HRM - Literature 2 Flashcards
Diversity
Diversity as a concept refers to the “difference” between people. Kirton and Greene (2016) differentiate between collective diversity, mostly associated with social groups, and individual or “deeper level” diversity.
The social justice case for equality
The social justice case for equality holds that organisations have a moral and legal obligation, regardless of profit, to recognise diversity and to develop policies and procedures to ensure that people are treated fairly and equitably in all facets of the business.
The diversity management perspective
The diversity management perspective holds that organisations should recognise difference as positive organisational factor and should foster, value and utilise this difference for the benefit of the organisation.
The diversity management perspective evolves around the belief that difference should be recognized as positive. Further, it should be nurtured by cultural transformation of the organisation rather than a reliance on legal regulation.
The social justice perspective
The social justice perspective involves viewing diversity within the broader context of morality and fairness. It is largely associated with the introduction of equality legislation to counter discrimination against those social groups that are recognised as suffering from disadvantage or discrimination in the labour market.
Benefits/drawbacks of a more diverse workforce?
Having a more diverse workforce can have a positive effect on financial performance, innovation, ways of viewing problems, turnover and productivity. The perception of an organisation as welcoming diversity can also generate a more positive public image of the company, which in turn can impact its appeal to the most talented potential employees, as well as enable organisations to stay in tough with what appeals to a broad customer base.
Some challenges of having a diverse workforce include possible increases in training and development costs, the potential for increased conflict between employees, and claims of reverse discrimination.
Equality
In broad terms, equality is the state of being equal, particularly concerning status, rights or opportunities.
Discrimination
Discrimination focuses on treating a person or group differently, or unfairly, based on certain traits or characteristics, such as sexuality, gender, race, religion or disability. Research has shown that unequal treatment in the workplace often stems from discrimination in wider society and can take many forms.
Social inclusion
Social inclusion is a measure of the extent to which a person or group can participate in aspects of society to the same level as (or relative to) the average population. Key measures of social inclusion are access to work, adequate housing, education levels and access to education, healthcare and so on.
Human capital explanations of a person’s competitiveness in the labour market are based on an analysis of the combination of:
- qualifications
- skills
- competencies
- relevant work experience
Human capital factors cannot be considered without taking the social, cultural and institutional context of any labour market into account. Unfairness in the allocation of jobs and promotions occurs as a consequence of the way opportunity has been embedded in societal norms. Thus, inequality is views as socially constructed rather than based on objective criteria.
Institutional barriers
Institutional barriers to employment result from dominant structures, systems and rules that can act to limit access and opportunity for certain people in the workplace. Indeed, the accepted unwritten norm that a committed worker is one for whom temporal barriers do not exist has been shown to disadvantage women in many professions in terms of advancement and pay. It also discourages men from availing themselves of flexible work practices for fear of being overlooked for promotion, or conversly, being selected for redundancy. Other institutional barriers that have been identified are the traditional ways of being business, and making an impression on the boss by association with the “old boys” network.
Three explanations for inequality summary: Human capital factors; Socially constructed factors; Institutionally factors
! The effects of the various factors on equality vary across countries. The three explanations of inequality should not be viewed in isolation, as they are, in fact interrelated and interwoven with cultural norms and the context of any given geography. E.g., In Ireland, there is an absence of state support for childcare in comparison to most other European Countries. Childcare costs in Ireland rank among the highest in Europe, which is insignificant in contrast to many of the Scandinavian countries, which have state-supported childcare and paid leave for parents.
Human capital factors:
- formal qualifications
- acquired skills
- work experience
- formal and informal training and development, e.g., workshops, on-the-job training, coaching, mentoring.
Socially constructed factors:
- Accepted social and cultural norms, e.g., women as careers
- prejudice and attitudes, e.g., racism, ageism;
- self-perception as “inferior”, e.g., a member of a traditionally excluded minority ethnic group may have low expectations;
- Prevailing political ideology.
Institutionally factors:
- Rules and legislation, e.g., prohibiting refugees from work;
- lack of relevant support such as childcare, funded training, transport for disabled people;
- membership of professional associations with restricted entry;
- informal “customs” that facilitate progression, e.g., “old boys” network, golf club outings;
- lack of protective legislation.
Protected grounds
Protected grounds are grounds identified by national institutions as relating to areas where discrimination has or is likely to occur, such as race, sex, sexual orientation, religion, age and disability, and which are subsequently covered by equality legislation.
A comparator
A comparator is a person or group that someone making a claim of discrimination will compare themselves to, to demonstrate that they have been treated differently/unfairly, using that comparator as a standard.
Direct discrimination
Direct discrimination is discrimination that is obviously contrary to the terms of equality legislation, e.g., explicitly excluding people over 45 from applying for a job.
Indirect discrimination
Indirect discrimination occurs when a seemingly neutral provision attached to a job acts to exclude a person or group protected under equality legislation: e.g., a requirement for people to be over 1.9 tall for a job would effectively exclude more women than men.
Positive discrimination/positive actions debates
Positive discrimination is the preferential discriminatory treatment of a minority group over a majority group to try and counter disadvantages in the labour market.
Positive actions, on the other hand, are measures taken, with the aim of achieving full and effective equality for members of groups that are socially or economically disadvantaged. It differs from positive discrimination in that it does not seek to discriminate in favour of disadvantaged groups at the expense of others, but seeks to enhance the employability and labour market competitiveness of certain groups in particular national contexts.
A reward system
A reward system describes the way an organisation uses a combination of financial and non-financial elements to compensate employees for their time, effort and commitment to work. The reward system is shpaed by the organisation’s philosophy, strategy, competition, ability to pay and legal responsibilities.
The objectives of the reward system are to:
- Support the organisation by designing policies aligned with organisational strategies and goals;
- Attract and retain employees who add value to the organisation by offering an attractive reward package;
- Motivate employees to perform effectively to achieve valued organisational outcomes by applying policies in a fair and consistent way;
- Integrate with other HR policies, including career development and work-life balance
- Comply with legislation.
The reward package
The reward package is the specific financial and non-financial elements that are offed to an employee in return for labour. There is an increasing need for reward packages to both match employee expectations and suit the changing needs of the business because labour costs are a significant part of the total costs for most organisations.
Components and elements of the reward package:
Financial rewards:
1) Direct pay
-base pay; overtime; premium pay
- Performance-related pay - merit pay; piecework; bonuses; commission; team-based bonus; profit-sharing; gainsharing; share options
2) Indirect pay (benefits)
- Statutory (legally required) - Holiday pay; maternity leave; Carers leave; Parental leave
-Organisation specific - health insurance; sickness days; pensions; Employee assistance programmes; Subsidized canteen; Crèche
Nonfinancial rewards:
Job security; Career development; Recognition and awards; Work-life balance
Direct pay
The largest component of the reward package. The main element of direct pay is base pay, which is the hourly, weekly or monthly amount paid to an employee if they conform to the terms of their contract. Employees can also be offered overtime if they work more than the number of legally designated hours, and premium pay, if they work shifts at antisocial hours that cause hardship.
Performance-related pay (PRP)
Another component of direct pay, which is paid when predefined objectives are achieved and is linked to the performance of an individual, team or employee. PRP can also be consolidates into base pay to permanently increase an employee’s salary when objectives are met. PRP is variable as it is only received if the goals are achieved. Base pay recognises past achievements, education and years of service, while PRP motivates future actions.
Advantages of PRP are that it allows the reward package to be responsible for the needs of the organisation, it can focus on the behaviours valued by the organisation and can recognise high performance through pay.
A disadvantage of PRP is that it works well for routine tasks but is less effective for more complex, creative and conceptual tasks. Furthermore, PRP can be argued to work as a bribe and hence have unintended consequences that undermine organisational values and relationships.
Merit pay
Performance-related pay. It is when higher-performing employees are rewarded with additional pay. This is normally linked to a performance appraisal by a supervisor or manager. Generally, merit pay is a permanent addition to the employee’s pay and is consolidated into base pay. Merit pay is regarded as fair if the performance appraisal system is fair.
Piecework
Performance-related pay. It is when employees are given payment for each “piece” produced. Piecework schemes often guarantee a base pay to meet minimum wage legislations and then increase pay with output.
Piece-work schemes are appropriate for an organisation when:
-work is repetitive and unskilled;
- workers can influence the pace of production without risking quality standards;
- workers are easy to operate and monitor.
Commission
Performance-related pay. It refers to when employees are given payments as a percentage of their sale in addition the base wage. This is usual for sales representatives or sales staff in retail stores. The percentage may vary and increase with volume to reward those who perform above an agreed threshold. Commission works best when employees are mainly motivated by financial rewards and can work with minimal supervision.
Bonuses
Performance-related pay. These can be paid to individuals, teams or division for achieving predetermined performance targets. Usually, bonuses are a form of variable pay and must be re-earned each year. It is difficult to develop bonus schemes that are affordable, understandable and motivational.
Team-based pay
Performance-related pay. Occurs when employees in a formally established team are given payment that is linked to their performance. It is usually in the form of a bonus. Team-based pay intends to motivate members to cooperate and improve team performance. Team-based pay is suitable when the team is clearly defined, the goals are explicitly established and performance can be measured.
Profit-sharing schemes
Performance-related pay. Occurs when a proportion of the company’s profits is paid to employees in the form of a bonus payment. This occurs when profits exceed a threshold and is, therefore, a variable form of PRP. Profit-sharing can also allow employees to buy shares in the company at preferential rates instead of receiving cash.
Employee share ownership plans (ESOPs)
Performance-related pay. These allow companies to distribute shares to employees. Bu turning employees into shareholders, their behaviour will be aligned to shareholders’ interests, particularly improving business profitability. ESOPs are a long-term incentive because it takes several years for employees to gain the full benefits of their investments. ESOPs can vary due to company practices and national legislations.
Gain sharing schemes
Performance-related pay. These are when a company attempts to accrue savings by changing work practices. The schemes are “bottom-up” initiatives and hence require participation to generate ideas and determine implementation. Schemes usually involve all employees at a single location. Schemes work best under collaborative working conditions.
A few measures that are important to the business are chosen. Operational measures are preferred over financial measures, as employees have greater influence. Improvement from a baseline operational measure is a gain that is shared between employees. Each employee usually receives an equal share, regardless of position.
Indirect pay (benefits)
Performance-related pay. These are provided using a social insurance fund (funded by both employees and employers) to people in employment. For example, paying employees on maternity leave, paying disability benefits in the case of injury, paying redundancy benefits in the case of lay-offs and paying for a minimum number of holidays. Employers can increase statutory entitlements. There are differences between countries concerning statutory benefits.
Organisation-specific benefits
Performance-related pay. These vary between organisations, for example, flexible benefit plans, discounts for services like gym memberships, private health insurance and paid sick days. Employers are legally required to contribute to occupational pensions, but some contribute more than required. An employee assistance programmes (EAP) is for employees experiencing problems in their professional and personal lives and is an important benefit. Subsidised canteens and on-site crèche facilities are additional benefits.
Non-financial rewards
Non-financial rewards are various HR policies and practices designed to support employees in both their lives and careers. The “total rewards” perspective promotes reward systems that include both non-financial rewards and direct and indirect pay. Some examples of non-financial rewards are job security, career development, work-life balance and recognition policies (either formal or informal).
Pay secrecy
There is more transparency amongst colleagues regarding their financial reward packages in the public sector than in the private sector because public sector salaries and pay scales are published and available to citizens. Many private sector organisations have to pay secrecy policies to prevent workers from discussing wages and salaries. They are common in the USA despite being illegal.
The negative repercussions of pay secrecy are that it contributes to gender and ethnicity pay gabs, inhibits dealing with pay discrimination and leads to employee questioning the fairness of wage and salary decisions.
The positive repercussions of removing pay secrecy and developing pay transparency are greater innovation, higher performance and help in addressing gender and ethnicity pay gaps.
The gender pay gap
The gender pay gap is the difference in pay and reward packages between male and female employees. The gender pay gap remains despite legislation in many countries. Reasons for the gender pay gap include breaks in career or part-time work due to childbearing, favouring family life and gender differences in the ability to negotiate pay. Policies are being introduced at the national government level to address gender pay gaps.
The ethnicity pay gap
The ethnicity pay gap is when members of minority groups receive lower wages compared to white employees. The ethnicity pay gap can result from discrimination occurring at two points; at the entry to the job where non-white employees find it more difficult to work in well-paid occupations and within-job gaps where minority ethnic employees receive less pay for the same types of job.
Reducing these pay gaps can be done through national statutory or regulatory policies and voluntary/discretionary practices at an organisational level.
An organisation’s pay structure is developed using two processes:
Internal alignment - the hierarchy of the relative values of jobs within an organisation
External alignment - the amount or range of pay for each job based on an examination of the pay practices of competitors.
Job evaluation
Job evaluation is used to establish the internal alignment of jobs within an organisation. The analysis is carried out on the job itself, no the person who holds the job.
3 reasons why organisations would implement a job evaluation system:
- Provide a strong defence against legal challenges to pay practices;
- Ensure they make consistent decisions regarding pay that are related to the value-added by the position. The amount that an employee is paid is related to the importance of the job to achieving an organisational competitive advantage.
- Establish an equitable hierarchy or structure of jobs that is felt fair. Felt-fair is a pay-system that is trust-inducing and accepted by employees because differences in pay are based on a fair assessment of job characteristics.
Job analysis
(job evaluation require job descriptions. For large organisations, job descriptions are developed using job analysis).
Job analysis is a process that examines jobs systematically to identify similarities and differences between them. The analysis requires information regarding job content and required employee characteristics.
Different types of job evaluations vary in complexity. Which are these?
Non-analytical methods - are simple and compare whole jobs.
For instance, ranking and paired comparison.
- Ranking - is the simplest non-analytical form of job evaluation and consists of comparing whole jobs to each other and placing them in order of importance to the enterprise.
- Paired comparison - more complicated and involves a matrix that compares all possible pairs of jobs, and then places them in order of importance. The position that ranks higher is placed in a box. For instance, Junior Accountant ranks higher than Bookkeeper and is therefore placed in the top left box. The number of times a job receives the highest rating is then tallied. The order of jobs from the highest to lowest indicates their importance to the business. (see page 18 in 2nd summary)
Analytical methods - are more complex and identify characteristics of the job that are valued by the organisation and assess the degree to which they are present in the job.
Classification systems
Classification systems describe a set of similar jobs, called a “class” or “job family”, using a common set of characteristics. The classification should be broad enough to encompass several jobs that have significant differences compared to jobs in other classifications. Classifications are then dividd into grades that are differentiated using characteristics, e.g., impact, knowledge and experience. The characteristics are described, as opposed to being quantified, as they are for the point method. Two examples of classifications are “accounting” and “administrative support”.
Two point method
Analytical method of job evaluation. Identifies factors relevant to all jobs within the organisation, numerically scales these factors to reflect their relative importance, and develops a hierarchy of jobs based on the accumulated points for each job.
Advantages of the point method are that it helps ensure that equal work receives equal pay and is a strong defence for legal challenges based on claims of unfair pay practices.
A disadvantage is that it is more complex to develop and implement than the non-analytical methods.
6 steps to develop and implement a point method of job evaluation are:
- Identify factors that are relevant to all jobs, e.g., impact, knowledge and problem-solving. The factors should also be aligned with the organisation’s strategy, values and stakeholders;
- Assign a range of numeric values to each factor to distinguish the degree to which it is present in different jobs. Weight the factors to reflect their relative importance to the organisation;
- Prepare manuals and train employees involved in applying the point method, as transparency promotes consistent application and acceptance of the method;
- Calcualte the points for each job based on the extent to which each factor is required to adequately perform the role;
- Place jobs in order of their scores from highest to lowest. The higher the score, the greater the importance of the job to the organisation;
- Recheck for fairness and ensure that it is “felt-fair”.
Advantages and disadvantages of different job evaluation methods
Ranking/paired comparison:
Advantages:
- Easy to understand
- quick to implement
- inexpensive
Disadvantages:
- Unclear basis of comparison between jobs
-unwieldy as the numbers and types of jobs increases
- relative difference between jobs is unclear
Classification system:
Advantages:
- Easy to understand and develop
- Differences between jobs based on characteristics
- expands for growing organisations
Disadvantages:
- Unusual jobs not classified
- Relative position of classification is inflexible even if job content changes
- Relative difference between jobs is unclear.
Point method:
Advantages:
- Accommodates any number of jobs
- establishes order and relative differences between jobs based on systematic analysis
- decisions are based on factors that are important to organisational competitiveness
- Defensible against legal challenges
Disadvantages:
- Costly to develop or buy
- Off-the-shelf methods use general rather than organisation-specific factors
- Time-consuming to implement
- Difficult to explain to employees
Pressures on labour costs at a national level:
- Recessions place downward pressure on wages because the supply of labour is greater than demand. During periods of expansion, the opposite is true.
- National labour market legislation, e.g., minimum wage legislation, can add to labour costs;
- Taxation policy impacts labour costs, e.g., tax rates add to labour costs.
Sources of information about pay and beenfits
*(From not reliable and free to reliable and expensive)
- Government statistics
- Articles in IR and business periodicals
- Job advertisements
- Social and professional networks
- Exit interviews
- Industry surveys
- Occupational surveys conducted by professional bodies
- Occupational surveys conducted by consulting firms
- Third-party bespoke surveys
- Pay club
Maslow suggests that human behaviour is motivated by 5 levels of need:
- Physiological needs;
- Safety needs;
- Love and belonging needs;
- Esteem needs;
- actualisation needs
Maslow argued that people are motivated to meet these needs, and each need must be satisfied before a person is motivated by needs at the next level. Therefore, people are motivated to have a basic salary to cover basic living needs. Once these needs are met, people are then motivated by needs at the second level, for example security of employment and access to a pension. Once these needs are met, people are motivated bu third and fourth level needs, for example, love and esteem need through achievement, respect and personal growth. The actualisation need is achieved when individuals reach their full potential and have high levels of job satisfaction. Pay is a psychological and safety need, and therefore does not motivate higher levels of performance and meet higher levels of needs.
Rayes et al. (2004) conducted a meta-analysis about the importance of pay for employee motivation and found that “money is not the only motivator”, and is not the primary motivator for everyone. However, there is overwhelming evidence that money is an important motivator for most people. They also found that pay is an important motivator if:
- There is some form of PRP;
- PRP is paid to people on low wages, as a small change can make a significant difference;
- Employees assess that they are being fairly paid in comparison to their colleagues.
Work engagement
Describes how an employee is physically, psychologically and emotionally connected to their work or task. When employees are engaged, the following is evident:
Vigour describes how the employee is physically connected to their work, demonstrating high levels of energy and mental resilience;
Dedication describes how the employee is emotionally connected to their work, demonstrating strong involvement and experiencing a sense of significance, challenge, inspiration, enthusiasm and pride in one’s work;
Absorption describes how the employee is psychologically connected to their work, demonstrating a state of full concentration; they are so happy and engrossed that time seems to fly by.
Employee engagement
Employee engagement is a broader concept than work engagement insofar as it includes not just the relationship of the employee to their work, but also their relationship with the organisation itself. Engagement is linked to higher task performance, higher personal initiative and more innovative behaviour, which benefits the team and the organisation. Engagement is also linked to higher organisational commitment and retention, and lower absenteeism and turnover rates, which can be quantified in financial terms.
Retention
Retention is the strategic approach adopted by organisations to keep productive employees from seeking alternative employment.
Induction
Induction is the entire process whereby new employees in an organisation adjust to their new roles and responsibilities within a new working environment. Induction is an important organisational initiative that lays the groundwork for employee engagement. The first phase of the survival curve is the induction crisis, which occurs within weeks of a new started joining the organisation and carries with it the highest likelihood of an employee leaving the organisation.
The survival curve
The survival curve is a model stating that new starters in an organisation are more at risk of leaving in the first six weeks of commencing a new job. The likelihood of leaving decreases as the length of employment increases. Some reasons attributed to the induction crisis are the lack of organisational fit, imperfect expectation setting, leading to employee burnout and overselling of the position.
Organisational fit
Organisational fit describes the alignment of the personal values and work-ethics of the employee with those of the organisation’s culture and values
Employee burnout
Employee burnout is the opposite of engagement, where the employee disengages and withdraws from work due to emotional and/or physical exhaustion.
The traditional informational approach is:
- a formal welcome from the new starter’s supervisor and introduction to team members
- possibly a general tour of the premises;
- an overview, which may include information on organisation-wide trends, key strategies being pursued, key clients etc.
- A presentation on centralised administrative arrangements - expense claims, rules covering absence, discipline, holidays, computer and telephone usage, etc.
!!! This approach to inducting a new employee is ineffective, as it requires the initiative of employees to obtain any information they need in order to be productive in their jobs. This is staggered due to new employees not wanting to admit they do not know how to do their job, not knowing who to ask and implications for their reputation etc. An effective way of ensuring effective inductions is to actively encourage and measure new starter support as part of the performance management system.
Onboarding
Onboarding is the mechanism through which new employees acquire the necessary knowledge, skills and behaviours to become effective organisational members and insiders. Research has shown that a failure to socialise new starters can have a substantial negative impact on an organisation, including high levels of unmet expectations, leading to poor attitudes and negative behaviour that, in turn, often result in high levels of turnover. To successfully conduct onboarding, organisations should first identify the outcomes that are most important to them, given their strategy and objectives, and then provide the socialisation resources that will be most effective in meeting these.
The relational approach to induction
The relation appraoch focuses on helping new starters rapidly establish a broad network of relationships with co-workers, from whom they can access the information they need to be productive members of the team.
Successful companies are those that strike a balance between information delivery and relationship development, some examples of meaningful information are:
- Tailoring the information given to new starters;
- Explaining the roles and responsibilities of the key people they will be interacting with during the course of their work;
- Ensuring that they fully appreciate the strategic goals of the organisation and how their work will contribute to the achievement of these goals.
Mentor/Mentoring process
The mentoring process tends to be focused on formal career development and advancement. Mentoring is a process in which the mentor, a more skilled or experienced person, acts as a role model and provides support to the mentee to encourage their professional and personal development and help them to reach their full potential. Mentoring provides support to new employees that enables them to connect with the organisation.
The buddy approach
An informal approach to assisting new employees to learn about the organisation and how thins are done within the new work environment in which they find themselves. While mentors tend to be more formal, buddies are people who can be approached to ask basic questions. Buddies are often overlooked by organisations, despite the fact that they provide excellent support to new starters and are often the most effective way of socialising new starters into an organisational environment.
Organisational citizenship behaviours
These are behaviours of individual employees that are not directly or explicitly required by an organisation as part of the role, but which promotes the effective functioning of the organisation.
Employee turnover
Employee turnover is the number of people who leave an organisation and need to be replaced in order to maintain production or service. Some of the factors to leave are beyond the control of the organisation, such as the employee moving to a new location, a change in family circumstances, retirement and on: Pull factors!
There are also push factors: factors that negatively impact an employee and may be trigger for the to think about leaving an organisation. The main push factors are a lack of promotional and developmental opportunities. Measuring employee dissatisfaction is vital to identifying push factors.
Employee engagement surveys
Employee engagement surveys can help an organisation determine the level of turnover intention within the organisation and identify rewards that are most likely to support the employee to be dedicated to their work and the organisation. Given that all employees do not place the same value on the rewards on offer, either financial or non-financial, the key to success is that organisations know what it is their staff value and target specific groups if necessary.
Flexible benefits
These are benefits, when employees select the benefits that best meet their needs from a set number of benefits. This is one way of achieving to know what staff of organisation values.
Measuring Turnover
Turnover rate is the number of leavers during a month divided by the average number of employees, multiplied by 100.
Turnover rate = number of leavers/ average number of employees x 100
Cohort analysis
Tool in turnover analysis. Cohorts may be employees from various departments or grouped by gender or ethnicity. Cohort analysis can be particularly insightful in relation to an analysis of skill sets. The development of individual staff profiles aids this process by easily identifying where turnover rates are high among a particular set of employees with a particular skill set.
The reason fir this high level of turnover among a particular group of employees can then be examined and strategies put in place to reduce the level of turnover.
The grievance procedure
The grievance procedure is a written step-by-step process an employee must follow to voice a complaint in an organisation. The formal complaint moves from one level of authority in the organisation to the next higher level if unresolved.
The disciplinary procedure
The disciplinary procedure is a written step-by-step process that an organisation uses when an employee has broken the organisation’s rules. Disciplinary procedures can lead to penalties, such as warnings, to change an employee’s performance/behaviour. In a severe breach of rules, an employee may be dismissed.
According to Wallace et al. (2013), unitarist management can manifest itself through two management styles - paternalistic and authoritarian:
- Paternalistic management, in which managers look after employees and use “soft” HRM practices such as good salaries, benefits to employees, direct communications and teamwork. The intention for this is to keep employees satisfied, emphasise management as the source of authority, reduce the potential for conflict and prevent unionisation.
- Authoritarian management, which is a more dogmatic management approach, whereby there may be little concern for employees and suppression of any attempts by employees to introduce a trade union into the workplace.
Pluralism
Assumes that the organisation is made up of groups with different interests and goals. As there are differing interests, conflict is inevitable and pluralism accepts the legitimacy of trade unions as representatives of employees. It is management’s role to balance the interests of different groups in the organisation, and it is legitimate to establish mechanisms to address conflicts, such as dispute resolution procedures and collective bargaining.
Collective bargaining
Collective bargaining is the negotiation between an employer/group of employers and one or more workers’ organisations to determine terms and conditions of employment and to regulate relations between employers and workers.
Marxism
More radical perspective on the employment relationship. While pluralism views mechanisms for managing conflict, such as dispute resolution procedures, as legitimate and necessary, the Marxist perspective views these mechanisms as advancing the interests of managements. The value of the Marxist perspective lies in its sophisticated understanding of the employment relationship by relating it to conflict in the wider society - something unitarism and pluralism do not do.
Employer organisations
Employer organisations are effectively a union of employers which represent employer interests nationally and internationally, advise members of HRM, undertake research, represent members in negotiations with employees, and lobby governments for employer-friendly policies.
Employment rights
Employment rights are generally determined by employment law, set by the government, or decided through collective agreements between unions and employers. There have been Directives on working time, health and safety, parental leave, maternity and adoptive leave, part-time, fixed-term and agency work, and equality.
An agency worker
An agency worker is a worker with a contract of employment or an employment relationship with a temporary work agency to be assigned to another organisation to work under its supervision
A zero-hours contract
A zero-hours contract is when a worker is not given any guaranteed hours of work by an employer
“Gig” jobs
“Gig” jobs, are where someone is paid to complete a task, also called a “gig”, for an organisation that has outsourced work and does not want to create a long-term employment relationship.
Precarious employment
Precarious employment is characterised by uncertainty, low income, and limited social benefits and statutory entitlements.
Crowd working
Crowd working refers to online platforms through which workers complete tasks for organisations
Work on-demand via apps’
Work on-demand via apps’ refers to apps that connect people to undertake traditional types of work such as transport and cleaning.
Views on gig work
One argument is that gig working is good for workers because it allows them to be “entrepreneurs” who can control the type and timing of work, thereby increasing flexibility.
An opposing argument is that gig working is exploitative, with workers having little income security and few employment rights.
Work councils
Work councils are bodies that provide employee representation in a workplace. They are not trade union bodies, but trade unions can be influential in them. Works councils can mean employees have significant powers of decision-making within a workplace.
A strike
A strike is a work stoppage cause by the refusal of employees to work, to persuade an employer to concede to their demands.
A general strike
A general strike is a strike by workers across many industries, usually in protest agains a government policy or action.
Working days lost
Working days lost is a measure of strike activity, calculated by multiplying the number of persons involved by the number of normal working days during which they were involved in the dispute.
Labour inspectors
Labour inspectors employed by governments may investigate workplaces and examine documents to ensure compliance. Some are charged with targeting certain sectors that have a history of noncompliance or that employ more “vulnerable workers”, such as migrants, who may be at risk of not receiving employment rights.
