REPORT ON EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS

REPORT ON EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS

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Running head: REPORT ON EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS

Report on Employment Relations

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Executive Summary

The case study Top Trucking Company is analyzed to establish the concept of Human Resource Management. Here the study primarily concentrates on the significance of employee relationship and its impact on the business. The study highlights the typical business situation where it has been discussed that the company is confronting issues due to their ineffective leadership technique. However, it evaluates how a different leadership approach changed the entire workplace through providing a positive impact. However, the study also makes some assumptions regarding risks that the company might face in certain circumstances. Based on that, some recommendations are manifested at the end of the study.

Table of Contents

Introduction 4

Background of the Case Study 4

New Workplace Practices 5

Probable Risks 6

Assumptions on Transport Worker Union 7

Recommendations for Sustaining Changes 8

Conclusion 8

Bibliography 10

Introduction

The prime aim of this assignment is to analyze the case study Top Trucking Company and Human Resource Management of the company. The purpose of analyzing the case study is to develop a clear understanding of managing the human resource environment under certain circumstances.

To be more precise, the study here identifies the employment relation issues which are encountered in the case study. Through analyzing the typical business situation, the significance and effectiveness of employment relation are manifested. Also, it also discusses the probable risks of the organization by considering a certain situation. Based on that, probable solutions are provided that help deal with the problems encountered in the assumptions.

Background of the Case Study

The Wollongong yard of the Top Trucking Company was renowned as a high-performance workplace within the company and within the region as well. The union delegate of Top Trucking Company’s Wollongong Yard was George Psaros (Kramer et al., 2011). He played an essential role of management in the transformation. In the local product market, the company had a strong position, but several employment issues were there. The old yard manager pursued autocratic leadership style, and due to this reason, the employees were not satisfied working with the company (Kramer et al., 2011). To be more precise, the old yard manager preferred to lead people from his way and yell at them if it had been a bad day. Moreover, some other issues were also there that the company had been confronting. The truck drivers experienced a lot of conflict among them in the workplace (Kramer et al., 2011). Besides, the company used many trucks which were older than they should have been. This was the reason that they experienced a lot of accidents (Kramer et al., 2011). About three years ago, a big national transport group bought out the Top Trucking Company and the old yard manager retired. The new owner appointed a new yard manager, and they were willing to contribute their capital on rejuvenating the fleet (Kramer et al., 2011).

New Workplace Practices

It has been mentioned before that George played an effective role in the management department of the company. After the retirement of the old manager, George took some initiatives and cleaned up the yard. Along with that, the provided new uniforms to the employees to level up their satisfaction level a bit. The new yard manager implemented new employment practices to resolve the issues. In this case study, the new yard manager is complemented as ‘a breath of fresh air’ (Kramer et al., 2011). Firstly, the company concentrates on the technological advancement and hence new computer system installed in the warehouse. Unlike the old yard manager, the new manager implemented the democratic leadership style. To be more precise, the new yard manager prefers to talk to the drivers and union representatives before taking any decision. His approach was not to blame the employees for checking out the things and exploring the issues. His approach was the knee-jerk reaction as it affects the satisfaction level of the employees. His goal towards the human resource management of Top Trucking Company was to improve the occupational health and safety (Kramer et al., 2011).

Apart from this, in the new workplace practices of Top Trucking Company, training programs was also included. The employees were provided both the technical and customer service training programs. The technical training programs increase the efficiency level of managing large data (Alfes et al., 2013). On the other way, the customer service training programs improved the relation with their clients. The evidence of the improvements was the increasing number of visitors (Kramer et al. 2011). However, a problem arose when George found a mismatch between his leadership skill and that of the new yard manager. Both the managers experienced several major arguments among them, and thus there had been a couple of short strikes. After a certain time, the employees found that they were no longer treated in an unfair way. However, it this context, it is important to mention that the truck drivers did not like the changes at the initial stage. Eventually, they realized that the implemented work practices benefitted both the business and the employees as well. George also noticed the improvements and both the managers started contributing together effort. To improve the image of their company and the organizational operations, George and the new yard manager shared all the information regarding the work pressure, success, yard’s performances with the truck drivers and the unions. It has been found that the new workplace practices and together with management effort successfully built good employee and client relationship, and improved their organizational operations also.

Probable Risks

It has been found that the business outcome of Top Trucking Company in the last couple of years was quite impressive. After implementing the new working practices, the company received some new contracts. Besides, the key people came from the head office of the company to visit the yard of Wollongong and observe their operations. The growing sense of achievement and the effective leadership skill of the new yard manager might promote him to the head office. In this case, if any of the new yard manager and George moves on, it would be difficult for the company to sustain their changes. In this context, it is important to mention that an organization confronts the biggest challenge in sustaining the effective operations (Guest, 2011). The Top Trucking Company might face certain risks in their organizational operation in the case if one of them moves on. Firstly, the employees would confront autocratic leadership technique again, and this would affect the satisfaction level of the truck drivers and union members. As a result, the company might face the issues of employee absenteeism or turnover in the coming days.

Apart from this, the management process would entirely depend on the management process and work effectiveness of the new manager. Considering the discussion of (Daley, 2012), it can be stated that the new manager would confront some challenges at an immediate period after joining. The first and foremost challenge is to understand all the employees including truck drivers and union members. Secondly, the manager has to set an effective goal and comprehensive strategies to maintain the changes made at present. The poor management strategy might lead the business towards failure. Thus, it can be stated that if the new yard manager or George moves on, the business will face several management risks.

Assumptions on the Transport Worker Union

As per my viewpoint, the tough blue collar unions like Transport Workers Unions are less likely to engage in the workplace changes like this than public and service sectors unions. This statement is framed by analyzing some authentic secondary sources. Huselid & Becker (2011) stated that the most of the companies propose changes for the benefit of the business only. Inequality is the prime concern among the employees, and thus they do not support the organizational changes. Wright & McMahan (2011) argued that the prime reason for not supporting the workplace changes is the poor relationship with the employers. To be more precise, the employers keep the union members outside the bargaining period and impose the changed policies. This creates grievances among the union members and the employers that affect their acceptance of the changes.

Recommendations for Sustaining Changes

In this section, some effective recommendations would be given in respect of the issues addressed in the above sections. It is noted that, the scenario where the new yard manager of the Top Trucking Company might be promoted to the head office. As a result, the business might confront some challenges in respect of their human resource management. Thus, it is recommended that the owner should hire a manager by judging his managing capability, leadership skills, and experiences (Kehoe & Wright, 2013). The company should ensure that the new manager would aware of the previous incidents and management process; both positive and negative. To be more precise, the new manager should aware about the old yard manager and his autocratic leadership style and its impact on the employee relations. It is recommended that the new manager should implement the leadership technique which is implemented by the present manager. Lengnick-Hall, Beck &Lengnick-Hall (2011) argued that the new managers should always set a new goal and leadership strategy which is more effective than the previous one. This helps them to lead a particular business towards success by promoting growth. Bloom & Van Reenen (2010) shared a different viewpoint that the managers should always share their leadership and management technique with the subordinates. Thus, it is recommended that the new manager should communicate with the truck drivers and union members and set the business goals. This helps them to deal with the challenges that a new manager face after joining a firm. Along with that, it also strengthens the relationship between the new managers and the truck drivers and unions.

Conclusion

The study concludes that the Top Trucking Company successfully attained reputation because of the comprehensive leadership styles and approaches. Through analyzing the case study, it has been found that the old yard manager implemented the autocratic leadership style and thus dissatisfaction and grievances occurred among the employees. The new yard manager applied a completely different approach, and this led the business towards success. The prime reason behind the business success was the good employee relationship in the workplace. However, the success of the Wollongong yard increases the number of visitors including the people from their head office. Thus, the prime concern is that the company might face certain risks if the new yard manager is promoted to the head office. The study delivers some recommendations which would help the company to deal with certain challenges.

Bibliography

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Bloom, N., & Van Reenen, J. (2010). Why do management practices differ across firms and countries?. The Journal of Economic Perspectives, 24(1), 203-224.

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Huselid, M. A., & Becker, B. E. (2011).Bridging micro and macro domains: Workforce differentiation and strategic human resource management.

Kehoe, R. R., & Wright, P. M. (2013). The impact of high-performance human resource practices on employees’ attitudes and behaviors. Journal of Management, 39(2), 366-391.

Kramer, R., Bartram, T., De Cieri, H., Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2011).Human Resource Management in Australia-Strategy, People, Performance.

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Lengnick-Hall, C. A., Beck, T. E., &Lengnick-Hall, M. L. (2011).Developing a capacity for organizational resilience through strategic human resource management. Human Resource Management Review, 21(3), 243-255.

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Sparrow, P., Brewster, C., & Chung, C. (2016). Globalizing human resource management.Routledge.

Wright, P. M., & McMahan, G. C. (2011). Exploring human capital: putting ‘human back into strategic human resource management. Human resource management journal, 21(2), 93-104.