7MER Formative Assessment 2
International considerations in managing employment relationships
The considerations that international business managers should relate to when managing employment relationships are important to determining the safety of workplace. They are also effective in developing a unique organizational culture that supports the employers and employees in the different places of business operations.
One of the international considerations includes conflict management, which relates with the evaluation of the disputes experienced within different organisational groups based in different countries. Conflicts occur because of the different values, cultures, and norms incorporated together in one business to enhance completion of the same business goals.
In order to ensure that conflict is easily addressed, the parties in conflict should communicate with each other and ensure that they identify ways of addressing the conflict to avoid further misunderstandings. Different people in different parts of the world have different interests and needs, and sometimes the HR and business managers tend to resolve the problems using the same means. The HR within the organization has to set different organisational policies, procedures and processes for different locations of business operation. This is important to ensure that conflicts do not arise within the international platforms, as all the businesses have to operate and be managed differently based on people’s interest, values, and needs (García, Pender, and Elgoibar, 2016).
Good employee relations management is also dependent on the work hours, and wages given to the employees. Different countries have different regulations on work hours. To promote employment relations, the HR should allow employees to work on basis of country and location of work, without putting in general guidelines to be followed by all business branches in different countries. This business relations manager has to ensure that the employees do not raise disputes on matters concerning work schedules. This means that stipulated work hours in the constitution ion different countries of business operations should be followed and employees should receive the right pay depending on their specific pay grades and work performed. In addition, policies on annual leave, holidays, and paternity and dependency leave should be followed to enhance good management of the employee relations. This is important in eliminating disputes at workplace, and ensures that the managers work with the HR to support the employee rights in the international business branches.
Another consideration relates with the promotion of interpersonal skills in the international platform. This is significant to determining the employee and employer relationships. The fact that in the international platform people will be communicating and dealing with diverse groups of people means that their interpersonal relations have to be promoted. According to Yue, Men, and Ferguson (2019), interpersonal communication allows people to move to a positive direction, which then enhances development of the best alternatives to promoting trust between all stakeholders involved in communication.
Role of diverse groups and parties in control and management of employee relationships
Role of employer
The employers take responsibility in ensuring that they equip their personnel, including the managers and the employees with the skills needed to ensure that they manage relationships in the workplace. Employers therefore should be ready to invest in programs that help the management gain the knowledge and skills required to manage the relationships between the employees and the managers in different areas of business operations. Employer should understand the nature of work in the different countries, the behaviours of the different employees, trade union regulations indifferent countries, and all manners of business operations, which is very challenging to the employer.
Role of managers
Managers have the roles if ensuring that they create a unique employee relations climate, where the employees feel appreciated and become involved in enhancing improved business performance. According to CIPD (2020), managers experience difficulties in managing conflicts in their work places, and also find it hard to address difficult conversations experienced between different employees within the workplace. As a result, special attention has to be taken to ensure that the managers gain skills that would help them address problem related to conflict management between them and the employees, and among the employees themselves. This can be done by training the managers who in turn acquire the knowledge and skills needed towards ensuring that they improve in the decisions made to effectively control situations and manage employee relations. Managers are expected to support employees at all times, especially during the COVID-19 period where they are expected to have candid conversations with their employees. This is important because the pandemic has affected the social way of life among the employees, and the current situation is likely to affect the nature of relations between employees and managers (CIPD, 2020).
Role of employees
Employees as individuals have to take responsibility in developing their working relationships with their colleagues at work. They have the responsibility of ensuring that they develop positive behaviours in regard to how they relate with the managers. Within the local business platform, this is very possible because employees relate to the same values and interest. However, engaging employees in different countries may affect the business operations, which end up being a challenge for the international businesses.
Role of legal authority
The legal authority in UK provides provisions that are to be followed in ensuring that employee relations are effectively managed. It is though these provisions that the business managers are able to deal with the issues arising within the organisation. For example, based on contract law, legal handbooks and manuals used to guide employers in making critical organisational decisions that impact the nature of employment relationships. The legal authority also relates to the evaluation of employment rights, which specifically relates to the matters of dismissal, conciliation, discipline and dispute handling among others. Some of the legislations guiding the managers and employers in enhancing employment relationships include The Equality Act 2010, which relates with matters of employee recruitment, compensation and treatment of all groups of people without discrimination. The Employment Rights Act 1996 in UK guides employers on matters concerning employee dismissals and redundancy, and this is beneficial to managing international businesses and the regulations can be referred to when such cases arise.
Role of trade unions
This is a group that relates with the evaluation of important aspects of employee relationships including collective bargaining, arbitration, and industrial actions. The Trade Union Act 2016 relates with the stipulations of the provisions that guide the organisations and managements on matters of industrial action and matters related to registrations and recognition.
Conclusion
The control and management of employee relations is an international business environment determines the impacts on different needs and interests of different employees in different places of business operations. Business managers have to take into consideration important aspects associated with international management of conflict, different regulations on wages, leave and holidays, as well as promotion of interpersonal relations. Different groups are involved in the management of employee relations. They include employers, employees, managers, trade unions, and the legal authority.
References:
CIPD. (2020) Employee relations: an introduction. Available at https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/employees/factsheet
García, A.B., Pender, E., & Elgoibar, P. (2016) The state of art: Trust and conflict management in organizational industrial relations. In Building trust and constructive conflict management in organizations (pp. 29-51). Springer, Cham.
Yue, C.A., Men, L.R., & Ferguson, M. A. (2019) Bridging transformational leadership, transparent communication, and employee openness to change: The mediating role of trust. Public relations review, 45(3), 101779.
