i will give the assignment details in chat
Chapter 1 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e . HRMT19021 Principles of Employment Relations 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Chapter 1 WHAT IS EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS? * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Learning objectives Discuss why the study of employment relations is important Distinguish between the ‘commonsense’ definition of industrial relations and the ‘theoretically informed’ definition of employment relations Explain the nature of the open-ended and indeterminate nature of the employment relationship * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Define rules and their role in the employment relationship Provide examples of employment relations situations and events Learning objectives * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Chapter overview Commonsense, industrial relations and employment relations Examples of employment relations situations The nature of the employment relationship The distinctiveness of employment relations * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e What is ‘commonsense’ industrial relations? Sensational: dramatic and newsworthy Collectivist: involves group behaviour by employees and the activities of trade unions Conflictual: involves disagreement and protest, even violence—union members protest against employer’s actions and employer responds (e.g. police protection, court action) 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e From industrial to employment relations Such connotations are misleading and, often, simply not accurate Most of the time the relationship is all about routine, everyday actions and practices Cooperation is more common than conflict in the workplace * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e The Business Council of Australia (BCA) argued that: … industrial relations assumes employers and employees are inherently at loggerheads, and that, in the public interest, the outcome of their relationship in the workplace must be regulated in detail, both to protect employees and to control wages and otherwise avoid disrupting the economy. As a result, the main concerns of industrial relations are with pay and conditions and the resolution of disputes. (BCA 1989, p. 5) But is this really true? From industrial to employment relations * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e From industrial to employment relations When putting forward the rationale for the WorkChoices reforms, the then-Minister for Workplace Relations, Kevin Andrews, stated: Continued workplace reform is essential to improve productivity and support high levels of employment. The Howard government wants to continue the shift away from an ‘old industrial relations’ system where the rights of employers and employees were controlled and could only be changed by industrial tribunals together with lawyers, unions and employer associations. (Andrews 2006) * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e From industrial to employment relations … there is a developing consensus around the proposition that IR [industrial relations] as traditionally conceived is too closely associated with a narrow concern with unions and collective bargaining and that a more modern and wider appellation is needed. The leading candidate appears to be ‘employment relations’. (Giles 2000, p. 55) * Most people have a ‘commonsense’ idea of IR (perhaps flash up a picture of a picket line here) in terms of confrontation, but it is rarely that. Most of the time, routine cooperation between employer and employee prevails. Many have struggled to get a useful definition. Initial focus is usually on job regulation—how the rules about the terms and conditions of work are set. The definition has developed, over the past few decades, owing to: 1. the decline in trade unionism, and the growth in non-unionised work, which creates new issues for employers and employees in resolving their industrial problems 2. the rapid development of human resource management as a set of practices as well as an academic field of study 3. the return of quantitative labour economics, which locates IR within the context of a labour market Accordingly, the definition of IR has broadened: the general consensus is that IR/ER is concerned not only with job regulation, but with the entire context in which the employment relationship is determined. 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Searching for a definition Definitions are important: they set the scope of the study and practice Many attempts have been made to provide a comprehensive and reflective definition of employment relations: Job regulation (legally oriented) Social relations at work (psychologically oriented) But employment relations is more than just the study of rules or of social relations at work: it is both * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e What is employment relations? The study of the employment relationship Formal and informal rules that regulate the employment relationship Rule-making—but more than just rule-making Incorporates aspects of the individual employer–employee relationship * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e What is employment relations? Collective bargaining by employees and their unions is important but is not the whole story Absence of unions or collective action does not mean employment relations disappears It is more than sensational, collectivist and conflictive * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Why study employment relations? ‘Work’ is a fundamental feature of life We are judged by what we do, and form opinions of others based on their occupations Work has social, psychological, economic, legal and political influence Unproductive work practices can be costly to organisations and countries The maximisation of work effort is crucial for organisational well-being It is linked to HRM, but not the same * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e The nature of the employment relationship An employment relationship is created whenever one person sells his/her labour to (and thereby works on behalf of) another person or organisation It is a market transaction: employee agrees to work for employer; employer agrees to pay a wage in return Employees sell their promise to work in the future and their ability to work, rather than completed labour * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e The nature of the employment relationship (cont.) The market transaction is only part of the story: it is expected that the relationship will be ongoing Production relation: an ongoing, ever-changing relationship between employee and employer How, when and under what circumstances work is done Employers must ensure that employees deliver on their agreements Work as hard as promised, or with the promised skills, when they enter the workplace 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e The employment relationship We are interested in both the labour market and the workplace Labour market—ways employees, employers and their representatives determine terms and conditions of employment (e.g. wages, hours) Workplace—strategies that employers use to manage employees at work, the responses of employees to these strategies and the ways that employee representatives (union and non-union) become involved in workplace issues 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e The employment relationship The indeterminacy of the employment relationship establishes a potential source of conflict between employees and employers within the structure of the employment relationship itself Parties must agree on price to be paid or promises made at the time of the transaction, but must also agree on the effort to be expended or the skills to be applied within the workplace Demonstrates the importance of power in the employment relationship 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e The distinctiveness of employment relations There are two main ways to separate the different theoretical approaches to the study of the employment relationship Each approach has its particular: analytical tools ideological perspective 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Alternative approaches to the employment relationship ApproachKey points of analysisIdeological perspective Neoclassical economicsRational economic decisions by individuals based on market pricesEgoist Human resource managementThe organisational leadership and policies required to satisfy the psychological needs of employeesUnitarist MarxismClass struggle and control within the labour processRadical Employment relationsThe rules that regulate the employment relationshipPluralist 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Alternative approaches to the employment relationship Neoclassical economists: interested in the market transaction, neglecting what happens within the firm The production relation is something of a black box Leaves employees free to negotiate individual contracts of employment with their employers, which represent mutually agreeable terms and conditions Relies on assumption that ‘workers and employers are equal in terms of economic power, legal expertise and protections, and political influence’ ‘Egoist’ ideology * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Alternative approaches to the employment relationship Human resource management: psychology and organisational behaviour, combined with emphasis on strategic fit between organisation’s HR strategy and its business strategy ‘Unitarist’ ideology with dual focus Universal psychological needs of individual employees (happiness, social interaction and intellectual stimulation), which management needs to satisfy Management initiatives and organisational policies (enhance employees’ job satisfaction, motivation, work performance and organisational commitment) Based on conservative, pro-management values * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Alternative approaches to the employment relationship Marxism: focuses on class struggle and control Assumes two defining features of the employment relationship under capitalism: The machinery, technology and raw materials necessary for production of goods and services are owned by one class (capitalists) Production requires labour, which capitalists must buy from workers in the form of labour power ‘Radical’ ideology; anti-management * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd Bray, Waring, Cooper, Macneil, Employment Relations 4e Alternative approaches to the employment relationship Employment relations: adopts analytical tools from ‘institutionalist’ theoretical tradition Assumes attitudes and behaviours of employees and employers can be understood by focusing on the ‘rules’ that regulate the employment relationship The definition therefore becomes: the study of the formal and informal rules which regulate the employment relationship and the social processes which create and enforce these rules ‘Pluralist’ ideology (employees and employers having both common and conflicting interests) * 1-* Copyright © 2017 McGraw-Hill Education (Australia) Pty Ltd