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... ... middle of paper ... ...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
The paper will discuss minicases on ‘The White-Collar Union Organizer’ and ‘The Frustrated Labor Historians’ by Arthur A. Sloane and Fred Witney (2010), to understand the issues unions undergo in the marketplace. There is no predetermined statistical number reported of union memberships in this country. However, “the United Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) excludes almost 2 million U.S wages and salary employees, over half of whom are employed in the public sector, who are represented at their workplaces by a union but are not union members. Not being required to join a union as a condition of continued employment, these employees have for a variety of reasons chosen not to do so. Nor do the BLS estimates include union members who are currently unemployed” (Sloane & Witney, 2010, p.5). Given this important information, the examination of these minicases will provide answers to the problems unions face in organizational settings.
MacLaury, J. 1998. “A Brief History: The Department of Labor.” The United States Department of Labor.
While many of the laws and regulations that arose out of the labor movement protect workers and define employer’s responsibilities, there has been significant pressure from employers to ensure that their organization does not organize. Dias (2009) states that “most organizations feel the constraints of having a union organization are too great”; negatively affecting the organization’s cost of operation and efficiency (p. 278). In response to the organizational desire to remain union free, Human Resource Managers (HRM) have an important role to play in regards to employee relations within organizations (Dias, 2009). Dias (2009), identifies three phases of unionization, the first is the “organization is union free and there is little to now interest in unionizing” (p.
Labor unions were established as a way for workers’ needs and grievances to be heard by management. According to Fossum (2012), “forming a union creates a collective voice to influence change at work” (p. 7). The collective voice of workers in a union holds much more power than any single employee’s voice. It can loudly draw attention to mistreatment or abuse of workers. The organized collective voice of workers demands to be treated in a fair way by its management in terms of wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions.
Before you can form an opinion on unions, you must first understand how they operate. Labor unions are organizations of wageworkers in a specific field that lobby their specific inte...
387). Unions also tend to create a “culture of discontent among its workers who become good at detecting problems in the workplace because of their ability to collectively bargain with employers for better working conditions (Artz, 2010, p. 388).” Unions have grown incredibly powerful and have done well for their members in regards to employee safety, benefits, and pay. However, they have done absolutely nothing to support the recruitment, hiring, and protection of disabled individuals.
In dealing with a person’s livelihood, and often, sense of self, it is of no surprise that ethical issues regarding employment practices are of great concern. The issues of employment at will and due process contracts in the workplace are among the most widely contentious in the realm of employment. Employment at will is the doctrine that employment may be ended, by either party, for good, bad or no cause at all.1 Due process, on the other hand, is the employment practice in which a person may appeal a decision as a means of receiving an explanation and the opportunity to argue against it.2 Employment at will is the standard in the majority of private corporations today and is argued for relentlessly by freedom of contract enthusiasts, however, it is becoming ever more apparent that employment at will contracts reflect the old corporate maxim where the single bottom line, profit, is accented and the well being of other stakeholders, in this case the employee, are of little or no influence. Due process should be accepted as the prevalent employment system as it shelters employees from the hostile actions of the more powerful employer, provides a stable, bilateral contract between both parties and portrays the growing ethical concerns of society.
Noe, Raymond A., et al. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print.
The importance of Human Resource management is associated with the beginning of mankind. As the knowledge of survival had begun including safety, health, hunting and gathering, tribal leaders passed on the knowledge to their youth. However more advanced HRM functions were developed as early as 1000 B.C and 2000 B.C. Since the modern management theory took over, the working environment was transformed into a more friendly and safe work place. The workers were termed as most valuable resources. While some companies took the human side of employment seriously, there were others who did not find it mandatory. Hence they faced huge labor unions and factory shut downs (Henning, 2001).
At this point in time, our company is non-union and believes the disadvantages of unionization to be greater than those benefits which may come from it. Many of the benefits which are supposed to come from unionization are canceled by various disadvantages. Additionally there are several, negative effects brought on by joining labor unions which should make any employee think long and hard before they begin the process of joining a union.
Labor relations emerged as response towards combating the economic unrest that accompanied the 1930 Great depression. At this period, massive unemployment, decreasing salary and wages, and over competition for jobs despite poor working conditions, was being experience; especially in the US. In turn employees were aggravated and therefore resorted to labor strike that often escalated to violence. To avoid such incident that could potentially harm further an ailing economy, the US government set precedent by passing their first related Labor relationship act, also referred to as the Wagner act. This act excluded public sector and some employees in the informal sector, farm workers to be specific. However, the progressive change in business and labor environment, necessitated changes in the labor laws to ensure they are more inclusive (Haywood & Sijtsma, 2000).
Holley, William H, Kenneth M. Jennings, and Roger S. Wolters. The Labor Relations Process. Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning, 2012. Print.
Human Resource Management (HRM) is fundamentally another name for personnel management. It is the process of making sure the employees are as creative as they can be. HRM is a way of grouping the range of activities associated with managing people that are variously categorised under employee relations, industrial/labour relations, personnel management and organisational behaviour. Many academic departments where research and teaching in all these areas take place have adopted the title department of human resources management. HRM is a coordinated approach to managing people that seeks to integrate the various personnel activates so that they are compatible with each other. Therefore the key areas of employee resourcing, employee development, employee reward and employee involvement are considered to be interrelated. Policy-making and procedures in one of these areas will have an impact on other areas, therefore human resources management is an approach that takes a holistic view and considers how various areas can be integrated.
Suffield, L., & Templer A. (2012). Labour Relations, PH Series in Human Resources Management, 3rd Edition
Human Resource Management is the title given to define formal systems arranged for the management of people within a company. There are many responsibilities of a human resource manager. These responsibilities usually fall into three major areas: employee compensation, staffing and defining and/or designing work. The purpose of Human Resource Management is to maximize the capacity of a company by bettering its employees. This is unlikely to change in the future even though the pace of business is always changing . Edward L. Gubman said in the Journal of Business Strategy, "the basic mission of human resources will always be to acquire, develop, and retain talent; align the workforce with the business; and be an excellent contributor to the business. Those three challenges will never change."