Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 3

MU0003 – Employee Relations Management - 2 Credits

(Book ID: B0775)

Assignment Set- 1

Question 1: Elaborate on the framework of Employee Relations?

Answer 1:

The Framework of Employee Relations

Any organization, in order to attain its goals successfully, must always endeavour to
develop and maintain healthy employee relations. The framework for such relations must
be based on the following:

a) Integration:

The needs of individuals, groups and the organization must be seamlessly integrated.
Such cross-matching of interests will invariably result in a healthy organizational
climate and promote creativity and productivity. It is a management responsibility to
initiate measures to create an atmosphere of mutual trust and understanding so that
the employees appreciate both organizational and environmental constraints and
support the company at all times.

b) Employee Participation:

Supportive climate and mutual trust and confidence can be created by involving
workers and their groups in the decision-making process. Management should be
open to ideas and accept or reject an idea or suggestion based on its merits and not on
the source of the idea or suggestion. The management must appreciate the problem of
the employees and strive to resolve these at the earliest. Communication channels
must be kept open and the employee must be given an opportunity to be heard. Such
involvement not only improves the quality of decisions but also leads to the
satisfaction of ego needs of employees. They feel recognized and their attitude is
always positive. Joint management councils or committees consisting of equal
representative of workers and management may be constituted. Frank and fair
discussions/meetings help to secure and preserve unity among workers and managers.
Effective use of group dynamics is a must.
c) Congenial Work Environment:

Management must create a work environment wherein workers can perform their
jobs with a sense of security and camaraderie. They must value the task they are
performing. Simultaneously, the management must ensure job security, a meaningful
and challenging job, scope for opportunity and advancement and satisfying
interpersonal relationships for the employees.

d) Communication:

Most of the employee relations problems arise due to lack of communication or

inadequate or a distorted communication. The desire to have knowledge about the
current situation, future prospects, company policies and contemplated changes is one
of the basic needs of an employee. Lack of communication leads to fear,
misunderstanding and distrust. Therefore, management should maintain open
channels of communication, particularly upward communication. Employee
handbooks, grievance procedures, suggestion schemes, etc. enable management to
understand the feelings, fears and aspirations of employees. Informal communication
or grapevine is generally used to supplement and support the formal channels of
communications. However, strict vigil on rumours must be kept with all efforts to
arrest them at the earliest.

e) Adaptive Leadership:

Leadership style must be determined by the situation and must be flexible. An

effective leader is one who fully understands his employees and adapts his approach
to the requirements of the situation. In order to develop healthy relations, managers
should listen carefully, talk less and give decision in the opportune time. Decision
delayed is harmful to the organization as it leads to mistrust. Managers must uphold
the dignity of the individual employees and must have a positive attitude. Orders
must be clear and unambiguous.

f) Resolving Conflicts:

Continuous efforts must be made to reduce and minimize inter-personal and inter-
group conflicts. The genesis of the conflict must be identified and the solution must
be such that it satisfies the interest of both parties albeit not fully. Healthy employee
relations can be developed through an integrative and problem-solving approach in
which both the parties gain satisfaction of their needs in a co-operative manner and
not at the expense of one another. Such a situation requires impartial, continuous and
positive communication with the parties concerned.
 g) Conditioning Behaviour:

Conditioning the behaviour of people is one of the effective ways of building healthy
employee relations at work. This involves the use of positive and negative
reinforcements. Rewards must be used to reinforce desirable behaviour while
punishment must be used to discourage undesirable behaviour. The most important
aspect being that the managers must themselves have exemplary conduct.

h) Personnel Counseling:

An ideal manager must have big ears to listen to all the problems, a pair of big eyes to
observe things, a big head to analyze and arrive at an effective solution, a big tummy
to keep things confidential and a small mouth to speak less. Thus a manager must
listen patiently and help expeditiously resolve the problems faced by workers both
inside and outside the organization. Counseling reduces the build up of tension and
improves their self-confidence. The employee feels at home in the four walls of the
factory or office.
Question 2: Discuss any five important elements of good organizational culture.

Answer 2:

Essential Elements of a Good Organizational Culture

a)    Vision, Mission and Values

The vision, mission and core values of the organization must not only be clearly written
down, displayed prominently but also be integrated as key statements of purpose and
philosophy into the recruitment and orientation programs, internal company
communications, training and development schemes, methods of appraisal, recognition
and reward. It must be ensured that each and every employee of the organization is aware
of the vision, mission and values of the organization and is able to relate to it from his
own sphere of activities.

b)    New Staff Recruitment

All new recruitments must be done keeping the organization’s values and mission central.
Aspiring employees must be given adequate time to get to know these aspects before they
come and join as members of the team. All prospective employees must be screened with
tools like profiling available in the market today.

c)    New Staff Orientation

The new employees joining the organization must be actively helped in settling down and
given confidence of a long and productive career. Studies show that employees who get
thorough and thoughtful orientations will stay longer and contribute more throughout
their careers.

d)    Training & Development Programs

Investing in training and staff development programs is good. But many companies
engage a wide assortment of trainers and programs, making little effort to ensure a
smooth and beneficial integration. It must be ensured that all the trainers, be it outside or
in-house, are clearly aware of the organization’s vision, mission and values. They must
be able to describe the issues and major challenges facing their company today.

e)    Annual Appraisals

Annual appraisals must be a stamp of quality. If talent has to be retained, then the
assessment must be on the range, depth and volume of the employees’ ideas. If the
organization encourages open culture, the appraisals must also be on an open format. If,
however, a cross-functional and non-hierarchical communication is desired, a 360-degree
appraisal process must be employed. No amount of broadcasting company values will
matter if people are measured by other standards.
Question 3:

Mr.Kapoor is the CEO of Dream Décor Furniture’s Company. He has to diversify his
business. He wants to assess the leadership style of some of his senior managers.

Manager 1- (Has a high consideration for people and low for structure)

Manager 2 – (Has a high consideration for people and also high for structure)

Manager 3 – (Has a low consideration for people and high for structure)

Manager 4 – (Has a low consideration for people and low for structure)

Refer to the Grid approach and help Mr. Kapoor to clearly understand the leadership
styles for all the managers. Which style is best, according to you? Explain.

Answer 3:

Grid Approach of Leadership (Blake – Mouton)

The grid approach to leadership has been developed by R.R. Blake and J.S. Mouton. It
was primarily developed for assessing the personality of a leader in terms of his concern
for task and concern for people, and later, attempting behavioural modification in him
through Managerial Grid training program. Since each axis of the grid has 9 steps, a
leader’s performance can be plotted anywhere on 81 small boxes of grid by obtaining his
score with the help of a questionnaire. However, for the purposes of studying the styles of
leadership the grid can be divided into five main areas. These are shown in Figure Below:
Figure: Grid Approach of Leadership

i) Location 9, 1 Style (Task)

This style represents the task or mission oriented leader. He cares little about the feelings
of his group members. He believes in close supervision and proves impatient about the
slackness, delay or failure on the part of group members. This type of behaviour of leader
is suited for handling certain types of emergency conditions.

ii) Location 9, 9 Style (Team)

This type of leader tries to integrate both mission accomplishment and welfare of men.
He helps the development of those members of his group who are committed to the
achievement of organizational goals. Such members, with their stake in the
organization’s purpose, co-operate with each other and work in an interdependent
manner. They trust and respect each other and that helps them in creating a congenial
work environment. This makes the task of the leader easy. He works with conviction that
‘people support what they help to create’.
iii) Location 1, 9 Style (Country Club)

The leader belonging to this quadrant of the grid is also called the club manager. The
welfare of people is his sole aim. He is likely to fail in achieving organization’s time
bound objectives. Since his heart is full of compassion and he cannot see people
suffering. He lives with the idea that ‘a happy team produces the best results’.

iv) Location 1, 1 Style (Impoverished)

This is the non-involved type of leader. He neither causes any event nor directs any event
taking place on its own. He considers that mission accomplishment and welfare of people
are conflicting goals. The best results are achieved if the procedures established in the
past are allowed to continue. An organization headed by such a leader can consider itself
lucky if it could just maintain the standards of efficiency achieved under an earlier
dynamic leader.

v) 5, 5 Style (Middle Road)

This is the leader who follows ‘middle-of-the-road’ policy. He thinks that by being ‘firm
but fair’ he can achieve the best results. He is a compromiser. He strives to achieve
results without unduly upsetting the people. Such a leader is best suited to play the role of
a conciliator in the labor management conflicts.