CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The Employer-Employee relations is no doubt an enormous topic in Human Resource Management that covers key areas of Employment relationship, Collective Bargaining, performance and reward management also Employee involvement which help to determine the nature of organizational commitment and performance. The impacts of employer –employee relations in its effectiveness maintain and enhance productivity with combined workforce understanding relationship among the employer-employee.

The employment relationship aspect deals with the role and influence of law which determines the rights and responsibilities/rules that govern the behaviour of both employer and employee which has an impact on how relationship works out. However in recent years newer concept have emerged in Human Resource Management that has considerable changed relationship that was formally dependent upon interaction of formal legal regulations.(Bardwell and Calydon 2007)

Collective bargaining is a situation where representatives of both parties come together to negotiate on matters relating to pay, terms of employment and working conditions, in recent years there has been a shift from the traditional collective bargain to a more individualized method of bargaining.(Henderson 2008)

Performance and reward management relates to the use of individualized pay, performance-related pay and performance management. This factors determines behavior in terms of motivation, communication and level of commitment.(Bardwell and Calydon 2007)

Employee involvement is a form of employer-employee relations that allows more participation of the employee in organizational decisions; this is when employees can influence decisions that are normally reserved for management (Marching ton and Wilkinson 2008).

Employee relations is characterized by both conflict and cooperation, Marching ton and Wilkinson (2008) described the management of employee relations as being vital to the success or failure of an organization and it is seen as central to Human resource management.

(Dawson 1995) acknowledged that the achievement of organizational objectives depends upon employment relations, evidence from (Limerick 1992) suggests that individual empowering should be consistent in the event of strategic change.

Considering the competitive nature of industries and technological advancement, the importance of employer-employee relationship becomes more critical, reason being that to meet constant changing needs of consumers, effective human resource management becomes very crucial in achieving business success.
In the early 70s the relationship between employers and employees in work place was more of a collective relationship which involves collective bargaining where representatives of both employer and employees meet to negotiate on matters relating to pay, terms of employment and working conditions, representatives of employees are known as trade union(Henderson 2008). Organizations were encouraged to recognized and work with trade unions so as to improve the employment rights of workers through collective bargaining (Marching ton and Wilkinson 2005).

However, in the early 1990s, countries like UK where trade unionism were highly recognized witnessed a significant decline in trade unionism, employee relations changed from the traditional collective method of bargain to a more individualized method as a result of increase in sophisticated HRM style initiative in communication, participation and recognition(Henderson 2008)

(Edwards 2003) described the relationship between employer and employee as a system where both parties have common and divergent interest, this is a situation where employer and employee communicate their requirement and views to one another in terms of agreement on work related issues.

1.2 STATEMENTS OF PROBLEM

The employer-employee relation on organizational effectiveness have been lacking behind, lots of issue in employment which include not only issue like fair treatment of employees in the country, but fair treatment of employees around the world. The main ethical issue in employment generally is that of just employment relationship both in term of procedural and distributive justice.

The unfortunate by product of the new employment contract is that employee and employers feel fewer ethical obligations to each other by employers desire for flexibility.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

The main objective of the study is to examine employee relations and its effect on employee productivity. Specific objectives of the study are:

1. To identify various employee relations practices, and its effect on the productivity of an organization.
2. To identify the challenges faced by employees at work places.
3. To identify ways of enhancing healthy relationship between employees and employers in an organization.

1.4 HYPOTHESIS OF THE STUDY 1

Employees performance on core task will be the highest in the quasi spot contract employee organizational relationship second highest with mu

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

This study seeks to bring out the various employee relations practices in an organization and the various practices needed to increase its productivity and contribute its quota in the economic development of the communities which it operates, and the country at large. This study will therefore help enlighten management of various organizations of the various effects of relationship practices between employers and employees in an organization. The study will also bring out specifically, the employee relations practices which various organizations use.

1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

The scope of the research will be limited to the employee relations practices and effects on employee productivity. The research will rely on both primary and secondary sources of data.

The project will be organized around following chapters;

Section one gives an introduction to the research work. This chapter therefore consists of the background of the study and, objectives, research questions, significance of the study, scope of the study, and limitations encountered by the researcher.

Section Twoconsists of the theoretical and conceptual issues, relevant extant literature on the subject and conceptual classifications.

Section three gives details of the qualitative analysis of the phenomenon under study, analysis of subject and assessment of the subject.

Section Four gives the findings and conclusion of the researcher. Here, conclusions will be drawn based on the findings and their implications will also be given.