Unit 20 Assignment on Employee Relations NHS

Program	Diploma in Business
Unit Number and Title	Unit 20 Employee Relations - NHS
QFC Level	Level 5

Introduction

Employees are the key factor responsible for the success of the business. They help in fulfilling organization goal and objective by satisfying customer need. With the rise in level of business activity of business there is a simultaneous rise in conflict between employer and employee. This employee relations NHS assignment conflict causes a huge loss to company and May even lead to the closure of the business. The conflict between the employer and employee doesn’t help the organization in attaining its goals. The company should make a good relationship with its employees to attain the goals of the organization.  The company should effectively manage all the conflict which occurs with it employees to conduct the business operations with efficiency. Generally most of the employees are not treated well, due to which most of the employee association and trade union came into existence. The key functions of these unions and association was to protect the rights of the employee in relation to wages, salaries, incentive and treatment with them during the work. Employee relationship means the communication between the management and its employees in terms of decision making, problem solving and handling grievances. For effective handling of conflict the management should build a procedure which facilitate in solving conflict. Management should examine the root cause of the conflict and should take the necessary action to eliminate such conflict. There should be a good communication between the employer and employee to handle the conflict. The management should make a regular check over the conflict which is arising within the organization. Management should follow different negotiation technique to handle the conflict.

Task - 1

1.1 Unitary and pluralistic frames of reference explaining the implications of each of the perspectives for the appropriate means through which conflict is to be resolved

The industrial conflict is the disagreement between the management and the employees on certain issues which seriously affects the working of the organization. Conflict within the organization is harmful for the organization as it affects the relationship between employer and employee. The conflict generally reduces the efficiency of the outcomes of the organization. If the conflict remains for the longer period it may lead to the closure of the business. There are many key players which affect the relationship between employer and employee such as government, unions, employer, employee etc. The Employer and the employee are the key factors which are generally considered in employer employee relationship. The performance of business largely depends on its employer and employee relationship. The organization follows certain approach to handle the conflict between the employer and employee. Unitary frame and pluralistic frame are the best approach which helps in handling management conflict (Tomal & Schilling, 2013).

Unitary frames- The unitary frames is based on the assumption that all the members of the organization should have common goal, objective and values despite of their different roles performed by them. The unitary frames find expression through implementation of mission statement and measures success with actual achievement of the objective. A conflict generally occurs when the employee and the management both have different objective and goals. Unitary framework assumes unity of interest between the members of the organizations and thus denies the existence of any conflict. Unitary framework is an integrated framework under which management staff and all the members of the organization share the uniform goal, objective, interest and the same purpose. For unitary approach the employee should be loyal and put the effort to attain the mutual goals. The decision making part should be of the management and for making the decision there should be involvement of the employees. Unitary framework considers the involvement of employers in the area like responsibility of the leaders, conflict negotiation action etc (Thursfield & Kellie, 2013).

Pluralistic approach- In Pluralistic approach the organization is perceived and divided into the groups each with their own legal loyalty and with their own set of objective and policies. The two major sub- groups in the pluralistic approach are management and trade union. The focus of the management should be on influencing and coordination with the employees rather than enforcing and controlling the employees. Most of the organization follows pluralistic approach while dealing with the conflict. The way to minimize the conflict by this approach is to build a better procedure for business.   (Thursfield & Kellie, 2013)

1.2 Assess how changes in trade unionism have affected employee relations.

The trade union basically emerged to protect the interest of the workers. With the increase in the number of the industries there was a sudden rise in conflict between the management and the workers. The trade union was basically acted as a representative of the workers to protect the workers from getting exploited. The general issues which the trade union use to handle were to reduce the number of female and child worker in the production activity, long labor hour work, risky working environment and the rights of the workers.  With the establishment of the trade union the employees can bargain and negotiate with the employer for the mutual benefit of both. Over the recent year there is a significant change in the labor union. With globalization and increase in economical development the role of the trade unions has increased. The employee can bargain with the employer to exercise their right with the help of trade union. In the present scenario there are very much development in the trade union which helps in building better relationship between the employee and the organization and also in handling conflict between them. It helps in protecting the loss which occurs to both employer and employee due to the conflict between them (Supanti, Butcher & Fredline, 2015).

1.3 Explain the role of the key players in employee relations.

A healthy employee relationship is necessary to receive the best level of outcome from the employees. The conflict with the employees of the company must be avoided to control the wastage of resources.  The employee relationship refers to the communication between the employee and the organization to handle the conflicts and provide solution for the problem. The key players in employee relationship are government, employer, employer association, courts and tribunes, trade union representative and employees. There should be effective coordination between all these factors to avoid conflict between them. The detail role of the key players to handle the conflict is as follows-

• Role of employer- The role of employer is to motivate the employees of the company to accomplish the organization task with great efficiency. The employer plays a key role in building communication with the employees to attain the organizational goals. The role of management is to communicate effectively, respect the employees, recognize the problem in the workforce and effectively handle all the employees. The employer should solve the entire problem which the employee faces while working for the organization. It will help in effective handling of the conflict between the employees and the organizations.
• Role of employer associates- Trade unions also helps in building effective relationship between the employer and the employee and avoid wastage of resources. They act as a representative in any conflict and also help in effective handling of that conflict. It also helps the employees in increasing their influence on the manager decision making. The role of trade union is to effectively handle the conflict which arises between the company and its employees. Through trade union the workers can effectively communicate with the employer which helps in avoiding conflict between them.
• Role of workers- Employees are the key players of the organization which help in attaining organizational goals. It helps the management in  decision making  related to the business and also in implementing the decision. They have a great influence on each and every decision of the management. The management frames the policies of the business after coordinating with its employees. There should be mutual understanding between the employer and employee to attain organizational goals (Saundry, McArdle & Thomas, 2013).
• Role of the government- The functioning of each and every business depends upon the laws and rules of that particular region. Government also plays a key role in maintaining the relationship with the employees by establishing rules and regulations and guidelines for employee relationship. It helps in provide justice to both employer and employee in the business. The government makes the laws and policies to prevent the exploitation of the employees.
• Role of courts and tribunes- Courts and tribunes helps in resolving the issues which occurs in the industry between the employer and employees. (Chiaburu, et., Al.,  2013)

Task - 2

2.1 Explain the procedures an organization (NHS employer) should follow when dealing with different conflict situations?

The conflict generally occurs when the employees have different personalities, goals, and opinion than that of management. The conflicts within the workplace affect the functioning of the business. The reason due to which the conflict generally occurs within the workplace are due to unfair treatment with the employees, poor communication system, risky working environment, unsolved queries of employees, leadership problem, harassment problem etc. The management should have effective strategy to handle this conflict. The management can handle the conflict by regularly reviewing the job description, obtaining the opinion of the employees; make the working place safe for employee and by creating the opportunity for the employees (Abbas & Joshi, 2012).

The NHS employer can follows different procedure to handle the conflict related to employee relationship which are-

• Formal procedure-The formal approach is generally followed by NHS employer to handle the internal conflict which generally occurs within the management or between staff and management. For solving the conflict by using formal approach requires three approaches which are policy operation and process. The detail view of the three steps to handle the conflict is as follows-
• Policy- The policy defines the rules and regulations which are to be followed to handle the conflict. The NHS employer can build a policy that the conflict should be deal immediately and the consumer should remain unaffected by the dispute. The NHS employer can also handle the conflict by taking the help of the third party if the parties agree for the same. The third party will decide the conflict by obtaining the view of both the parties and both the parties are bound by the decision. The company may also have the policy of effective handling of the employees complain and the decisions should be made by considering organization as a whole (Raines, 2013).
• Operations – Once the NHS employer frames the policy to handle conflict than he should make efforts to put these policies in practice. The management can handle conflict by creating a committee which identify the conflicts at regular interval and apply the appropriate measures to control such conflict. The committee should identify the root cause of conflict and should make strategy to avoid future occurrence of such situation. The role of the committee is to make decision and recommendations on the conflicts.
• Process- After creating and implementing the policies the NHS employer will make some process which the committee has to follow while decision making on the conflict. The issues which should be the part of the process are fair and clear warning, clear communication, clear decision making, and within limited time frame. The procedure to deal with the conflict should include clear steps to be followed to handle the conflict. (Raines, 2013)
• Informal procedure- The NHS employer can also follow informal approach to handle the conflict. This approach of dealing conflict involves less complexity as compared to formal approach. It can be used by the management to solve general issues which doesn’t have high effect on the organization. Informal procedure involves handling the conflict between the employer representative and employee representative without the help of the third party. The organization has working participation committee which handles these issues. There is no policy, operation or process based solution in informal procedure. The committee should deal conflict as per agreed policies and procedure.
• Step by step process- The NHS employer can also follow step by step approach to handle the conflict. This approach involves solving the conflict by following the particular approach. The following steps are followed to resolve the conflict among the stake holder in the organization (Mansor & Amdan, 2015).
• Understand the pattern of the problem-The first step is to find the basic understanding of the problem. It can be done by obtaining the views form the parties which are the part of the dispute. The basic understanding provides the approach which is to be followed while dealing with the conflict
• Recognize the problem-The management should recognize the problem occurred to understand the source and understanding of the problem. For this purpose the management should build a committee which effectively handles the issues.
• Source or origin of the problem- The management should find the root cause of the problem and should make efforts to eliminate such problem. This helps in preventing from future occurrence of such conflicts
• Strategy to solve the conflict- The organization should build the strategy to solve the conflict so the need of the stakeholder can be satisfied and the organization can be benefited by it. The  business strategy  will be framed by considering the detail view of the conflict (Ghosh & Pal, 2015).

2.2 Explain the key features of employee relations with reference to the above conflict situation?

Employee relationship includes both individual as well as collective relationship with the employees. Individual relation implies between employer and employees or between two employees whereas collective relationship is between employer and trade union. It is difficult for the NHR employer to understand the relationship between employer and employee as it is complex and multidimensional. The relation is not limited to trade union and employer but extends to relationship between employer, employees and government. Employer employee relationship is a dynamic as well as developing concept and undergoes change in structure and environment of the industry. The main task is to protect the right and interest of the employee working for the organization. The dispute in the above situation is between the British Medical Association, NHS employer and the government over new junior contract. Negotiation is one of the key features to address the conflict situation between BMA, NHS and the government. The conflict can also be resolved by building effective communication between all the key persons (Dhanesh, 2014).

2.3 Evaluate the effectiveness of procedures followed so far from both parties in this conflict situation?

The approach followed to solve the conflict between the BMA, NHS and the government is the negotiation between the parties. The step by step approach followed to solve the conflict which requires the complete understanding of the conflict. The understanding of the conflict can be attained by obtaining the information over the conflict from all the parties of dispute. By the help of the procedure the key source of the problem can be found out. The efforts should be taken to control the factors which lead to conflict between the parties. On the basis of the complete analyzing of the situation recommendation and decision can be made on the conflict. The formal approach can be followed to solve the above conflict where a committee can be formed to handle the conflict between BMA, NHS employer and the government. The Committee will analyze the whole situation and attain the information over the conflict. The committee should completely review the situation by contacting the parties to the conflict. The committee should analyze the conflict and find the measures to solve the conflict. After that the committee should make the decision on the conflict and recommendation to avoid such conflict (Chiaburu, Diaz & De Vos, 2013).

Task - 3

3.1 Explain the role of negotiation in collective bargaining as in the above conflict.

The BMA, NHS employer and the government has adopted negotiation in May to handle the conflict between them. Negotiation is used to settle the differences between two or more parties. The negotiation is the process between two and more parties seeking to discover a common ground and reach an agreement to settle a matter of mutual concern or resolve a conflict. Collective bargaining is the voluntary negotiation between the employer and the group of employees so as to determine the condition of employment. The negotiation is based on the term and condition of employment by collective agreement. The employees in collective bargain are sometimes represented by their union. The negotiation is basically made on the wages of the employees, compensation, incentive, safety at the workplace and the working hours of the employees. Negotiation plays an effective role in collective bargain which leads to increase in productivity of the workers. It also helps in building self respect and responsibility between the employer and the union. The collective bargain also provides the control over the employer. It provides the management to resolve issues at the bargain level rather than taking complain of each and every worker. It helps in preventing and settlement of industrial dispute at initial level. It also helps in strengthening the trade union movement. Negotiation generally creates a complex situation when both the parties are involved in demanding there requirement. For this purpose the collective bargain is used so that the better solution can be provided for the problem which satisfies the need of both the parties. That is the reason negotiation is a vital part of collective bargain in between management and employees. The negotiation has a great role in providing the final solution of the conflict between the management and the employees. In most of the situation negotiation provides with the ultimate solution of the problem. (Tomal, & Schilling, 2013)

3.2 Assess the impact of the negotiation strategies adopted by both parties in the above conflict situation and comment on other negotiating strategies and the potential impact it could have?

The negotiation strategy is generally followed to handle the conflict between two or more parties. The negotiation in the above situation is done in which result in a contract of junior doctor being agreed between government, BMA and NHS employer.

The negotiation strategies which can be followed to handle the conflict are –

• Accommodating – This strategy involves giving the other party what they want. This strategy generally occurs when one of the parties wants to adjust as per situation and accept the wants of the other party. It is generally followed when the company faces huge losses due to the conflict.
• Avoiding- The avoiding strategy is followed when the wants of the parties cannot be fulfilled. It generally involves delaying and ignoring the conflict. In some of the condition it acts as an effective strategy when the demand of the employee cannot be fulfilled. This is generally followed when the demand of the other party is inappropriate.
• Collaboration – It involves finding creative solution of the conflict by the mutual concern of the parties to the contract. This help in providing the effective solution to the problem with the efforts of all the parties to a conflict.
• Compromise- This strategy involves the compromise made by all the parties of the conflict to arrive at a particular decision. For this purpose all the parties has to adjust their demands as per the situation. The compromise is generally made by the mutual understanding between all the parties of the conflict (Batrouney, 2012).

Negotiation strategy has both positive as well as negative effect on both the parties as it is not equally favorable for both the parties of the conflict. The negotiation strategy many of times helps in handling the conflict between the management and employees of the company. The BMA and NHS employer are not at all interested in negotiation with the government. They want the changes in the new junior contract as per there requirement and doesn’t want to negotiate with the government as they are continuing their strike.

Task - 4 Presentation

Conclusion

So, it may be concluded that for the effective functioning of the company there should be good relation with the employee of the company. The employees are the most important factor responsible for the success of the business. So the management should build the effective strategy to handle the conflict between the employee and management. This will help in avoiding the wastage of resources which is caused due to conflict between management and employee.

References

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