Employment Relations Case Study

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Management should have the right to determine whether a union should operate their workplace. Discuss.
Introduction
Employment relationship (ER) is the interaction between people and organisation at work. It is the study of formal and informal rules regulating the social processes and employment relationship which helps to create and enforce the rules (Bray, Waring, & Cooper, 2011) (hereinafter BWC). Lewis, Thornhill et al (as cited in Spooner & Haidar, 2006) defined ER as a social, political, legal, economic and psychological relationship where employees are willing to work accordingly to their employer’s interest and dedicate their time to the workplace in return for a financial and non-financial reward. Young (1963) stated that management has the right to decide all the policies, rules and the method of operating the workplace but if unions are operating, the authority has to be shared partially between the unions and management. According to BWC, the three analytical frameworks have different view on ER. A pluralist thinks the possibility of conflict is critical in ER but it can be managed by proper rules and regulations. ER is essentially supportive in the view of a unitarist, it only get interrupted by occasions and unlawful conflict. Lastly, radicals view employment relations as a long term structural conflict between employers and also individuals who dedicate themselves to the employers and workplace. One of the important players in employment relationship is the management. According to Dobson (2013), management is always constraining by the goals, business policies and the organizational goals. Verma ( 2005) stated that unions can be a tool of social changes, their main activity will still stay in the workplace to enga...

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...f both management and employee, TU seems to negatively affect the management relationship in the workplace. Unionized employees are also less likely than non-union employees to show trust and satisfaction with the management.
Conclusion
Both unions and management stand positive relations with authority at work. Unions can help to improve wages and benefits; they also have the rights and protection when enforcing authorities. Strong labour laws will be supported because of the democratic authority relation at work. Management can also be a good substitution to union representation in the case where they have more power in the organization that has meaningful effects. The effect on TU can be seen as a cycle of organizational changes which lead to better management. In conclusion, it is the management’s decision whether to allow union to be active in their workplace.

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