The Employment Relationship

 

Introduction

Employers and employees who work together make up organizations. This is the employment connection, which is technically expressed by what Rubery and others (2002).

 considered to be its cornerstone, namely the employment contract. According to the law, a person who works for an employer, who ultimately has the ability to direct them, is considered an employee. A person who works under a contract of employment is defined as a "employee" in the UK's Employment Rights Act (1996), with the implied understanding that "the employer" is the other party to the contract. This is also known as "the pay-work deal." Additionally, the employment relationship may be formally defined through the use of tools like procedure agreements and work regulations.

However, the employment relationship is also an unofficial and ongoing process that occurs each time an employer and employee interact. The psychological contract, which states certain presumptions and expectations about what managers and employees have to offer and are prepared to deliver, serves as the foundation for the employment relationship.

Figure following depicts the characteristics of the job relationship according to Kessler and Undy (1996).

Types of employment relationship contracts

 More specifically, contracts of employment, provisions implied by common law, and statutory requirements govern the employment relationship between employers and employees.

 By defining the work connection through two different forms of contracts, Rousseau and Wade-Benzoni and MacNeil (1985) have made a distinction (1994).

Transactional contracts

Formal contracts, known as "transactional contracts" have clearly stated terms of exchange between an employer and employees, and these terms are frequently expressed financially.

They include detailed performance specifications.

Relational contracts

Relational contracts typically refer to an open-ended membership in the organization and are more informal contracts with vague provisions. The performance standards that are part of this continued membership are unclear or insufficient.

Content of a contract

·        The appointment letter

·        A formal agreement with specific terms

Other papers, such as employee handbooks, workplace regulations, or collective bargaining agreements, which are integrated into the contract by reference in the letter of appointment or written declaration. Document of a contract

Managing the employment relationship

It is more difficult to manage the job relationship because it is dynamic and frequently hazy. The issue is made worse by the variety of factors that affect the contract, including the company's culture, the dominant management style, the values upheld and upheld by top management, the presence or absence of a climate of trust, interactions between employees and line managers daily, and the company's

·At job interviews, highlighting both the positive and negative aspects of a position in a "realistic job preview"

 

· By communicating to new hires the organization's HR policies and procedures as well as its core values, as well as the standards of performance expected in areas like quality and customer service, as well as outlining the requirements for flexibility, in induction programs

· By creating and maintaining employee handbooks that support the messages communicated in induction programs, HR policies and practices.

 

·Using learning and development programs to support core values and define performance expectations.

 

     · Encouraging the development of performance management processes that ensure that                         performance expectations are agreed upon and reviewed on a regular basis.

 

·   Encouraging the use of personal development plans that outline how continuous performance improvement can be achieved, primarily through self-managed learning.

 

    ·   By ensuring that managers and team leaders are aware of their responsibility in managing the            employment relationship through procedures like performance management and team                           leadership through manager and team leader training;

 

· By promoting the greatest possible interaction between managers and team leaders shared knowledge of expectations between team members and themselves, as well asoffer a channel for two-way communication.

 

· By enacting a broad policy of openness, ensuring that employees are informed about all topics that touch them and are aware of what is occurring, why it is happening, and how it will affect their job, growth, and opportunities

 

·By creating HR policies for addressing complaints, disciplinary action, equal opportunity, promotion, and redundancy, and ensuring that these policies are applied fairly and consistently.

·Through creating and disseminating HR policies that address the key facets of recruitment, development, compensation, and employee relations.

 

·To achieve justice, fairness, consistency, and openness in all facets of pay and benefits by ensuring that the incentive system is created and administered.

 

These methods for managing the working relationship encompass all facets of personnel administration. But it's crucial to keep in mind that this is a never-ending process. Making sure that values are respected and that a transparent, consistent, and just approach is taken when dealing with any employment-related issues is essential to managing the relationship effectively.

 

Additionally, it is crucial to keep in mind that creating a high trust organization is possibly the finest strategy to enhance the employee-employer relationship.

Developing a high trust organization    

When management and employees have a high level of trust in one another, the organization is said to have high levels of trust. A positive work environment requires a trusting environment.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, trust is the firm conviction that someone can be relied upon. Shaw (1997) offered a different definition of trust, stating that it is the "confidence that people on whom we depend on will match our expectations of them." These expectations are based on how we judge how much obligation others must provide for us.

In the end, trust is more about connections and supporting one another than it is about controlling people or processes. Employers of employees and employees of employers must both improve their mutual grasp of expectations in order to build and sustain trust.

It is obvious that management behavior that is sincere with people, maintains its word (delivers the deal), and exemplifies what it preaches is the type that is most likely to foster trust.

Low-trust organizations are those that proclaim their essential beliefs, such as "people are our biggest asset," but then neglect them.

When do employees trust management?

Employees are more likely to trust management when they: 

·        believe that management means what it says

·        Employees are more likely to trust management when they

·        believe that management means what it says, observe that management does what it says it will do - suiting the action to the word

·        know from experience that management, in the words of Guest and Conway (1998), "delivers the deal - it keeps its word and fulfills its side of the bargain;" 

·        feel that they are treated fairly.

Theories explaining the employment relationship

Labour process theory

Karl Marx first proposed the labor process hypothesis (translated in 1976). His argument was that by paying labor less than the value they provide to the labor process, surplus is taken from labor. Therefore, capitalists create the labor process to guarantee the extraction of surplus value. The capitalist is an alien power that confronts the worker, who becomes a "crippled monstrosity by furthering his skill as if in a forcing house through the suppression of a whole world of productive drives and inclinations." The ability of humans to produce is subordinated to the exploitative demands of the capitalist.

 Agency theory

According to agency or principal agent theory, principals (owners and managers) must devise methods of observing and regulating the actions of their agents (staff). According to agency theory, principals may struggle to get their agents to follow instructions. Clarifying uncertainties requires defining goals and keeping track of performance to make sure they are attained.

 

References

 year = 2002,

author = {Huw Beynon and Damian Grimshaw and Jill Rubery and Kevin Ward}

title = {Managing Employment Change}

 

year = 2011,

author = {Hazel Oliver},

title = {The Impact of the {UK} Human Rights Act on Private Law}

 

year = 1996,

author = {Roger Undy and Patricia Fosh and Huw Morris and Paul Smith and Roderick    Martin},

title = {Managing the Unions}

 

year = 2008,

publisher = {American Psychological Association ({APA})},

author = {Kimberly A. Wade-Benzoni},

title = {Affinity Scale}

 

   year = 2007,

title = {Shaw, John Campbell, (born 2 Aug. 1949), Managing Director: Amberton Shaw, 1997{\textendash}2004$\mathsemicolon$ Stannifer Group Holdings, 1998{\textendash}2004}

 year = 1998,

author = {Anonymous},

title = {about the guest editor: Edward E. Conway, Jr., {MD}, {MS}, {FAAP}, {FCCM}}

year = 2020,

title = {Karl Marx $\cdotp$ The Labor Question},

booktitle = {Karl Marx / Friedrich Engels: Werke, Artikel, Entwürfe Januar bis Dezember 1853}

    

   Please share your valuable ideas in the comment section

Also, follow me on youtube

TV Channel U

 Email me

evonherath@gmail.com