Globalization Affecting Employee Relation-Free-Samples for Students

Question: Discuss about the Globalization Affecting Employee Relation. Answer: Introduction: This essay broadly describes the concept of globalization and is a representation of ideas and ways in which it effects employee relations. Employee relationship, as the term suggests, is the rapport among employees. It is one of the key aspects of any organization, because a healthy employee relationship is essential for ensuring uninterrupted works flow thereby, promoting the necessary growth. Globalization can be defined as the increasing interaction among individuals, states and nations through the development of money flow, culture and ideas. Hence, in simpler terms, globalization means interaction among a large number of people, thereby bringing them together at the same platform. (Beck 2015). It involves inculcating a number of ideas and helps in exchanging information at different levels. This concept has evolved very recently as a medium to share information or ideas among organizations. It is essential to understand that Globalization has three major dimensions, namely econ omic, cultural and political. Economic globalization generally takes place among organizations businesses across the globe (Baylis, Owens and Smith 2017). Cultural globalization paves way for idea exchange and exposes the values of different cultures to one another. Political globalization spreads awareness about different legal policies that exist around the worlds to the respective global population, which in turn amounts to faster evolving societies. Therefore, it can be safely said that the whole world has shifted to the phase of globalization. Employee relations, as explained earlier play an important factor in the growth of the company. The main aspect leading to unhinged operation of an organization is teamwork because all tasks in an organization are assigned to various teams and without a healthy relationship among the teams; it would be very difficult to complete the work efficiently. (Karanges et al.2015). There exists a number of factors that can improve employee relationship, for instance, engaging employees in various activities together, having regular staff meeting for introducing important information, encouraging managers to work closely along with the employees. Other factors like making employees feel like they are a part of the team, introducing them to challenges in order to make their work interesting, are also efficient ways to develop the association between employees. (Crane and Matten 2016). The essay further discusses the various aspects where globalization takes a crucial role in building up employe e relationship. Types Of Globalization: Economic Globalization: Economic globalization in simple terms is the free movement of products, services, capital, information, goods and technology thereby increasing the interdependence and integration of local, state and national economies across the globe (Ezcurra and Rodrguez-Pose 2013). The process of economic globalization can play an essential part in improving relationship among employees as they might start to get a hold of diverse points of views of a variety of people across the globe, thereby broadening their perspective. (Nica, Manole and Potcovaru 2016). In case of an organization, employees of different branches of the office located at different areas can be made to interact with each other, which might result to the employees not feeling like a fish out of water when shifted to another branch, thereby enhancing staff relationship. Product globalization is a concept that falls under the dimension of economic globalization and it includes obtaining various goods and products from different areas (Sturgeon 2013). This might give workers an opportunity to interact with other workers. Prior to getting individuals acquainted with globalization, it is essential to provide proper training and this period is a coalmine for good employee relationship. There are times when information sent from different parts of the world can be difficult for a single person to analyze because he/she may be able analyze only one particular kind of data. This is when team tasks can be introduced; resulting in increased interaction among employees and such continuous interaction might help in improving Cultural Globalization: Cultural globalization is another dimension of globalization and it can be defined as the exchange of ideas, cultures, values and meanings in ways that intensify and extend social relationships. This process essentially involves common culture exchange, which has been diffused by popular media, internet and travels, which in turn adds to colonization and exchange of commodities (Mirrlees 2013). Cultural globalization is responsible for enabling people to get involved in social relations that extend beyond regional and national borders thus, enhancing interconnectedness among a variety of cultures. This dimension too has a positive impact on employee relationship as it enables exchange of various ideas thereby promoting a healthy understanding of other cultures. The employees need to interact with the other employees of the organization in order to pass schemes and suggestions. (Wood and Wilberger 2015). Cultural globalization nudges workers to interrelate with the other workers to un derstand their actual viewpoint and therefore is responsible for changing preconceived notions and mindsets of individuals, thereby, playing a large role in improving relations among many employees. Language is an essential element that needs to be globalized because language barrier is a large drawback in the perspective of employee relationship. The process of eliminating language barrier would definitely require an employee to seek help from another employee who already has the knowledge about that language. There can be situations when a particular task received from a client is in a language different from the one that can be comprehended by the employee. This is where cultural globalization comes into act and help about the language can be obtained from different sources. Religious globalization is another form of globalization that has been present for a long time that can be useful in improving employee relations (Baylis, Smith and Owens 2017). This aspect of cultural global ization helps a particular employee to view the world from a broader aspect, thus helping the employee in improving his/her relationship with the other employees belonging to different religious backgrounds. Political Globalization: Political globalization is the third dimension and it refers to the growth of political situations that exists worldwide in term of size as well as complexity (O'neil 2015). It also involves in exchanging government policies among different countries. Formation and existence of the United Nations is one of the greatest examples of political globalization. The concept is to adopt policies similar to that of a developed nation by a developing nation.(Jacobs and Van Rossem 2015). Political globalization not only extends to the governments of two nations but also applies to various trade unions and organizations. Exchange of policies enables improved operations of the organizations, for instance, an organization suffering from losses or one that is brand new can opt for help from one that is well established in order to enhance its position. This exchange of policies and strategies will require interaction, as well as co-operation among employees of both the organizations therefore, enab ling improved relation among the workers. Thus, this is definitely another major factor in increasing employee motivation (Sunkel and Inotai 2016). There may be situations where the same organization has offices located in different locations thereby having different working policies. The offices with lower success rate can adopt policies similar to the offices with a higher success to improve themselves. These interactions among the offices can definitely help in improvement of the relationship among employees. A similar situation may arise in the case of two countries and that is when political globalization comes into play. The exchange of policies among the countries can help the world in working towards a larger and a harmonious goal. Concept Of Taylorism and how it effects employee relation: Taylorism is a concept, which was brought into practice by Fredric Taylor, and it deals with the concept of improving employee relationship. He was one of the first individuals to introduce the importance of employee motivation and employee relationship. (Jensen 2017). The workflow process was carried out in a number of organizations and its effect on work productivity was observed. Taylor, after keen observation stated that companies in which the higher authorities did not interact with the workers at all, where the workers carried out the work by themselves only to send the end products to the higher authority, had lower work productivity as they did not feel motivated enough to work. The workers were left without supervision to carry out the production process and the only motivation that they had was that of job security thus, resulting to incomplete and inefficient work. Taylor had a number of solutions for these problems. He suggested that simplifying the job would increase pro ductivity and that could be done by distributing the work evenly in a team. This would help in building up a good team rapport and carrying out the tasks efficiently. He also suggested that payment could be made on a daily basis and since he believed in the concept of more productivity and efficiency, he stated that a worker having good productivity in a day should be paid more than another worker should with lower productivity. This in turn might have the capability to build a healthy competition along with strengthened production. He also suggested that other workers for tips and advice to enhance their work would approach the best worker, which in turn would help in increasing the productivity of all the workers as well as improve employee relation (Wetzel and Warner 2015). Taylor has four major principles. The first principle is about replacing the traditional ways of doing work with scientific ways and following this strategy would bring out the most efficient way of doing a ta sk. The second principle puts forward the view that the workers should be assigned jobs according to their capabilities and levels of motivation and not randomly, which would immensely help in increasing the performance of the worker. This would not only benefit the employee as an individual but also the organization as a whole. The third principle states that the employees should be motivated at all times by the head or by employees with more work experience. This supervision would ensure that the employees are using the most efficient methods to carry out the task. This would not only help in boosting the motivational level of all the employees but also result in strengthened bond among employees largely. The final principle of Taylor, which can be considered as most important principle in improving employee relation, states that a particular work can be distributed among the managers and employees together. This would ensure that the managers carry out the required research regar ding the necessary topic and present the efficient most way of carrying out the task. This would augment interaction between the managers and the employees and improve the employee relationship as a whole. These factors, according to Taylor would benefit the organization by increasing the productivity of the organization as a whole. However, there are a few drawbacks associated with these principles, which need to be addressed as well. The principle, which aims in increasing the employee motivation, may land up on the negative side too. One of Taylors principles suggests some views that look forward to improve employee relation (Waring 2016). It involves in engagement of the managers and the employees together for a particular project. This might turn sour in some cases as in certain situations, certain managers might take offense at the thought of working with the subordinates, which can act as a negatively motivating factor for the managers. Moreover, the concept of payment of the workers on daily basis might also start a negative competition among the employees. In case such a competition takes place, the productivity of the organization may drop distinctly. However, despite these drawbacks, Taylor had introduced a solid framework for workers to improve interactions with each other and improve their productivity (Giordano 2016). Collective Bargaining and how it has positive effects on the employees: The next concept to be discussed is that of collective bargaining. This is another factor, that has proved to have a significant impact in improving employee relations. The concept of collective bargaining is concerned with negotiation within an organization among a particular employee or a group of employees (Un and Union 2017). The negotiation may be related with the salaries or the working condition of the employees. Various benefits and the right of the workers for gaining a full time employment may be the other sectors concerning collective bargaining. Various representatives of the trade union generally presents views about the employees or the group of employees. The arguments, which are taken collectively, set out the scales of wages, the employees hours of working and the trade unions usually make the negotiations either for a specific employee or for a group of employees. This process of collective bargaining can help in increasing interaction and as a result may improve th e relationship among the employees (Cascio 2017). The collective bargaining, thus, refers to the agreement between the representatives of a particular union and the employers of a particular organization. The negotiation is done with respect to the number of terms and conditions, which are made in accordance with the satisfaction of both, the organization and the employee. Acceptance of the negotiation of the employee will have positive impact on both the side and this will not only work as a motivating factor for the employees but also will play a major role in the improvement of relationship among the employees of the organization as well as the members of the trade union. The concept of collective bargaining is not new and had been first used in 1891 (Fossum, 2014). It involves the group of employees being represented by a union member, because of which in any case of misunderstanding there would be no direct interaction with the group of employees and any exchange of words would only take place with a member of the union. The head of the union generally represents a group of employees and this group along with the employees and the employee with whom the negotiation has been carried out, should follow the process of what is called good faith bargaining. The basic factors that interrupt good faith bargaining may include, refusing of the agreement by both sides of the party, attempting to bargain with the other parties, misleading various negotiations and making changes in the agreement without consulting the other side of the party (Marginson, Keune and Bohle 2014). However, there are certain parameters in which presence of the employee is mandatory, various issues involved in collective bargaining such as wage, working hours require the presence of the employees, and the employees should be informed in advance about the same. Collective bargaining might have a negative outcome such as disparity of ideas among the union members, in such cases essential solu tion is to be come up with (Lucifora and Origo 2015). The organization at a certain point of time may require that particular employee to carry out a particular task. Maintaining a good relation with the employee will help in increasing productivity of the work would also help in increasing the motivation level of the other employees. It is safe to say that collective bargaining is a sensitive issue and needs to be handled carefully and implementation of collective bargaining should be carried out in a particular manner so that the employee relation is not harmed. There can be a number of benefits of collective bargaining such as increasing of the wages or having working hours as per the requirement of employee and such steps might help in improving the employee relations. However, there might be a possibility of negative results hence should be carried out with fitting techniques. Technology as a tool of globalization having positive impact on employee relation: The next field where globalization can have a positive impact on employee relation is in the field of technology. Several communication layers are involved in employee relations, ranging from relation between employer and employee, to interaction among the workforce themselves. Understanding the effect of technological advancements on employee relations requires understanding about the changes taking place in the organization due to technological changes (Strohmeier 2013). A number of theorists have contributed to this field; however, Perrows knowledge technology is one of the most influential theories. He divided technology into 4 divisions based on variability of task and analyzability of problems, namely, routine, craft, non-routine and engineering types. However, this classification by Perrow can be made into two main divisions. The first one is routine technology, which leads to mechanization in which repetitive tasks, and standardized works reduces employee interaction because of which employees are unable to for peer groups at work. Standardized technologies indicate that employees would have a fixed duty set and would not require any communication regarding problems faced. However, in case if interaction takes place, it would be purely work related. The second division is none routine and creativity promoting technology. This uses non-standardized yet creative technology and although employees get to communicate with each other, there might be chances of conflict. Not using routine technology would cause enormous stress on the efficiency and productivity. Relationship between employee and employer is not very congenial in this case as creative differences occur. Therefore, it is understandable that both the divisions have their advantages and disadvantages; however, combination of technology and strategy would help in improving transparency and interaction among employees. The field of technology requires the exchange of ideas regarding the use of vario us forms of technology may take place, for instance, a particular company, A is using the technology of big data and another company, B uses the technology of cloud computing. Company A might want to implement the technology for its new project. Such a situation might require the employees of A to gather knowledge about the concept of cloud computing technology. Company A might ask the experts of company B to provide knowledge to their employees. And if they agree to it, the exchange of technology will not only help in sharing of knowledge in a different field but will also help in improving the relationship among the employees of the two organization. Similarly, if company B wants to implement the idea of big data then, in such a situation, the company may consult the employees of company A. In case of collaborations, such as the one mentioned previously in this paragraph, employee relationship should definitely improved between the two organizations thereby promoting harmony in ca rrying out the work in an efficient manner for future purposes (Alias and Hassan 2014). Thus, the exchange of technology or the globalization of technology can be of use as another medium to improve employee relations (Fatima 2017).However, collaboration between two organizations is not always necessary for the exchange of technology. Globalization of technology therefore may also be largely responsible for enhancement of employee relation and motivation within an organization. An employee with the knowledge of a particular technology can pass down the information to his/her subordinates or colleagues in case the organization has to carry out the task in that particular area of expertise. The interaction among the experts of that particular technology and the other employees will be an important ground for good inter-employee relationship. Therefore, it is evident that in this scenario globalization plays an indirect role too in improvement in the employee relationship. Effect of globalization in MNCs on employee relations: Multi National Companies (MNC)s are the major sector which makes extensive use of globalization and hence is mention-worthy in this essay. These company chains usually have a great inter- employee relationship and work towards having better employee motivation for efficient work and adequate growth of the organisation. (Martell 2016). They have branches around the world, which require employees of a particular office to contact other employees of a different branch for gathering variety of information. Such exchange of valuable data and ideas is prevalent among large organizations, which in turn requires increased employee interaction thereby leading to improved employee relationship. Hence, globalization here plays an active part in worker relations (Gunnigle, Lavelle and Monaghan 2013). The MNCs take the help of globalization for a number of purposes because they are spread out across the globe and globalization to them is more of a necessity as it is used as a major tool for not o nly exchange information or data but also for exchange of various recommendations (Williams 2017). Thus, globalization in MNCs helps in positive way for employee relation. Conclusion: Lastly, from the essay it can be concluded that globalization plays an important role in the improvement of the relation of the employees in the various sectors and industries. Globalization is the process where the world connects and comes to a same platform and is responsible for increasing interaction among individuals, states and nations through the development of money flow, culture and ideas. It has helped in inculcating a number of ideas and helped in exchanging information at different levels. The process evolved in the recent days and is implemented by most of the organizations, and has definitely played a major role in improving the position of the organization. Globalization, as discussed in the essay is directly related to employee motivation and improvement of employee relation. The effect of globalization on employee relation can be seen in the various Trade unions, MNCs, in the field of technology. 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