Chosen Issue: Employment dispute in quantas
Although it is a known fact that cases of industrial conflict has reduced in the recent past (Peetz 2007), inconsiderate management policies can undermine employer relation thus reversing the trend and resulting in serious industrial conflicts. Such was the case experienced in Qantas airways. With a management appearing to be exercises unitary perspective of employer relations, it is not surprising to observe inconsiderate management policies. Such a management will often ignore the interest of their employees. With this perspective it is a general assumption that the employees will act in best interest of the organization. To enforce this, managers will set rule and regulation to coerce employees into acting in away they deem fit. For an organization however to be successful, a cordial relationship must exist between the employer and the employee. This can only happen if the interest of each party is being addressed. Conflicts are inherent and abound to happen since these interests are competing. If they occur, the two parties should strive to resolve them failure to which invites government intervention. A serious conflict might adversely affect not only the business and its employees, but also the general economy. Therefore the government minimizes this by setting rules and regulation to guide and influence this relationship (Budd, Gomez & Meltz 2004).
Qantas Industrial Conflict
Qantas airways industrial conflict has recently been all over the mass media. Various media publications have reported on the issue, highlighting its adverse effect on this Australian company and the general economy (Gelineau 2011; National Times 2011; Peteren 2011). Industrial disputes (conflict) occur as...
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Employment Relations in Australia and New Zealand?, 24th conference of the Association of Industrial Relations Academics of Australia and New Zealand, Auckland, February 2007, pp 1-14.
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...lley, W. H., Jennings, K. M., Wolters, R. S., & Mathis, R. L. (2012). Employment & Labor Relations. Mason, OH: Cengage Learning.
Magic Carpet Airlines (MCA) is in the midst of a collective bargaining negotiation with a union and this paper will present the case from the union’s side of the bargaining table. First, one must understand the meaning of collective bargaining negotiations; this is when both sides of the negotiations discuss wages and others perks and then come to an amicable agreement. Collective bargaining is not a simple negotiation process, because the employer and the union usually meet on more than one occasion, due to the fact that union negotiators must keep their members informed during the process and they must also present any offers to their constituents for a yes or no vote to accept said terms being offered by the employer. The textbook offered the Magic Carpet collective bargaining as a case study and students were asked to analyze the issues being negotiated, determine ways
The purpose of this paper is to analyze a specific, hypothetical employment situation encountered and to include the information regarding employment conflicts, questions, grievances, lawsuits, etc., in terms of how the situation was handled or resolved. Employment conflicts are a constant issue everyday in any organization; it is how you handle them both legally and professionally that counts.
Ferguson, J. (1997), Casual Employment Contracts: Continuing Confusion when Protection and Free Market Clash, New Zealand Journal of Industrial Relations, 22(1): 123-142
No matter how a business operates, change is inevitable and affects all businesses. CAMERON SMITH investigates the changes Qantas have had to undergo in order to keep up with their competitors, whilst navigating the challenges of low cost of fares.
Riaz, M. & Junaid, F. (2011). Types, Sources, Cost and Consequences of Workplace Conflicts. Asian Journal of Management Research. 2(1), 600-611.
The textbook definition of conflict is when two or more individuals or concepts appear to be incompatible, and in this case low productivity versus high productivity is the conflict that must be addressed between the employee and manager. Power on the other hand is the capacity to do something either by physical force or strength and in this case the employee perceives that the manager has all the power in this situation. This now becomes a power imbalance or struggle of major proportion as the employee perceives t...
One of the many influences that affect Qantas is the presence of globalisation, which has heavily affected the airline both positively and negatively. Globalisation is a process which refers to the increased integration between different countries and economies as well as the increased impact of international influences on all aspects of life and economic activity. Globalisation is responsible for the removal of many trade barriers and the increased level of competition that Qantas has been exposed to. The increased levels of competition has increased consumer sovereignty and forced Qantas to implement strategies to gain a competitive advantage in order to redirect consumers towards their business. Qantas has implemented a cost leadership strategy as a response to globalisation and the influence of cost based competition. One way that Qantas achieved this was by using Globalisation itself to the business’ advantage. Globalisation ha...
Albers, S. B. (2009, March 13). crisis of Qantas. Retrieved May 14, 2014, from Qantas crisis: http://wenku.baidu.com/view/31572f48cf84b9d528ea7a56
Unnecessary conflict may be prevented through employee involvement and treating employees in a fair manner. Ethical employment practices, involving employees in decisions, and treating employees as valued organizational members all work towards a positive employer-employee relationship. Unfortunately, however, it sometimes becomes necessary for an outside party to help employers and employees resolve differences through processes such as mediation or arbitration. Taken together, positive engagement strategies and constructive resolution of differences help to develop relationships which support organizational performance and success.
Managers have a degree of choice in how they deal with their employees. (Purcell, 1987) Some may see them as a commodity while others may see them as an important and valuable resource needing to be developed. (Purcell, 1987) Managerial prerogative is defined by Bray, Waring and Cooper (2011: pg 332) as “those areas of decision-making within an organization over which managers claim to have an unfettered right to decide as they see fit.” It is important to define managerial prerogative so that we can establish whether the legislation has increased or diminished it. Defining managerial prerogative is also important as we look at the different managerial styles and strategies and observe if they play any role in increasing or minimizing managerial prerogative. Managers will always have some degree of control over their employees because most of the day to day tasks in the workplace such as rules and procedures of the workplace, tasks, and which employee performs which tasks are decisions made by the manager without consultation with employees and unions. (Bray, Waring and Cooper, 2011) The laws and regulations surrounding managerial prerogative have only seemed to rule in favour of employers being the sole decision makers in an organisation and decrease the amount of bargaining power unions and employees have towards pay and conditions. (Bray and Waring, 2006)
Traditional literature in the field of labor relations has focused immensely on its benefit towards the employer and in the process equating it to working rules. This has been so despite the field being expected to cover the process of, labor management, union formation, and collective bargain; all which are anticipated to create a positive employer-employee relationship. This relationship is said to be positive if there exist a balance between employment functions and the rights of the laborer. Also important to note, is that this relation is equally important to the public sector as it is to the private one. Therefore, to ensure a mutually conducive labor environment exists, effective labor management process and inclusive negotiation program should be adopted (Mulve 2006; Walton, 2008).
Suffield, L., & Templer A. (2012). Labour Relations, PH Series in Human Resources Management, 3rd Edition
...04). The theory which in my opinion is the ‘best’ or most appropriate theory of industrial relations is the Pluralist theory. This theory has been in pole position in western societies for over thirty years. In today’s environment it is the most realistic theory as it assumes conflict is inevitable and recognizes that both employees and employers will have different objectives unlike the unitarist theories beliefs. It is now recognized that better managed industrial relations programmes and cooperation with trade unions can seriously impact on the prevention of disputes, increase productivity, quality and the motivation of workers within organisations and help to align employee objectives with the organisations objectives.