frame of references. They are more concerned on power and
coordination rather that enforcing and controlling. Conflicts are not considered as negative always
3

and must be handled jointly because if managed effectively they can result into positive change.
The Tesco PLC can use unitary frame of references so as to maintain strong employee
relations. This will help in attaining the defined objectives with joint efforts of all the members. It
will also foster team work, attainment of shared goal and increase in mutual cooperation (Suliman,
and Al Kathairi, 2012).
1.2 Assessing how changes in trade unionism has impacted employee relation
The trade union are the organized group of workers in a trade, group of business or
professions that are developed to safeguard the rights and interest of organizational members. It can
also be regarded as entity whose membership consist of manpower and union leaders, joint to
safeguard and encourage their shared purpose (Luo, Wieseke and Homburg, 2012). It further play
vital role by bargaining with employers regarding working conditions, remuneration etc. They
further help in managing relationship among employees and the employer so as to maintain interest
of both the parties and avoid state of conflict. Trade unions help in meeting the different needs of
workers and help in solving their grievances on time (Biswas and Varma, 2011.). There has been
significant change in the working of trade union over the period of time. Initially in between the 18th
century, the trade union was controlled by Moderate new model union. The legalization of trade
union is evidence from the y ear 1824. the key purpose of the people behind joining the trade union
was to get proper wages and salary for the work done by it. Therefore, trade unions got more
dominant position by 1871 by the formation of trade commission (Clarke, 2011). Hence, in the y
ear 1980-1990 the British trade union has suffered many challenges and modification as t here was
intense level of unemployment, the dominance of employers I n private company , private
contractors etc. It was identified that there were around 1.3 job less Individuals and due to this the
trade union membership started declining. By the year 1990-2000, the decrease in the membership
of Transport and General Workers Union also decreased from 2085000 to 858000 from period
1979-2000. therefore, the female started working and resulted into demand more jobs. From t he
year 2005-2015, trade unions became essential part of the corporates. The government also
supported trade unions by developing various laws (Rolfsen and Langeland, 2012).
1.3 Explaining the role of main players in employee relation
The effective development of employee relation is extremely important for the success of
company. There are many players that are responsible for developing effective employee relations.
Description of which is as follows:
 Human resource manager: The HR executive play a viable role in developing strong
employee relations. It identify the different needs and preference of employee’s and
4

communicate to the management of entity. The HR executive have direct interaction with
employee’s and assure they are not facing any kind of difficulty. The grievances of
employees is identified on time to prevent their dissatisfaction (Svensson, 2011).
 Government: It plays a dominant role in the effective employee relations. There are various
policies and frameworks developed by government to support effective employee relations.
Such as , Anti discrimination policy assure there is no difference in the treatment of
employees as they are from different religion, background, age, culture, sex etc. It assure
equal treatment to all the employee and maintain positive relations in long run (Day, 2011).
 Trade Unions- The union are also very crucial and have important role in keeping the
employee relationships. For instance, various factors like age, background, ability,
cognition towards work and so on factors have consequence on the employee relationship
therefore, trade Union realize these component and assist employees to cope up with various
modification and encourage all employees to have healthier relationships with employees.
TASK 2
2.1 Explain the process that Tesco should follow while dealing with different conflict situation
Conflicts can be defined as an argument or disagreement of the two parties on a topic.
However, it may be created anywhere in the families, friends and among the employees. In the
companies conflict are so common as it can be positive or negative. However, this can arise
between the employer and the employee (Poor, Karoliny, Alas and Kirilova Vatchkova., 2011). At
TESCO, there are certain reasons due to which conflicts are raised. They are stated below.
1. Poor training
2. Inadequate informations
3. Difference in backgrounds of employees
In addition to above, there are some more conflicts that are defined below.
Salary/pay: This the major conflict which is being raised between the employer and the employee.
The employees of TESCO are working for years at same salary which has resulted in decreased
motivation. This has resulted in affecting the work quality of the subordinates of the stated
organization (Larson, 2015).
Unequal employee opportunity: This is another issue which has become a rescan of conflict. It is
seen that, employees with same qualification are still not getting equal promotional opportunities. If
the organization provides equal promotional opportunities to the employees then it will help them to
attain the organizational goals.
Dealing with different conflict situations: Dispute handling methods can be adopted by the top
5

authorises of TESCO in order to resolve the conflicting situations. However, the management can
remove disputes from the root cause by effectively development of the positive opinions. Here, the
organization can also involves employee participation in the final decision making process. It will
result into increasing the motivation level of the employees (Tsirikas, Katsaros and Nicolaidis,
2012 ). This will directly help the organization to attain its goals and objectives in an appropriate
manner. Solving the conflict will result in improving the current position of the organization and the
employees as well. Collective bargaining is another method through which a conflicting situation
can be resolved.
2.2 Stating the key characteristic of employee relation in the selected conflicting state
In Tesco PLC, the reason of increase conflicts between the employees is high dissatisfaction
level towards management. In this context, it becomes important for the higher authority to look
towards this issue very seriously (Crespo, Sallis and et.al., 2011). From the assessment, it has
determined that issue has related of low wages rate given by Tesco PLC to its personnel. Due to
this, many of the staffs have left the organization and it has created a negative image in the
marketplace. There is a need of find the solution of the problem so that the increase dissatisfaction
level in the employees can be minimized in a right manner. In this context, some reason of arising
of conflicts are stating below (Demerouti, Cropanzano, Bakker and Leiter, 2010).
Dissatisfaction level of subordinates: This thing has affected the brand image in customers’ minds
and recent join employees. To solve the following problem, the management of Tesco has to find
some unique solution of this problem (Dhanesh, 2014). For this, company should increase the
interaction with the staff members so that major reason of conflicts can be easily determined.
Management have to increase the wages rate of personnel so that they can motivate in the right
direction.
2.3 Assessment of the effectiveness of process that is exploited in the chosen conflicting state
By taking into the consideration of above, it has determined that alary is the major issue of
Tesco PLC. In order to overcome the following issue, top management has to adopt the concept of
collective bargaining concept. This has assisted the company to deal with this issue in right manner
(Gao, Janssen and Shi, 2011). Under this, top management will determine the impact of conflicts on
various operational activities. With the help of this, Tesco PLC will negotiate to resolve the
following problem so that dissatisfaction level of the employees can be reduced at the significant
level.
The process remained effective of the management and staff members of Tesco PLC. But
with the time, company has to needed to take some other steps to resolve the issues in more
6

effective manner. This will help in determine the other reasons of dissatisfaction level of employees.
With the help of this, new solutions can be effectively implemented in the favour of the staff
members (Hu, Yang and Islam, 2010). The positive aspect of this is the management of Tesco PLC
has able to deal with the situations in the right manner. Along with this, unique methods have
helped to improve the satisfaction of the staff members. Further, the top management has to
consider the needs and requirements of personnel to solve their issues.
7

TASK 3
3.1 Description of the role of negotiation in collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is termed as an effective approach in which then representative of
employees and employers collaboratively meet together and engage in the mutual discussion so that
they can easily attain the objectives and goals of the organization. This approach is considered as
win-win situation that benefit both the parties in meeting their objectives in effective manner
(Kalemci Tuzun and Arzu Kalemci, 2012).
The negotiation is termed as the process that plays significant role within the collective bargaining
in which representatives of both the parties mutually discuss on the statement so that they can easily
come up with the actions that are mutually agrees by both the parties (Landry, Panaccio and
Vandenberghe, 2010). Within this process trade union raises their voices against the senior level
personnel for the benefit the interest of employees. The key role of negotiation in the collective
bargaining process is that it benefit the Tesco employer in gaining the viewpoint of the staff and
employees that assists them in designing and framing the strategies that would be significant for
both organization and employees (Maurer and Chapman, 2013). Another role of negotiation in
collective bargaining include that support the senior level personnel and staff to render services
collaboratively so that they can easily deliver the grocery products and items to the ultimate
customers. Another role of negotiation includes that union and senior level personnel resolve the
key issues and problem with the help of engaging in the negotiation process within the Tesco (Men,
2011). Along with this, role of negotiation also benefit the organization in meeting the requirement
and objectives of the employees so that they may feel satisfy within the organization and they may
also get committed towards the activities of organization.
3.2 The impact of negotiation on the strategy development
In the business firms there are two entities that think opposite to each other. These two
groups are management and employees. It has been observed that thinking of management and
employees always remain in different directions. Due to this reason conflict comes in existence
between the management and employees. Often such kind of think hamper production at the
workplace (Maurer and Chapman, 2013). This ultimately led to reduction in the production and
revenue of the business firms. Often negotiation strategy is prepared by the business firms to handle
such kind of situations. By using negotiation strategy problem that exist between both entities is
eliminated to great extent. There are many types of negotiation strategy that can be prepared by the
8

business firm. However, each sort of negotiation strategy cannot be prepared and used by the
business firm. This is because bargaining power of the entities that are in conflict with each other is
totally different. Hence, specific negotiation strategy cannot be used in all business conditions.
While selecting any strategy for negotiation number of factors must be considered by the managers.
The extent to which interest of the employees are affected by the firm decisions must be measured.
Their bargaining power must also be measured by the business firm. In this way managers can
prepare sound negotiation strategy for the business firm (Demerouti, Cropanzano, Bakker and
Leiter, 2010)..
TASK 4
4.1 Assessing the impact of EU on industrial democracy in UK
EU is one of critical aspect because it provides a sustainable opportunities so that goals and
objectives can be developed in appropriate manner. It has been noticed that industrial democracy is
considered as one of critical aspect so that goals and objectives can be developed in appropriate
manner. Industrial democracy can be termed as engagement of employers and workers for taking of
the wide range of decision, sharing the power along with responsibility among the employers and
employees. It has been noticed that any kind of changes in the policies of EU then it will impact the
overall working of Tesco PLC. It is because the management working is directly linked with the EU
policies (Kalemci Tuzun and Arzu Kalemci, 2012).. For example, the EU has decided to limit the
investment in foreign nation to promote the local economic aspects. It means management of Tesco
need to make sure that management is well focused towards policies and changes in overall
working. If company does not focus on the policies then legal issues might be occurred. It might
impact the overall outcome and lead business to critical issues.
EU policies provide a fair trade activities so that business firm can have impressive level of
success. The positive outcome that a business firm can attain through consideration of EU policies
is that improvement in work culture. Ethical working aspects can be promotes in appropriate
manner so that goals and objectives can be accomplished effectively. In addition to this, it can be
said that better relationship with diverse suppliers can be improved so that business can have
sustainable development. Work allocation aspects can also be improved through application of EU
policies within work culture (Landry, Panaccio and Vandenberghe, 2010).
4.2 Comparison methods utilized to increase employee involvement and engagement in the decision
making procedure in Tesco
Employee participation is referred as one of most critical aspect that leads business firm to
impressive level of success. It has been noticed that management of Tesco PLC must consider
9

employee participation as critical aspect so that goals and objectives can be accomplished in desired
manner. It has been noticed that approach of consultancy is considered as one of critical aspect so
that sustainable opportunities can be attained in appropriate manner. By having improved focus on
the employee participation the decision making process effectiveness can also be well maintained in
desired manner. Consultation can be acquired in the form of delivering the opinion of worker during
various management decision (Biswas and Varma, 2011). However, it is not essential that every
employee of organization provides an appropriate suggestion in order to overcome issue. It means
the strict norms also need to be framed in order to make sure that appropriate participation is being
taken into account from both side, management and employees. Communication on regular basis
also a critical aspect that allows to have effective development of employee relation. In regard to
this, it can be said that regular basis interaction allows to understand the key issues which are being
faced by management. With an assistance of this, issues can be discussed effectively so that new
strategies can be framed in appropriate manner for sustainable development (Crespo, Sallis and
et.al., 2011).
Along with this, feedback can also be taken into account so that effectiveness of decision
making process can be evaluated in desired manner. It has been noticed that strategies implemented
can be analysed effectively through taking feedback. On the basis of feedback provided by the
employees the changes can be made so that issues can be overcome. It will also promote the
employee involvement in decision making process and assist in meeting key goals and objectives.
Moreover, negotiation and collective bargaining are also key methods that can be adopted by
business entity like Tesco PLC in order to meet sustainable outcomes and lead business firm to
impressive level of success (Kalemci Tuzun and Arzu Kalemci, 2012). .
4.3 Identifying the impact of HRM on the employee relation
As per the detailed study, it can be said that overall working of business firm is greatly
dependent over employee relation and HRM. However, any kind of changes in human resource
management will have great impact in the state of employee relation which might affect the overall
outcome. In addition to this, it can be said that Tesco must ensure that behavioural values are being
considered in appropriate manner for sustainable development (Tsirikas, Katsaros and Nicolaidis,
2012 ). If discrimination policies of HRM are not well structured then it will impact the overall
morale in negative manner. Along with this, it also enhances the trust level among employees and
management which might affect the overall work performance in diverse manner. Human resource
practices of company influence satisfaction level of employees with the help salary and incentives
plan that are greatly affecting employee relations. It means if salary act is not well structured then
10

employees will face issue which might affect the overall outcome. In order to maintain the effective
employee relationship the business firm must focus on designing of HR strategies that allows to
make sure that goals and objectives can be accomplished effectively. Trade union standards also
need to be taken into account so that issues in respect to employability can be overcome effectively.
It allows to have direct communication and improve the overall process in context to employee
relation (D'Cruz and Noronha, 2011).
CONCLUSION
As per the above study, it can be concluded that employee relation plays a critical role in the
business firm success. By having improved focus on the employee relation the key objectives can
be accomplished in desired manner. Number of issues can be discussed effectively so that goals and
objectives can be accomplished. By having improved focus on diverse activities key standards can
also be well maintained so that sustainable opportunities can be attained in appropriate manner. In
addition to this, it can be said that job enrichment, collective bargaining and further strategies are
also beneficial for business firm like Tesco. It is because it lead business firm to impressive level of
success.
11

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Atkinson, C. and Hall, L., 2011. Flexible working and happiness in the NHS. Employee
Relations. 33(2). pp.88-105.
Biswas, S. and Varma, A., 2011. Antecedents of employee performance: an empirical investigation
in India. Employee Relations. 34(2). pp.177-192.
Clarke, M., 2011. Advancing women's careers through leadership development programs. Employee
Relations. 33(5). pp.498-515.
Crespo, N.C., Sallis, J.F. and et.al., 2011. Worksite physical activity policies and environments in
relation to employee physical activity. American Journal of Health Promotion. 25(4). pp.264-271.
D'Cruz, P. and Noronha, E., 2011. The limits to workplace friendship: Managerialist HRM and
bystander behaviour in the context of workplace bullying. Employee Relations. 33(3). pp.269-
288.
Day, N.E., 2011. Perceived pay communication, justice and pay satisfaction. Employee
relations. 33(5). pp.476-497.
Day, N.E., 2011. Perceived pay communication, justice and pay satisfaction. Employee
relations. 33(5). pp.476-497.
Demerouti, E., Cropanzano, R., Bakker, A.B. and Leiter, M.P., 2010. From thought to action:
Employee work engagement and job performance. Work engagement: A handbook of
essential theory and research. 65. pp.147-163.
Dhanesh, G.S., 2014. CSR as Organization–Employee Relationship Management Strategy A Case
Study of Socially Responsible Information Technology Companies in India. Management
Communication Quarterly. 28(1., pp.130-149.
Gao, L., Janssen, O. and Shi, K., 2011. Leader trust and employee voice: The moderating role of
empowering leader behaviors. The Leadership Quarterly. 22(4). pp.787-798.
Gupta, V. and Kumar, S., 2012. Impact of performance appraisal justice on employee engagement: a
study of Indian professionals. Employee Relations. 35(1). pp.61-78.
Hu, Y.J., Yang, Y.F. and Islam, M., 2010. Leadership behavior, satisfaction, and the balanced
scorecard approach: An empirical investigation of the manager-employee relationship at
retail institutions in Taiwan. International Journal of Commerce and Management. 20(4).
pp.339-356.
Kalemci Tuzun, I. and Arzu Kalemci, R., 2012. Organizational and supervisory support in relation
to employee turnover intentions. Journal of Managerial Psychology. 27(5). pp.518-534.
Landry, G., Panaccio, A. and Vandenberghe, C., 2010. Dimensionality and consequences of
employee commitment to supervisors: a two-study examination. The Journal of
psychology. 144(3). pp.285-312.
Luo, X., Wieseke, J. and Homburg, C., 2012. Incentivizing CEOs to build customer-and employee-
firm relations for higher customer satisfaction and firm value. Journal of the Academy of
Marketing Science. 40(6). pp.745-758.
Maurer, T.J. and Chapman, E.F., 2013. Ten years of career success in relation to individual and
situational variables from the employee development literature. Journal of Vocational
Behavior. 83(3). pp.450-465.
Men, L.R., 2011. How employee empowerment influences organization–employee relationship in
China. Public Relations Review. 37(4). pp.435-437.
Poor, J., Karoliny, Z., Alas, R. and Kirilova Vatchkova, E., 2011. Comparative international human
resource management (CIHRM) in the light of the Cranet Regional Research Survey in
Transitional Economies. Employee relations. 33(4). pp.428-443.
Rolfsen, M. and Langeland, C., 2012. Successful maintenance practice through team
autonomy. Employee Relations. 34(3). pp.306-321.
12

Suliman, A. and Al Kathairi, M., 2012. Organizational justice, commitment and performance in
developing countries: The case of the UAE. Employee Relations. 35(1). pp.98-115.
Svensson, S., 2011. Flexible working conditions and decreasing levels of trust. Employee
Relations. 34(2). pp.126-137.
Online
13