Good Human Resources Management will make a bond with the worker
HR
MANAGEMENT AND UNION RELATIONSHIP.
Good Human Resources Management will make
a bond with the worker:
The increasing
importance of people to organisational success corresponds with the rise of
Strategic Human Resource Management (Druker, 2003). Human Resource
Management is a system of activities and strategies that focus on successfully
managing employees at all levels of an organisation to achieve organisational
goals (Byars & Rue, 2006). Employees are the human resources of an
organisation and its most valuable asset. To be successful employer need to
keep employees happy and motivated, then the union involvement will be less (Thomas, 2014).
To motivate the employee’s managements has to increase training opportunities, improve the physical working conditions and environment, also has to included opportunity to advance, good employment benefits, time for family life, good income, and being based in a good location (Chandrakant, 2017). In the Video 1, Greg Schinkel (2017) explains that money is not the only motivator for an employee. According to him positive working environment, employee involvement and challenging work will motivate the employees more.
Video1: How to motivate employees.
(Source:
Front Line Leadership, 2017)
The concept of job satisfaction was introduced by the HR
management, which not only should give a balance between private life and
work-life, but also should improve the quality of the work time (Egermann,
2019). When communicating
with younger generation of employees, management must use innovative modern
methodologies (Stanberry, 2011). This will place the employee in a
comfortable zone with the management. When this happens, employee tends to
approach management directly with out going through the union protocols (Dhal,
2015).
When the communication link between employees and employer is not strong enough, the unions take control of the situation and act through joint consultation, worker directors or collective bargaining (Budd et al, 2010). To prevent this from happening management should operate through face-to-face interactions between supervisors/first line managers and their staff or take the form of informal oral or verbal participation and formalised written information or suggestions (Marchington & Wilkinson, 2005). In Video 2, Dr. Alex Lyon (2017) recommends three simple ways of upward communication, namely Simple surveys, Skip-level meetings, and one-on-one meetings.
Video 2: Channels for Upward Communication.
(Source:
Communication Coach, 2017)
Employee
communication and participation will improve organizational outcomes and will
enable the management to make use of employee skills and knowledge to the
maximum extent (Handel & Levine, 2004).
Effective communication will also build trust and transparency between the
employer and employee resulting in betters problem-solving capabilities (Dhal,
2015).
In
the context of HR vs Unions, when the management is looking after employees
with high motivation the employee involvement with the unions will be low (Rau, 2012). When the
management is engaged in solving problems actively by listening to them
directly, employees will find it easy to get their individual issues sorted
without waiting till representatives of union do it for them (Budd et al, 2010).
Job satisfaction and Motivation will help the employer not only in managing the unions but also to improve the productivity of the company (Sgroi, 2015).
Reference:
Budd, J. W., Gollan, P. J. and Wilkinson, A. (2010) ‘New
approaches to employee voice and participation in organisations’, Human
Relations, 63(3), pp. 303–310. doi: 10.1177/0018726709348938.
Byars, L. & Rue, L (2006). Human
Resources Management. New York, McGraw-Hill/Irwin.
Chandrakant, V. (2017)
‘Importance Of Employee Motivation & Job Satisfaction For Organisational
Performance’, International Journal of Social Science &
Interdisciplinary Research, 6(2), pp. 10–20.
Dhal,
M. (2015) HR Practices & Union Management Relationship on JSTOR.
Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24547011?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_
contents.
Druker, J. (2003)
‘Strategy and Human Resource Management’, Management Decision, 41(5),
pp. 523–524. doi: 10.1108/00251740310479368.
Egermann, C. (2019)
‘Applied Econometrics Peking University School of Economics Term Paper WS 2017
/ 18 The effect of employees ’ happiness on their productivity written by
Christoph Egermann Instructor : QIN Xuezheng , PhD’, (January 2018).
Handel, M. &
Levine, D. (2004) The effects of new work practices on workers, Industrial
Relations (43). pp. 1–43.
Marchington
M, Wilkinson A (2005) Direct participation and involvement, Managing Human
Resources, (4). pp. 398–423.
Rau, B. L. (2012) ‘The
diffusion of HR practices in unions’, Human Resource Management Review,
22(1), pp. 27–42. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2011.06.001.
Stanberry, D. M. (2011)
‘Youth and Organising: Why Unions Will Struggle to Organise the Millennials’, Journal
of Law, Technology & The Internet, 2(2), pp. 103–115.
Sgroi, D. (2015). Happiness and Productivity: Understanding the Happy-Productive Worker,SMF-CAGE Global Perspectives Series. pp. 6-18.
Thomas, R. J. (2014)
‘What is Human Resource Management?’, Work Employment & Society,
2(3), pp. 392–402. doi: 10.1177/0950017088002003008.
Arguments are correct with your evidences, but normally employees are looking for direction of the union of their welfare relevant to their finical and occupational concerns(Osibanjo & Adeniji, 2012). But Guest(1989), suggested four HRM policy goals to overcome with issue
ReplyDelete1. Encourage employees for personal performance to loyal the organization
2. Encourage for quality goods and services
3. Ensuring working condition of employees
4. Integrating organization goals to strategic plan
Boxall & Purcell(2000) argue that HRM has to provide anything and everything to associate with employees in an organization. So good HRM is able to make better relationship with employees. Agreed with the arguments.
Yes Thushari, according to SHRM research 2021, good HR strategic planning include the following:
Delete1.Avoiding costly and disruptive surprises that interfere with achieving goals.
2.Addressing key issues in a timely manner to avoid crises.
3.Promoting employee productivity and overall organisational success.
4.Providing a sense of direction to positively affect how work gets done.
5.Keeping employees focused on organisational goals.
6.Providing a strategic focus to guide training and development initiatives.
7.Giving leaders tools to help focus and implement their strategic initiatives.
Accordingly to nidirecr.gov.uk (NA), When an employer recognizes a union, members have the right to participate in trade union activities including voting in ballots on industrial action, voting in union elections, meeting to discuss urgent matters, attending the annual conference.
ReplyDeleteAmila, a union is deemed recognised when an employer agrees to negotiate with the union on matters of pay and working conditions for the workers represented by the union. Recognition may be voluntary or statutory. Voluntary recognition implies an employer agrees to recognise a union without the use of any legal procedures. Statutory recognition implies a union must make an application to be recognised (Quinn, 2013).
DeleteInterestingly, the new empirical studies establishing neutral or positive associations between unions and employee satisfaction have appeared at the tail end of a steep decline in the number of workers covered by collective agreements in Britain (Bryson, Freeman, Gomez and Willman, 2017). And yet, British employers appear to still value worker input into decision making processes, as evidenced by the fact that since the early 1980s the percentage of workplaces (and workers) with some formal mechanisms for employees to express their voice has remained steady at around 80 percent (Willman et al., 2006; Bryson and MacKerron, 2016). This is due to the surge in non-union forms of voice, most of which involve direct forms of two-way communication between employees and management but which include representative structures as well (Gollan et al., 2015).
ReplyDeleteAccording to Kashyap (2019), communication is so important in the workplace because It avoids confusion, provides purpose, builds a positive company culture and It creates accountability. Communication at workplace defines organisational goals and helps coworkers collaborate.
DeleteAgreed on the point discussed that when the communication link between employees and employer is not strong enough, the unions take control of the situation. As explained by Yarrington, Townsend and Brown, (2007) representatives from both the union and the organization agree that managers play a critical role in the development and maintenance of positive partnerships. More precisely, it appears that competent managers' pluralistic tendencies and line managers' education in IR ( Industrial Relations) issues are becoming increasingly important in fostering successful union-management interactions.
ReplyDeleteShanil as you have correctly said, Effective communication is key to maintain control. The roll of line managers to maintain the flow of communication and positive partnership is pivotal. If the link breaks at this level the harmonic existence of union and management will not be possible (Budd et al, 2010).
DeleteI do agree with you. According to Strikwerda (2021) maintaining good relations with employees is very important and there are ways that human resource management can consider in maintaining such relationships. They are promoting open dialogue, focusing on company strategic direction, providing feedback, inspiring and rewarding, offering career development, promoting work-life balance and eliminating mistakes.
ReplyDeleteSumeera if I may add to the idea of work life balance, there is no ideal work life balance; everyone is different and the ‘right’ balance may alter over time as families grow older and personal commitments change. Having options about how work is organised makes managing work and life demands possible by allowing employees to work in non-traditional work patterns and locations that better fit their personal commitments. Overall quality of life improves and businesses also benefit from employees’ higher morale and commitment (Suman, 2011).
DeleteAdding to your argument, Job satisfaction is a fulfilling or optimistic expression of the consideration of one’s activity (Azash et al, 2011). Organisations today have realised the importance of motivated and satisfied employees as important contributors towards long term objectives. It has made organisations to cater to the expectations and needs of the employees and could expect the similar response. Motivation also positively influences performance at individual and group level ultimately affecting the organisational performance (Risambessy et al 2012).
ReplyDeleteAgree, Human resource management can play an important role in building strong employee relationships (Renold, 2007). As they can conduct activities that allow employees to work with each other as well as managers.
ReplyDelete