(TIỂU LUẬN) BUSM 4769 EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS COVER SHEET further information relating to the ,

Legal obligations, the Fair Work Act, policies, standards, and relevant award/s for the chosen organization.... Your goals and objectives for effective employment relations in the chosen

BUSM 4769 EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS

COVER SHEET

Title of Assignment Assignment 3 - ER Portfolio

Name and student ID Le Huy Dieu Khoa - s3757315

Word Count

(Main content without list of

references, cover page, etc.)

2114 words

IMPORTANT NOTICE: All students listed on this page declare that they have read and agree to the statement of authorship on the next page.

Declaration and Statement of Authorship

1 I/we hold a copy of this assignment which can be produced if the original is lost/damaged

2 This assignment is my/our original work and no part of it has been

copied from any other student’s work or from any other source except

where due acknowledgement is made

3 No part of this assignment has been written for me/us by any other

person except where such collaboration has been authorised by the

academic/teacher concerned and as detailed in the assignment

4 I/we have not previously submitted this work for any other course/unit

5 I give permission for my assignment to be scanned for electronic checking of plagiarism

6 I give permission for a copy of my/our marked work to be retained by the Department for review by external examiners

I/we understand that:

Plagiarism is the presentation of the work, idea or creation of another person as though it is one’s own It is a form of cheating and is a very serious academic

offence which may lead to expulsion from the University

Plagiarised material can be drawn from, and presented in, written, graphic and visual form, including electronic data, and oral presentations Plagiarism occurs when the origin of the material used is not appropriately cited

Enabling Plagiarism is the act of assisting or allowing another person to plagiarise or

to copy one’s work; this is not acceptable and is also subject to penalty

Further information relating to the penalties for plagiarism, which range from a notation on your student file to expulsion from the University, is contained in RMIT Statute 6.1 Student Discipline (see Appendix in Student Guide or consult Turing

Table of Contents

1 Your personal details 4

2 Your philosophy and understandings of employment relations for an organization of your choice 4

3 Your goals and objectives for effective employment relations in the chosen organization 5 4 Legal obligations, the Fair Work Act, policies, standards, and relevant award/s for the chosen organization 6

5 Organising and Unions 6

6 Individual Contracts and Collective Bargaining 7

7 Equal employment opportunities for staff 7

8 Unfair dismissal – approaches and ways to mitigate 8

9 Managing conflict in the chosen organization 8

10 Future of ER and casualisation 9

11 What key elements of international and comparative ER that you found will be beneficial for your chosen organization if they decide to go global 10

12 References 11

1 Your personal details

As a People & Culture Manager, I have a degree of bachelor in International

Business with a Minor in Human Resources I am confident that my communication

is clear and coherent enough to convey information to those around me Besides, I have many years of management experience at IKEA My role in the group is to share IKEA's values with my colleagues to inspire them to be more productive and to stay with the company, ensuring that the human development strategy meets the needs of the business and ensuring that operations comply with legal and regulatory requirements

In this portfolio, I will present how the employment relations (ER) links IKEA to the Board of Directors After that, I will set out the regulations in the country of

headquarter, Australia, the activities of the union, the conflicts between employees and the employer, and the direction of future development Finally, elements of international ER apply to IKEA for stronger global growth

2 Your philosophy and understandings of employment relations for an organization of your choice

ER is defined as those relating to economic policies, working conditions, trade unions, labor markets, and wage-determining mechanisms (Martin & Bamber 2002) More specifically, organizational policies can lead to not only the manifestation of employee behavior, attitudes, commitment and loyalty, but also the level of

productivity, experience and knowledge (Wilkinson & Fay 2011) When ER is not interconnected and operated effectively, it can cause the employee's performance to

be disrupted, ability to be underestimated and easy to create conflict, which can lead employee turnover increased (Iqbal 2010)

In this case, look back at the development of IKEA to gauge the management's efforts on the conglomerate's ER IKEA is the world's leading known furniture retailer founded in 1943 in Sweden (IKEA n.d.) After that, IKEA has expanded their business

to many countries around the world IKEA now has 430 stores operating in 52

countries and more than 4 billion online visits in 2020 (Fedschun 2020) During the period of operation and development, IKEA has always strived to keep up with

modern trends to apply the method of maintaining ER in the operating system, leading to the current success (Marlese & Jenna 2019) Since the values that the organization brings to meet the aspirations of the employees will make them more engaged and supportive of the organization (Kirkhaug 2009)

3 Your goals and objectives for effective employment relations in the chosen organization

Based on my experience, I have clear goals and objectives for effective ER

implementation at IKEA

Initially, it is important to define the right workplace culture while working at IKEA, which can greatly affect the trust, attitude, and morale of employees towards the employer (Savolainen 2000) These create core values for the organization that both employees and employers must focus on promoting in order to develop awareness, increase individual performance (Dumont, Shen & Deng 2017) After identifying the main values of the company, strategic human resource management (SHRM) will make recruitment and selection plans suitable to the competitive advantage of the corporation, then will open other programs training and guiding activities related to improving employer-employee relations (Huselid & Becker 2011)

Second, one more goal that can drastically improve ER is to create recognition in the workplace By recognizing the outstanding achievements of individuals and

rewarding or creating additional career opportunities for employees, especially the young, they can be encouraged to work harder and commit more to gain more achievements (Busch, Venkitachalam & Richards 2008) The interaction between employers and employees and allowing employees to perform to their full potential is critical to organizational performance at IKEA (Dora Comms 2018)

Finally, creating a habit of communicating clearly, consistently, and transparently in IKEA will help prevent unfortunate misunderstandings and scandals that should not

be there (Press & Arnould 2014)

4 Legal obligations, the Fair Work Act, policies,

standards, and relevant award/s for the chosen

organization

Due to the fact that IKEA operates in the retail sector, thereby strictly following government-enforced regulations and policies is mandatory IKEA has a

responsibility to comply with employment and labor protection regulations in

Australia, as outlined in The Fair Work Act 2009 The Act contains provisions that prohibit discrimination and ensure fairness in the workplace for any companies working in Australia (Fair Work Ombudsman n.d.) In addition, IKEA is also required

to comply with the provisions of The Competition and Consumer Act 2010 (Cth) and the Australian Consumer Law, which sets out rules for product safety, labeling as well as consumer rights and guarantees (Australian Consumer Law n.d.) For the relevant award category, IKEA will follow the General Retail Industry Award 2020 (Fair Work Ombudsman n.d.) This award has terms for wages and allowances for employees and helps employers understand the requirements of the award in detail (Employment Innovations n.d.)

5 Organising and Unions

Organising and unions have interdependence, which shows a correlation between union membership and economic performance (Scruggs & Lange 2002) However, the greater the number of union members, the greater the challenge for employers to deal with internal problems (Clark 2009) Therefore, the organising in the company often decentralizes the power of the union through making recruitment at the

workplace level and giving encouragement to employees to do their own work

A union is a group of workers who share a common goal and help workers voice up about justices in the workplace The union at IKEA is considered to have a great influence on the company because it progresses the working environment for

employees and enforces regulations related to employment-related issues Thus, the union has a close association with the ER of IKEA Group Furthermore, workers can achieve higher wages, stable seniority and improved productivity through the voice

of unions (Bacon & Hoque 2011)

In general, both the organising and the union have complementary influence and interaction on the operations of IKEA

6 Individual Contracts and Collective Bargaining

An individual contract is a legal document that binds employers and employees to agreements relating to labor regulations and working conditions (Peetz 2002) Individual contracts are tailored to each employee differently, which will dictate any amendments, collective agreements, awards Regarding salary and company rules, the flexibility of individual contracts is highly appreciated in the negotiation process between employees and employers However, Australian Law 2009 prohibited the use of individual employment arrangements below the statutory minimum wage and conditions because those arrangements are not considered part of a fair workplace relations system (Fair Work Act 2009) This means that all businesses operating in Australia must negotiate with workers based on collective agreements (Walpole 2015)

Collective bargaining is the negotiation of terms and conditions of employment to suit the working environment of the company based on state regulations, taking place between trade unions and management (Cella 2012) It is related to the common goal of the group of workers, not to any particular individual like individual

bargaining Collective bargaining can help increase wages, upgrade facilities at work

or even promote equality at the company (Doellgast & Benassi 2020) Therefore, effective collective bargaining will improve ER as well as create solid mutual trust between the parties

For IKEA, the company uses the Enterprise Agreement created from the collective labor agreement between the employer and the union representing the employees based on the Fair Work Act 2009 (IKEA Enterprise Agreement 2017)

7 Equal employment opportunities for staff

Equal employment opportunity (EEO) means that all employees have equal

opportunities to work regardless of gender, culture, color, political background, religion, property (Stoilkovska, Ilieva & Gjakovski 2015) Employees are treated equally in all employment matters starting with the recruitment process EEO is

required by law to protect employees during recruitment or promotion, fight

discrimination, and limit injustice in the work environment Moreover, seeing the trend that society is moving towards, large corporations promote equal working opportunities as a competitive advantage for them This suggests that EEO is closely linked to corporate HR strategies, which demonstrates improved organizational commitment and consistency in decisions (Kossek & Pichler 2008) The benefits brought from EEO are to increase interpersonal interaction among employees, improve communication skills, remove inherent prejudices, develop depth of talent pool, reinforce performance and organizational processes

At IKEA, there is always an equality policy for employees because IKEA believes that the values created by diversity will make the company stronger and more solid (IKEA n.d.)

8 Unfair dismissal – approaches and ways to mitigate

An unfair dismissal is a situation described as when an employee is dismissed in a rude manner or the grounds for dismissal are unreasonable (Fair Work Ombudsman n.d.) In similar cases, employees who are dismissed on grounds of inadequacy have the right to proceed with an application form and submit it to the Fair Work Commission Under the Fair Work Act 2009, the relevant court dealing with unfair dismissal cases is Fair Work Australia (Southey 2010) To mitigate this situation, unfair dismissal law promotes human resource management strategies that involve more equitable practices (Don 2005) However, this regulation also causes

undesirable side effects for employees, such as reducing the chances of future job search for candidates who have changed jobs many times without clear reasons, firms are less likely to hire long-term unemployed people or who are less

knowledgeable than the average person (Don 2002)

9 Managing conflict in the chosen organization

Conflict is an interactive process manifested in disagreement, incompatibility, or difference between individuals, groups, or organizations (Rahim 2002) Conflict can also lead to positive or negative consequences for the organization Hence, conflict management requires managers, especially those in the human resources

department, to put in a lot of effort to come up with the most effective management method

There are many ways to effectively manage workplace conflict Firstly, focus on the rational and emotional aspects of the issue that cause the conflict because they stem from conflicting or discordant opinions Then, the manager can apply communication and negotiation methods until everyone reaches an agreement (Saeed et al 2014) Second, managers or leaders can create a common communication culture for the organization because differences in cultural background of each individual can lead

to misunderstandings Since then, clear communication between person-to-person

or person-to-group will help to transmit information more accurately, reducing conflict between parties (Sudhakara 2015) Finally, use conflict as a new development opportunity, which the employer can influence to let employees come up with

creative ideas, innovation, and stimulate the development of work skills (Posthuma 2011) Effective conflict resolution not only makes employees more satisfied about their jobs but also improves the leadership skills of managers, tightens the ER of the company

10 Future of ER and casualisation

The employer-employee relationship has long been addressed by the ER as it is the catalyst between the labor hierarchy by communication and interaction (Godard 2014) Recently, the sudden development of technology platforms has had various impacts on business operating systems, especially ER (Gall 2000) Technology creates management systems to track work productivity and analyze workforce performance, making it easy for employers to assess business performance (Stein, Galliers & Markus 2013) However, the development of technology also creates many challenges for ER in the organization This is because its convenience has replaced people in many different fields, which those in positions with alternative technology face a high risk of losing their jobs (Ford 2015)

Overall, there is an interplay between ER and the development of artificial

intelligence in organizational innovation.Employees must upgrade themselves in order to acquire the qualifications and skills to handle technology to improve

operational efficiency and competitiveness of both individuals and organizations (Carruth & Carruth 2013)

11 What key elements of international and

comparative ER that you found will be beneficial for your chosen organization if they decide to go global

An international ER is an ER that transcends the boundaries of one country and contact with relevant international organizations of different cultures, religions, and political systems (Wright et al 2017) There are 2 types of operations for

international ER The first is a free market economy, which determines wages and skill requirements based on the coordination between the market in that region and the organization to expand the business The second is a coordinated market

economy, which tends to organize business activities through non-market

mechanisms such as multi-employer collective bargaining (Hall & Soskice 2001) There are many problems of a corporation that wants to expand internationally or globally, requiring rapid adaptation There is a language difference, which leads to misunderstandings, confusion in communication, making decisions can be

misunderstood (Lansbury et al 2016) In addition, knowing the legal regulations in the countries where the company does business also has a great influence on the operating system, ensuring that the company's development strategy does not violate the law