Advanced Business Policy, OD and ADR
be centralized or decentralized and the scope of areas to covered by collective bargaining;
2. Employee relations procedures
The nature and scope of procedures for redundancy, grievance handling and discipline;
3. Participation and involvement
The extent to which the organization is prepared to give employees a voice on matters that concern them;
4. Partnership
The extent to which a partnership approach is thought to be desirable;
5. The employment relationship
The extent to which terms and conditions of employment should be governed by collective agreements or based on individual contracts of employment (i.e. collectivism versus individualism);
6. Harmonization of terms and conditions of employment for staff and manual workers; Harmonization is the process of introducing the same conditions of employment for all employees. It is distinguished by Roberts (1990) from single status and staff status as follows:
7. Single status is the removal of differences in basic conditions of employment to give all employees equal status. Some organizations take this further by putting all employees into the same pay and grading structure.
8. Staff status is a process whereby manual and craft employees gradually receive staff terms and conditions of employment, usually upon reaching some qualifying standard, for example length of services
9. Harmonization means the reduction of differences in the pay structure and other employment conditions between categories of employee, usually manual and staff employees. The essence of harmonization’s the adoption of a common approach and criteria to pay and conditions for all employees. It differs from staff status in that, in the process of harmonization; some staff employees may have to accept some of the conditions of employment of manual workers.
10. Working arrangements- the degree to which management has the prerogative to determine working arrangements without reference to trade unions or employees (this includes job-based or functional flexibility)
When formulating policies in these areas, organization may be consciously or unconsciously deciding on the extent to which they want to adopt the HRM approach to employee relations
3.2 Employee relations’ processes and outcomes
Employee relation’s processes according to Michael Armstrong (M. Armstrong 2000) consist of the approaches and methods adopted by employers to deal with employees either collectively through their trade unions or individually. They will be based on the organization’s articulated or implied employee relations policies and strategies. The way in which they are developing and how they function will be influenced by, and will influence, the employee relations’ climate, the concept of which is examined.
Industrial relations processes, that is those aspects of employee relations that are concerned with the dealings between employers and trade unions, consist of;
1. Approaches to recognizing or de-recognizing trade unions;
2. Formal methods of collective bargaining;
3. Partnership as an approach to employee relations;
4. The informal day to day contacts on [next page]