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Keele ID:10019525/1 Subject Code: HRM10007 Kahn-Freund (1983:18) argues that the relations between an employer and isolated

employee or worker is typically a relation between a bearer of power and one who is not a bearer of power. Discuss with reference to the key institutions influencing the employment relationship and the three perspectives.

Employment relationship describes the relationship between employers and employees in the workplace. These may be formal such as procedural agreements and contracts of employment or it may be informal for example psychological contract, it is the basic understanding and expectation between managers and employer of what they have to offer and willing to deliver in the workplace (Kessler and Undy, 1996). The definition of employment relationship is defined as an economic, social and political relationship in which employees are responsible to put in effort and provide skill to the employer in return with a salary or a wage provided by the employer (Gospel and Palmer, 1993). There is a list of key characteristics that may vary the employment relationship. Firstly, the type of organization in which the employment relationship involved. For example, the requirements needed of employees are different from public sector, private sector and non-profit organization. Next, the types of job profession and the nature of the tasks performed by the employee. For instance, from airline pilot to cleaning operator, different tasks performed by these different types of employee are the main issue in the employment relationship such as qualification of education, working experienced and training period. Next, the location of work is performed. Like airline pilot are usually away from their main workplace and more than one-third of managers and one-fifth of professional employees are able to work from home (Cully et al., 1999). Besides that, the total working hours has dedicated to the employment relationship and the extents of relationship vary considerably. As the Page 1

Keele ID:10019525/1 Subject Code: HRM10007 ratio of part time jobs in UK doubled between 1994 and 1999 (European Commission Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affair, 2000). The rapid growth in part-time working has been accompanied by an increase in number of lower standard of employee with a minimum qualification compared to the traditional permanent employee (Cully et al., 1999). Following by the rewards that are given by the employer are different according to the description of employment relationship and also the individual characteristic of the employee during work (Armstrong and Murlis, 1998). Besides that, there are different position in the organization and different level of power in the employment relationship, which occurred between the employee and the employer. The status and the importance of employee vary based on their job tasks. As the cleaner and the consultant are from two different level of society and cleaners are normally easier to find a replacement when they leave. Last but not least, the level of success of the employment relationship will effect the employing organization and the economy. An employment contract is certified when an offer of employment is made and is accepted by both parties. It must be justified the difference between workers who work under a contract of employment is a contract of services whereas for those who work under a contract for services. The importance of contract is for whoever that work under a contract of employment are officially permitted to a series of employment rights while those that work under a contract for services do not enjoy. Some examples of the rights are, maternity leave, minimum notice periods, parental leave etc. The duty of employee is to be responsibly when they are at work means that if they are absence without reasonable justification the employee is consider as breaching the contract of employment. The duty of employers are mostly derived Page 2

Keele ID:10019525/1 Subject Code: HRM10007 from the common law such as treat employees equally with trust and confidence, provide references and protect employees. There are three institutions that influence the employment relationship. Firstly, the trade union is a combination of employees or independent organization that voice out to maintain relations between employees and employers in order to develop the good industrial relation, develop a countrys economic and employer relationship and at the same time solving problems to increase the productivity of work which benefits both parties. One of the well-known definition of trade unions was invented by Sidney and Webb in 1920, the formation and existence of an employee associations is to remain or improve the condition of their working lives (Employee Relations). Describing trade unions and their functions are usually a subject to a qualitative analysis, which fully make use of the concept of unionateness (Blackburn, 1967). The unions normally negotiate on behalf of their members for wages and conditions, emphasizing on the importance of policing and monitoring agreements (Danford et al., 2005). They usually represent their members in cases such as disciplinary action or discrimination but the employees blame the unions when it cant get good result of cases. Secondly, the government acts as an institution to influence the employment relationship. The policies of the current government in a country are clearly influential in establishing the legal, social and political context of human resource management and shaped by the fundamental political ideology and party political divisions (Salamon, 2000). The direct influence of government can be seen in the employment legalization that restricts the ability of managers to act in a certain way. For instance by imposing minimum standard of employment. The indirect influence Page 3

Keele ID:10019525/1 Subject Code: HRM10007 may restrict from its position as the regulator of trade, foreign investment and industry. For example, the governments support for the incoming and outgoing foreign direct investment and it will determine the exposure of local firms to foreign management practices and, eventually, it shape and regulates the labour market. Which means in order to attract foreign investors, government might weaken the regulation of labour market as an incentive. The government acts as an employer to the public sector and in the extent to set an example to the private sector firms. Other issues that may affect the management practice are the attitudes of government against trade unions and the level of interference in social policy beyond employment, for example the level and focus of investment in education, the training and the provision of social welfare. Therefore, the constancy of the government policies and of the wider political system also shapes the context in which management operate. Lastly is the employer organization. It is the fundamental of an employers organization has been represent its members at multi-employer collective bargaining with trade unions, which normally lead to industry-wide collective agreements for terms and conditions of work. Meanwhile, they still provide a means to represent the common interests of their members to the trade unions recognized within an industry, even though the multi-employer bargaining no longer takes place. Eventually the employer organization have to adapt due to structural change which related to the changes of industrial and the levels at which collective bargaining occurs and they are able to protect an important role, particularly in relation to serve the specialized needs of smaller organization. There are three different perspectives that dominated employee relationships, Unitarism, Pluralism and Marxism. The definition for unitarism is the opinion of the organization as a team unified by a common purpose, Page 4

Keele ID:10019525/1 Subject Code: HRM10007 that common purpose being the success of the organization (Fox, 1974). The characteristic of unitarism is the employees of the organization always work as a team, everyone have the same goal to accomplish. Next, there is only one authority that is being the management of an organization. For an example, the ideology of unitarism may be practical to the others managements decisions are always right and if theres anyone against them and those people are either misguided or misunderstood (Rose, 2008). Besides that, no conflict should be happened unless miscommunication happened or there is someone who is not cooperative. Alternatively, the management and the employees are encouraged to think of the organization or the society as a team where the employer will take good care or them and make decision according to the common interest of all employees (Guest and Conway, 1999). By doing this, the managers are in a way to substitute for unions by protect their welfare and diminished the needs for union presence. Pluralism is an organization formed by different department with different skills and tasks. The groups have both shared and diverse interests and goal. The organization is lead by the management but the employee has the authority to discuss and solve the problems together but the domination of management will change over time. Natural conflicts are avoidable but it happens within limits and it is healthy because the expressions are genuine and sincere so that it will help to improve the organization. For instance, if conflict of interests happen, it should be resolved according to the rules, negotiation and collective bargaining. Meanwhile, the formation of trade union is a legitimate representative to protect their rights. Marxist is the relationship between capital labour based on class conflict. The ideology of Marxist is different class of people in the organization is marked by Page 5

Keele ID:10019525/1 Subject Code: HRM10007 different conflicts of interest. The fundamental of power are imbalance and it lies with the employer which reflecting an unequal relationship. The conflict within the society often happened due to clashing conflict of interest. The arguments may be solved but fundamental of conflict remains until the change of structure of organization or society (Salamon 2000:9). Therefore, the social society was fighting to break the status and the employee relations processes do not fundamentally change the status of class. Instead, the trade unions were being cooperatives to maintain the status quo. At true workplace in the society, the democracy is impossible without the worker control and means of production. In the nutshell, one can conclude that the employer relations in most of the organization are isolated between employer and employee by power, status and conflict. Besides that, the different organization practicing different ways of perspective to manage the organization in order to maximize the production and meanwhile, maximizing the utilities of workers. (1613 words)

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Keele ID:10019525/1 Subject Code: HRM10007 References 1. Webb, S. & Webb, B., 1920. The History of Trade Unionism. London: Longman. 2. Hollinshead, G., Nicholls, P., & Tailby., S., 2003. Employee Relation. 2nd ed. England: Peason Edition Limited. 3. Blackburn, R.M., 1967. Union Character and Social Class. London: Batsford. 4. Cully, M., Woodland, S., OReilly, A. & Dix, G., 1999. Britain at Work, As Depicted by the 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey. London: Routlege. 5. Gospel, H.F. & Palmer, G. 1993. British Industrial Relations. London: Routlege. 6. Rose, E. 2008. Employment Relations. 3rd ed. Harlow: FT Prentice Hall 7. Salamon, M. 2000. Industrial Relations. 4th ed. Harlow: Financial Times Prentice Hall 8. European Commission Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs. 2000. European Economy: Supplement B: Business and Consumer Survey Result, No.1, January.

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Keele ID:10019525/1 Subject Code: HRM10007 9. Cully, M., OReilly, A., Millward, N., Forth, J., Woodland, S., Dix, G. & Bryson, A. 1999. The 1998 Workplace Employee Relations Survey: First Findings [Online] (cited 23 June 2002) Available at: http://www.dti.gov.uk/er/emar/ffind.pdf [Accessed 12th March 2011] 10. Armstrong, M. & Murlis, H. 1998. Reward Management: A handbook of remuneration strategy and practice. 4th ed. London: Kogan Page 11. Wilton, N. 2011. Human Resource Management. London: Sage Publications Ltd. 12. Cullinane, N. & Dundon, T. 2006. The phychological contract: A critical review, International Journal of Management Review, 8(2): 113-29. 13. Fox, A. 1974. Beyond Contract: Power and Trust Relations. London: Faber & Faber. 14. Guest, D. & Conway, N. 1999. Peering into the black hole. The downside of the new employee relations in the UK, British Journal of Industrial Relations, 37(3): 367-89. 15. Danford, A., Richardson, M., Stewart, P., Tailby, S. & Upchurch, M. 2005. Partnership and the High Performance Workplace: Work and Employment Relations in the Aerospace Industry. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. 16. Armstrong, M. 1999. A Handbook of Human Resource Management Practice. 7th ed. London: Kogan Page Limited. Page 8

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