Employee Relationship at the Public Sector Organization - British Airways

Task 1

Identify an organisation in the Public Sector. Through your own research, present an analysis of the organisation's approach to employee relations (using relevant theories you have learned in

the module)

This report will introduce the employee relationship at the public sector organization which is the British Airways (BA). Following the employment relations and introduction about company's issue will be discussed further. Employee relations are especially important in every functioning organization to maintain and operate the business. According to Blyton and Turnbull (2010: 275) employment relations are define as being "the context within which intricate interactions between employee and employer who are conducted collectively and individually". Going back to the topic, British Airways is one of the leading airline companies in Europe, nevertheless in the last few years it has had financial problems, talks begin between British Airways and Unite (Britain's biggest union) to solve the company's problems (BBC, 2012). The British Airways stated that they are going to cut staff on long-haul airlines and to freeze the payment of the cabin crew for two years (BBC, 2012). The majority of British Airways employees decided to take actions and strikes during Christmas period.

In this type of case, should be looked at development of strategic approach between employee and employer relations. As well as been noticed was achieved problematic conflict between two parties. Dean Tjosvold (2008:661) argues that "conflict is an inevitable aspect off all organizations" however, Buchanan and Huczynski (2010:661) state that "conflict is essential to successful teamwork and organizational effectiveness" and that "conflict a process that begins when one party perceives that another party has negatively affected, or is about to negatively affect, something the first part cares about". Concerning the case of the Unite union there was conflict regarding British Airways employees strike during the Christmas period. It can be argued that dysfunctional conflict existed in this case as Butler and Rose (2011:161) say that "dysfunctional conflict is likely to be in the form of protracted industrial action such as strikes, go-shows, and overtime bans which creating long-lasting bad feeling between managers and workers". There is other perspective on approaching conflict through frames of reference introduced by Alan Fox. The frames of reference as Roger Bennett (1991:661) defines as "a person's perceptions and interpretations of events and involve assumptions about reality, attitudes towards what is possible, and conventions regarding correct behavior". There are four different frames of reference on conflict. They are labelled unitarist, pluralist, interactionist and radical (Buchanan and Huczynski, 2010:662). The Unite Union tried to avoid strikes in British Airways company. Taking to account this case would be appropriate to settle the problem with the Unitarist frame. As state Buchanan and Huczynski, (2010:662) this frame helps the organizations to cope well within the parties and assumes a commonality of interests between an organization's workers, managers, and company owners in harmonious manner.

References:

1. BBC News, http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10106557w, Accessed 19 of April, 2012

2. Charles Leatherbarrow, Janet Fletcher & Donald Curries, 2010, 'Introduction to Human Resource Management', 2nd ed., London: CIPD

3. David A. Buchanan, Andrzej A. Huczynski, (2010), 'Organizational Behaviour', 7th Edition, England, Pearson Education

4. Derek Torrington, Laura Hall, Stephen Taylor, (2005), 'Human Resource Management', 6th Edition, England, Pearson Education

5. Michael Butler and Ed Rose, (2011), 'Introduction to Organisational Behaviour', London, CIPD

Task 2

Following on from your class discussion and with your own further research and consideration, apply the ALIEDIM model to absenteeism from university classes, suggesting the "DIM" that you would consider fair and appropriate.

University teaching in the UK is usually based on large-group lectures supplemented by small-group classes. Since classes are costly, it is worth asking if they make a real difference to student performance. Lectures are an efficient way to provide large amount of information to university students. Unfortunately, attendance at lectures and seminars are as optional, whereas students think it is compulsory. These days students absenteeism from lectures and seminars have become the problem. Absences create a "dead, tiresome, unpleasant classroom environment that makes students who come to class uncomfortable and the lecturer irritable" (Marburger, 2001:16). Absence can be viewed as a very personal decision based on desires, ability and motivation to attend lectures and seminars. The individual's decision to come to lectures can be influenced by many factors. The most prominent reasons for missing lectures would be illness, transport problems, inconvenient lecture times or employment commitments. As well students working on other coursework, preparation for exams, the poor teaching skills of a lecturer also keep away students from university, "inadequate relations between a student and their lecturer", lack of subject interest or lack of personal interest in studies may influence the absenteeism (Marburger, 2001:16).

Regarding the absenteeism in the lectures and seminars can be realised by Huczynski and Fitzpatrick (1989:345) systematic seven-step approach to absence control called ALIEDIM. Considering ALIEDIM absence process the framework stands for "Assess, Locate, Identify, Evaluate, Design, Implement and Monitor" absence control procedure (Huczynski and Fitzpatrick 1989:345). Suggesting the 'DIM' absence system would be discussed Design, Implement and Monitor stages. Design the absence-control programme will be based on students motivation and promotion. Generally, focus will be given on the students attendance marking, lectures and seminars timing and competence of tutors. To implement the absence-control programme will aid steps which should reduce the absenteeism in the lectures and seminars. First of all, will be looked at lecture and seminar times as at university should provide different times of each lecture and seminar,

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