Human Resource Management and Labor Relations

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Human Resource Management and Labor Relations
The role of today’s Human Resource Manager (HRM) is much more involved than in the past. Human Resources (HR) has ordinarily been referred to as Personnel. Formerly, the manager in this field, whether it was referred to Personnel or HR, held a narrow margin of responsibilities. Today’s HRM has the unique role of looking out for the interests of both the employee and employer. Technology, globalization and outsourcing have added a challenging twist to HRM responsibilities. Adding further to this unique challenge is the fact that many industrial and skilled labor workers as well as professionals and others belong to labor unions.
Employees are entitled to form and join unions or not. Employees with union memberships have certain protected rights within the workplace. Union representatives engage in a bargaining process on behalf of employees for work rules, wage and salary, job security, benefits etcetera. Employees also have union representation in work investigations and during the grievance process. Employees may express concerns and dissatisfaction through union leadership. Labor contracts further protect employees with seniority. Employees with seniority have better opportunities to promote, select job assignments or positions and have first choice in scheduling vacation time. In a unionized organization, the HRM has a key role in working closely with management and union leadership in the labor relations process.
Employees of nonunion organizations may not have the same opportunities and job security as those of unionized organizations. These employees may be classified as at-will workers in which the employer or employee can terminate employment at any time. Al...

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...school district policies as they are a closer fit than university policies. Texas is a right-to-work state therefore there are no unions. McGinnis appeared to be glad about this as she indicated unionization may further complicate her job.
At the conclusion of the interview, McGinnis identified the fact that she enjoys the interaction with employees in her role as human resource manager. Her advice to anyone going into the human resource field is they should follow policy. She explained that following policies can prevent trouble and once a policy is broken it is difficult to turn the table.

Works Cited

Gomez-Mejia, L., Balkin, D. & Cardy, R. (2012). Managing human resources. (7th ed.) Upper
Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education
Holley, Jr., W., Jennings, K. & Wolters, R. (2012). The labor relations process. (10th ed.)
Mason, OH: Cengage Learning

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