foundation of HRM

Bennett-Alexander, D., & Hartman, L. (2009). Employment law for business. (6 ed., pp. 247-249). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.

PA402: Employment Law Unit 3: The Employment Relationship - Shewin Memorandum Your Course Project: Read About the Shewin Memorandum

Employment Law helps to govern the relationships between the employee and the employer with relations to guidelines.

• WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW How an employer and employee (you) are governed by the terms and conditions contained within a contract of employment (this may not be in writing). •

It is important to establish the nature of the employment relationship as this is key to determining the employment rights to which an individual is entitled. In employment law a persons employment status helps determine;

A fixed term contract employee is someone that will work for the organisation for a period of time, this could be for a certain project, maternity cover or at a peak period for the business. The organisation will provide an employee with a contract stating the purpose of the role with start and end dates

Over the last two centuries the relationship between organizations and their employees have changed as the result of interactions between the two groups and in response to changing governmental legislation. During this period, labor unions arose to advocate for workers and address the inherent power imbalance between individual workers and organizations (Thornton, 2013). In workplaces were unions represent employees, Foss (2008), defines labor relations as the “ongoing interchange between the union and the employer that identifies their common and specific interests and creates mechanism to clarify, mange, reduce and resolve conflicts over their specific interests” (p. 1). The legal framework governing the practice of labor relations is

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

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:

According to (Bray, Waring, & Cooper, 2011), the first strength of pluralist form of employee relationship is that it diffuses of power among the bargaining parties in that no party has total control over the others. This relationship involves people with different goals, aspirations and interests, which differentiate them from each other. On the other hand, the power and the authority of the groups involve have similarity to an extent that no sole party can control the others. This form of relationship leads the employees to be exempted from suppression by the employers. Employees or the management, on the other side, should not anticipate suppressing any opinion or ideas of the employees that might conflict with other organizational goal. This form of employment relationship mainly aspires to unite conflicting opinions, ideas and goals, thus, keeping the conflict within a considerable and acceptable bound. As a result, in any case the conflict cannot interfere with the organization goal of the

Employers must respect the role of the union as the only and restricted agent of the employees. Respect between the employer and the union, on behalf of its employees, is the key to a successful relationship. The association between parties must adhere to the employer 's exclusive right to manage its operations and to direct its workforces. Both parties must identify and acknowledge their respective rights and obligations under labor and service legislation and, under a cooperative agreement, the rights and duties of the employees covered by this agreement (HR in an Unionized Workplace).

At the two furthest ends of the spectrum MacNeil (1985) identifies the two types of contract that underpin the employment relationship, transactional and relational. A transactional contract is a means to an end view, it denotes an attitude of ‘money comes first’, working in order to get paid and receive other work benefits. They aren’t concerned with being a ‘good organisational citizen’ or going the extra mile to stand out. Their only concerns are being paid and receiving their holidays. It is a contract based on fairly specifiable obligations.

The history of HRM had its beginnings in the early 1800s in England. In the pre industrial era, the apprentice worked and lived in close proximity with the master craftsman who looked after his needs. During the Industrial Revolution in the 18th century, manufacturing underwent a sea change when machines were used in large factories to manufacture goods. Later, in the 19th century, Frederick W. Taylor propounded the theory of scientific management that studied workflows scientifically to improve economic efficiency and significantly improve labor productivity. Taylor recommended that the combination of scientific management and industrial psychology of workers. Taylor proposed that workers should be managed not only for

Besides, power imbalance between employer and employee in the workplace seems to be unavoidable. As noted by Wilkinson et al. (2014), employees are citizens who have the right to be informed and consulted; therefore, the aim of employee voice is to communicate with management and express employees’ concerns about their work situation. Nevertheless, in recent years, decreasing union density has gradually shifted the form of voice in most organisations and countries from collective and unionized channels to direct and individualized mechanisms (Wilkinson et al., 2014).

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