It is important to know the challenges that exist between the HRM and ER and how conflicts are solved between the two. Some of the basic employee relation objectives are:
Ensure production of goods efficiently and to determine good employment terms through negotiations with the employer.
Establishment of good communication channel for cooperation and consultation on issues at the work place, industry level and national level
Avoiding dispute and settling the when they occur, this may be between the employees or employer through mechanisms for dispute settlement and negotiation.
It should provide a social protection for the whole society at large where needed, e.g. child labor, health and safety etc.
Establish a harmonious and stable relationship between the employee and employer, the state and the firm.
ER is concerned with the relationship between unions and employer, employee and employer, and between them and state meaning that it is a collective relation. This is evidenced by the central place engaged by the labor law, collective bargaining, trade unionism, freedom of association, employee right etc. the human resource management is involved with human resource management rather than collective relation management though there is some correlation. The role of ER is to control the employment relationship which it does with set rules which may originate from the state laws, tribunals or through collective bargaining.
Tension some times arises between the ER and HRM due to the unitary out look of the HRM and the pluralist outlook by the ER. It is often said that the HRM is a representation of the managerial authority meant to achieve the firm’s goals whereas the ER function is to support the employees and ensure there is a harmonious relation between the employee and employer through negotiations and collective bargaining. Evidence sows that the major reason for introduction of the HRM is to ensure that the firm attains competitive advantage through production of high quality good and services. A harmonious ER system should maintain a good relation ship with the HRM through avoiding conflict and solving the conflicts when they arise by joint consultation, collective bargaining by use of mechanisms of dispute settlement at national and at enterprise level.
The HRM does not support collective bargaining; collective bargaining does not mean the terms of payment but should focus on issues supporting both the employee and employer as two social partners despite the fact that they don’t always come to an agreement.
There is conflict in the issues pertaining working hours, types of contract, pay among other things, this forces the HRM and the ER and the unions to come to an agreement, this helped the General Motors to reduce conflicts with the employee. This has assisted countries with high unionization like bargain on issues of technology, organization and work processes beside the wages and pay related negotiations
As much as the HRM tries to ensure high employee commitment and loyalty, this is usually faced with the challenge of merging these needs with those of the ER and trade unions to guarantee dual loyalty to the firm. Evidence drawn USA indicates that dual loyalty is achievable where there is cooperation between the ER and HRM
Other challenges come along when the line of communication are broken and the employees assume the absence of unions and the ER preferring to form pressure groups hence bring a lot of tension in the work place.
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