Employment Relations Theories

Frederick Taylor (1917) developed scientific management theory (often called "Taylorism") at the beginning of this century. His theory had four basic principles: 1) find the one "best way" to perform each task, 2) carefully match each worker to each task, 3) closely supervise workers, and use reward and punishment as motivators, and 4) the task of management is planning and control.

Maintaining a strong employer and employee relationship can be the key to the ultimate success of an organisation. It is known that if a strong relationship is in place employees will be more productive, more efficient, create less conflict and will be more

When an employee starts a new company, there are several external and internal factors that impact on the employment relationship. Relationships affect both management and worker’s performance. The quality of these relationships have an effect on the organisation.

An employment relationship is a linkage between employer and employees. Through this linkage a reciprocal relationship is built upon and when reciprocity is lacking it is detrimental to both employee and employer. It is this law of reciprocity, when someone does something nice for you; you do something nice in return that keeps American society maintained and running. Therefore, this theory of reciprocity is very important in today’s society when it comes to handling business. In Jeffrey Pfeffer’s journal article ‘Human Resources from an Organizational Behavior Perspective: Some Paradoxes Explained’, he discusses the pervasive distrust employees have with employers. In Daniel Pink’s book, Drive: The Surprising Truth about What Motivates Us,

Define the following types of work: Permanent, Temporary, Fixed Term, - explain the main features of each and why determining an individual’s employment status is important

Page 2 - Describe 4 factors, 2 internal and 2 external, which impact on the employment relationship

Poor working conditions of the Industrial Era and the capitalist drive to continuously obtain more profits (Whyte, 2009, pg. 224), unions were formed to prevent the exploitation of the working class. Unions want to maintain the standard of living and job security for workers, while company owners want to gain more personal profit. Businesses are in constant competition with each other, therefore when one business develops a new scheme to increase profits, other businesses will follow suit to maintain competition (Whyte, 2009, pg. 149). Unions prevent financial growth in organizations, leading to business using their power to prevent the organization of unions.

Theory X and Theory Y, developed by Douglas McGregor, grew out of opposition towards classical management methods. Classical management theorists, such as Fredrick Taylor, focused on scientific training and efficiency and did not account for personal and behavioral issues, such as management styles or job satisfaction. McGregor saw these deficiencies in the classical school of management which lead him to develop a theory of management that would factor the importance of the individual worker. If a manager could tap into the feelings and attitudes of their workers, then the manager would be able increase their employee’s motivation which would then increase production. McGregor’s theory viewed the employee as a person and not as a machine

Scientific Management is also known as Taylorism. Fredrick Winslow Taylor wanted to divide the work process into small, simple and separate steps (Division of Labor). Division of Labor meant every worker only had one or two steps, this was created to boost productivity. Taylor also believed in Hierarchy, he wanted a clear chain of command that separated the managers from workers. He did this so managers would design work process and enforced how the work was performed and employees would simply follow directions. Taylor wanted to select and train high performing workers or first-class employees and match them to a job that best suited them. Taylor believed the most productive workers should be paid more. Employees who could not meet the new higher standard were fired.

An employment relationship describes the dynamic, interlocking economic, legal, social and psychological relations that exist between individuals and their work organizations. Palgrave Macmillan (2013), Glossary [online] Available at: < http://www.palgrave.com/business/brattonandgold/glossary/glossary.htm> [Accessed 17th September 2013]. Factors that impact on this relationship both have a detrimental effect to the running of a business. I will focus on two internal and two external. These being:

Employment relation is one of the vital and critical parts of HRM. For making an effective and healthy relationship between employers and employees, it is important to understand the perception of employment relations along with its importance in an organisation (Wang & Chen, 2005). Thus, if an organisation fails to understand its significance of employment relations and unable to manager employer and employee relationship efficiently, this might lead to impact on the organisation power and will deter its strength and profitability. According to Singh (2011), employee relations is basically a study of regulations, agreements and rules through which employees are accomplished with collective and individual group, importance imposed to individual

There are many Management Theorists who have devised ways in which a business can achieve success efficiently. The two management theorists that I am going to talk about are Fredrick Winslow Taylor and Max Weber, and I will also compare and contrast their contributions to the field of management. There are 4 main classical theories in management which are: 1. Scientific Management 2. Bureaucracy 3. Administrative Management 4. Human Relations. The two that I will be focusing on for this assignment are Scientific Management and Bureaucracy. Frederick Taylor (March 20th, 1856-March 21st, 1915) was an American Engineer. He sought to improve industrial efficiency in the workplace. The birth of Scientific Method is attributed to Taylor and his main

The year 1911 saw Frederick Winslow Taylor publish a book titled ‘The principles of scientific management’ in which he aimed to prove that the scientific method could be used in producing profits for an organization through the improvement of an employee’s efficiency. During that decade, management practice was focused on initiative and incentives which gave autonomy to the workman. He thus argued that one half of the problem was up to management, and both the worker and manager needed to cooperate in order to produce the greatest prosperity.

Scientific Management Theory by Frederick W. Taylor – Throughout the industrial world employees are the large part of the organisation and Fundamental interests of employees are necessarily aggressive. So as a manager it is necessary to arrange mutual relations with employees so their interests become identical. In case of any single individual the greatest prosperity can exist only when that individual has reached his highest state of efficiency and that is, when he is turning out his largest daily output (Frederick Winslow Taylor, 2007).

The relationship between employers and employees has long been the subject of widespread study and debate within the business world. This employment relationship can be defined as a complex system in which social, economic and political factors combine with an employee who exchanges mental and manual labour for rewards allocated by the employer (Encarta Encyclopaedia Deluxe. 2004). Industrial relations and human resource management advocates have traditionally held different views on the subject of organisational conflict. Many authors have argued that organisational conflict is inevitable in most work settings and that the employment relationship is essentially a trade-off ground (Alexander and Lewer, 1998; Deery, Plowman, Walsh and Brown