Employee Voice: Comparing Union & Non-Union Representation Evolution

This essay provides a comprehensive analysis of employee voice within the context of employment relations. It begins by comparing and contrasting unitarist and pluralist approaches, highlighting their differing perspectives on organizational unity and conflict. The essay then delves into the concepts of employee involvement, participation, and partnership, emphasizing their importance in fostering a positive work environment and improving organizational performance. Furthermore, it examines the evolution of union and non-union forms of employee representation, discussing their respective strengths and weaknesses. Finally, the essay assesses the evidence linking employee voice to organizational performance, drawing on research and real-world examples to demonstrate the tangible benefits of empowering employees and encouraging their active participation in decision-making processes. The essay concludes by recommending the inclusion of employee voice to enhance productivity.

Contemporary developments in employment
relations (DER) assessment activity 3 template
Employee Voice
Name:
Word count:

Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................3
1.2 Compare and contrast unitarist and pluralist approaches to employment
relations.....................................................................................................................3
...............................................................................................................................3
3.1 Explain what is meant by employee involvement, participation and partnership.
...................................................................................................................................4
3.2 Compare and contrast union and non-union forms of employee representation
and how these have evolved......................................................................................5
3.3 Assess evidence linking employee voice and organisational performance
referring to research and examples of organisational practice. ................................6
Conclusions....................................................................................................................7
Recommendations..........................................................................................................8

Introduction
Employment voice is defined as a way of communication with the people in order
to influence them at workplace. It make interaction and build strong relation with each
other. It boost the morale of employees and create trust and confidence among people.
It is the most effective tool that leads to organisational success and satisfy the
employees at workplace. There voice and views helps to influence the people resulted
into effective decision making to sustain growth at workplace. It helps an organisation
to make plans and policies to strategies the organisation's long term and short term
objectives (Aloisi and Gramano, 2019). It avoids conflicts and dispute among the
individual. It is the most important part of management that ensure smooth flow of
communication. Employment voice shows the active participation and involvement of
employees to sustain growth. It improves the overall performance of the employees.
This activity will cover unitarists and pluralist approaches of employees relation.
Further, it will cover the union and non-union forms of employees presentation and
how it affects organisational performance.
1.2 Compare and contrast unitarist and pluralist approaches to employment relations.
Unitarist and Pluralist approaches
A management and its employees relations are the most important aspect of an
organisation. Human resource are considered as most important asset that is

responsible for carrying out various business activities in an organisation. The
organisation is based on various theories and concepts that are important for the
survival of a business. The employees relation are crucial to create positive
environment at workplace. The major difference between the pluralist and unitarist
approach is a blueprint that influence the behaviour and perception of an individual
working at workplace. According to unitarist approach, it emphasises on individual's
interest that shared the same interest to bring integrity and unity in an organisation. It
involves organisational members such as management and their staffs who shares
their loyalty and trust with each other. It is basically build strong and positive relation
with same group of people to achieve common goal (Bratton, Robertson and Paulet,
2022). It enhance the productivity and general interest of the employees so that they
can easily achieve the desired results. It encourage the team work and leadership in
order to guide and assist the employees.
Pluralist approach is dealing with relations that are build with different group of
persons who have different human values and competing goals. It is contradict to the
unitarist theory and balance the power between the capital and labour intensive
technique. This approach is used to deal with the harm that may arise due to conflicts
and dispute among the members. It coordinates and cooperate the work among the
different group members. It is multi structured mechanism that have distinct goals and
objectives, values and beliefs that lies between the management and employees.
However, the unitary approach encourage unity and integrity as its main objective is
to create harmony among the people whereas the pluralist theory may creates
confusion among the individual. In unitary, all have same goal and objective whereas
the pluralist theory have dissimilarity among the employer and employee in relation to
thought and interest.
3.1 Explain what is meant by employee involvement, participation and partnership.
Employee involvement: It is a process that is used to make critical decisions for an
organisation, to bring transparency in the working system. It is an effort made by the
employees to contribute in the performance of an organisation. It is not only increase
the productivity of an organisation but also improves the skill and knowledge of the
employees (Guarriello and Stanzani, 2018). It boost the morale and confidence of the

employees. It is an crucial to bring positive in the working culture by sharing ideas
and knowledge with each other. It directly helps an organisation to fulfil its vision and
mission of growth and success. It includes quality and inspection team, labour staff
management force etc. It involves direct interaction with the management to deliver
the possible outcomes of assigned work.
Employee Participation: It is defined as active engagement of employees towards
the productivity of an organisation. It demands suggestion and ideas from them so that
better decision can be made. It ensure proper communication among the people and
reduce the stress over the employees. Effective communication also resulted into
employees participation that has significant impact on the growth of an organisation.
It is an effective tool to inspire and motivate the employees to come and contribute in
the success of the management. It brings creativity and innovation in the working
system. It includes group discussions, assignment of projects in team etc. The time
and efforts can be identified of each members who are actively participating in
making the effective decisions for an organisation.
Partnership: It is a wider term than the employee participation and employee's
involvement. It is the most important part of employment voice as it is used to define
the ownership and organisational structure. It is a collective effort that has enhanced
the cooperation between the employers and employees. It adds value and improves
the overall performance of an organisation because of loyalty and result oriented
approach of an individual. It offers mutual gains and understandings among the
people and aims to reduce the conflicts and dispute through proper mechanisms.
Several partnership agreement has bee witnessed in the UK such as Tesco and
Barclays Bank as a trade union.
3.2 Compare and contrast union and non-union forms of employee representation and
how these have evolved.
Union and non-union approaches
The basic difference e between the two approaches are the working culture and
atmosphere that varies according to the different theories and business models.
Union approaches are responsible for formulating various plans and policies for
the industries. These rules are applicable on the employees to ensure their safety and
security at workplace (Markey, 2018). They have their fixed rules and regulations that

are guiding sources for its employees. The Union trade comprises of same individual
working under the same business culture and enforce their rights according to the
terms of the contract. They are bound to enforce the said rights and obligation towards
each other. It gives priority to the need and demand of the workers so that they can
easily satisfy the organisational goal. The management plays pro active role in
understanding the problems of their workers in relation to their wages, Working
hours, holidays etc. It provides the effective remedy to the employers so that they can
work freely in a safe and healthy environment. Its main objectives is to ensue the safe
working culture so that employees will not be dissatisfied from the policies of the
organisation.
Non Union Approaches: This kind of workplace does not demand any obligation
and does not fall under any union. The workers are not allowed to bargain and
demand their wages, working hours etc. All the decision lie on the management of a
company as they are the superior authority of company. Sometimes, their policies
may dissatisfies the workers that leads to high employment turnover in a company.
They have their own set of rules and regulation and priority is always given to the
decision of the management.
However, union have all the power lies on its workers whereas in the non union
employees representation, all power is vested on highest authority of a company. In
union, effective, fair and reasonable decisions are made to establish good working
culture whereas in non trade union, profit earning is the primary objective of this kind
of company (North, 2018). In Union, satisfaction among the workers is the paramount
objective and it offers job security to its workers. In non-trade union, stress and fear
are always remains with the employees.
3.3 Assess evidence linking employee voice and organisational performance referring
to research and examples of organisational practice.
Links between employee voice and organisation performance
Employees voice has significant impact on the organisational performance as it adds
value and build trust of the employees. It a communication channels that ensure the
job satisfaction and improved relation among the employees. Employment voice is the
an essential tool of the management that helps the company to influence the people by

involving them into decision making process. It allows the employees to raise their
voice and raise their problems associated in an organisation to offer them better
solutions.
There are following objectives of employees voice which includes:
 It address the basic rights of an individual to improve their standards of living
at workplace.
 It ensures the organisational performance and improves the function of an
organisation.
 It motivates them towards the common goal of an organisation.
However, it is important for an organisation to encourage the employees towards the
new suggestion and idea (Van Buren III, 2020). It enhance the productivity and
profitability of an organisation. It brings positive change at workplace and helps to
connect with the people so that they can make their opinions and views to impart
better knowledge towards the success of an organisation. It includes reviews of
policies, procedures and other mechanism that are relevant for creating an leadership
behaviour in the organisation.
Conclusions
From the above activity it is concluded that, Employment voice is the way of
communicating with people for influence them at workplace. It make interaction and
build strong relation with each other. It boost the morale of employees and create trust
and confidence among people. The major difference between the pluralist and
unitarist approach is that it is a blueprint that influence the behaviour and perception
of an individual working at workplace. Union approaches are responsible for
formulation of different plans and policies for the industries. These rules ensure their
safety and security of employees at workplace
Recommendations
It is recommended that the adaption to the dynamic conditions of the market
will result in agile behavior of the employees. Voice inclusion in the business or

organization is recommended for the employees. It can also promote conversations
that are trust worthy for the employees as it helps in promoting and encouraging
voice of employees and to improve their productivity. The workforce should become
cooperative towards each other. They are recommended to recognize the poor
working conditions in order to make them better for the workforce.
REFERENCES
Aloisi, A. and Gramano, E., 2019. Workers without workplaces and unions without
unity: Non-standard forms of employment, platform work and collective
bargaining. Employment Relations for the 21st Century, Bulletin of Comparative
Labour Relations, 107.
Bratton, A., Robertson, J. and Paulet, R., 2022. Environmental leadership
reconceptualised: The role of employee voice in the emergence of environmental
leadership.
Guarriello, F. and Stanzani, C., 2018. Trade Union and Collective Bargaining In
Multinationals From International Legal Framework To Empirical Research. Trade
Union and Collective Bargaining In Multinationals From International Legal
Framework To Empirical Research, pp.1-277.
Holland, P., Teicher, J. and Donaghey, J. eds., 2019. Employee voice at work.
Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany: Springer.

Markey, R., 2018. Introduction: Global patterns of participation. In Models of
Employee Participation in a Changing Global Environment (pp. 3-22). Routledge.
Mowbray, P., Wilkinson, A.J. and Tse, H., 2018, July. High Performance Strategy:
Influence on HR Department and Line Managers' Design of Employee Voice.
In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No. 1, p. 11034). Briarcliff
Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
North, D.C., 2018. Partnership as a means to improve economic performance.
In Evaluation & Development (pp. 3-8). Routledge.
Poole, M., 2021. Theories of trade unionism: a sociology of industrial relations.
Routledge.
Schlachter, M., 2019. Trade union representation for new forms of
employment. European Labour Law Journal, 10(3), pp.229-239.
Van Buren III, H.J., 2020. The value of including employees: a pluralist perspective
on sustainable HRM. Employee Relations: The International Journal.