Labor Management Relations

• Labor-management relations


  Dealings between management and workers about employment conditions
• Labor-management relations can refer to the collaboration of different unionized, or has the potential to be unionized, workforces of an organization
• If a good relationship between two parties (management and workers) is not established, it will result to strikes and lockouts against the industrial enterprise
• Industrial relations


  The relationships that exist within the industry between the employer and their workers
• Industrial relations is that part of management which is concerned with the relationships between management and workers, and the manpower of the enterprise
• Importance of understanding industrial relations

  • Ensures continuity of production, thus, uninterrupted flow of income for all
  • Reduces industrial disputes, therefore promoting cooperation and increasing production
  • Improves morale of employees resulting to complete unity of thought and action
  • Transforms outlook of both employers and workers, which ultimately results to industrial peace
  • Maintains reduction of wastages of man, materials and machines
• Human Resource Management


  Deals with individual employee-employer relationships
• Labor Relations


  Focuses on the unionized relationships between employer and employees
• Industrial Relations


  Involves the interaction between employees, employers, trade unions, the government and more. Also includes Human Resource Management and Labor Relations
• Institutionally, industrial relations was founded by John R. Commons when he created the first academic industrial relations program at the University of Wisconsin in 1920. Early financial support for the field

  came from John D. Rockefeller, Jr. who supported progressive labor-management relations in the aftermath of the bloody strike at a Rockefeller-owned coal mine in Colorado
• Prior to 1965, the voluntary system of industrial relations patterned along the British system was in practice
• Human Relations Approach


  • Workers can direct themselves if given the chance
  • Workers have capacity to grow and assume responsibility
  • Workers can be motivated by self
• Electronic Data Processing - The use of computers in business has been a trend since it provided ease to date storage. They are used in everyday work processes such as employee record keeping and in manipulation of records for layoff, seniority and skills registers
• Specialized functions of industrial relations workers

  • Supervised centrally by a director of industrial relations
  • Director has a number of assistants
  • Director reports directly to the president
• Functional requirements for a successful industrial relations program

  • Top-management Support
  • Sound Personnel Policies
  • Adequate Practices
  • Detailed Supervisory Training
  • Follow-up
• Industrial relations specializations

  • Handled centrally by the director of industrial relations
  • Director monitors each specialization and adjusts accordingly what needs to be improved or removed
  • Director can have several assistants and reports directly to the company president
• Top-management support


  • Industrial relations derives authority from the line organization, so the relations director reports to top management
  • Top management must set a good example for subordinates
  • Top management must balance human relations and monetary rewards

  
• Sound personnel policies


  • Statements of management intentions regarding industrial relations
  • They constitute a business philosophy for the guidance of the human‐relations decisions of the enterprise
  • Policies should be related to company objectives, easy to understand, precise, stable yet flexible, based on facts, appropriate in number, fair and equitable, reasonable, and periodically reviewed
• Adequate practices


  • Professionally developed systems of procedures to translate policy intentions into actions
  • Procedures and practices are "tools of management" that keep supervisors ahead of their job
• Detailed supervisory training


  • Industrial relations staff must train job supervisors in detail on policies and communicate their significance to employees
  • Training starts at the top and follows the line of authority downward
  • Supervisors must report back on training progress and results
• Follow-up of results


  • Industrial relations director must keep records and exercise control over industrial relations matters
  • The industrial relations director as a functional staff person has only “the authority of his ideas” but has no “police power”
  • Follow-up on turnover, absenteeism, morale, grievances, employee suggestions, and wage administration
• Public relations is the medium to sustain and build mutual understanding between an organization and the public
• Public relations


  • Involves the promotion of goods, services and images of organizations to create favor for a person, place or event
  • a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics
  • Purpose is to make the enterprise look good in every action
• Publics


  • Customers
  • Employees
  • Investors
  • Vendors
  • Suppliers
  • Media
  • Government
• Clients


  • Customers who buy goods or receive services from an organization
  • Can be individuals, profitable organizations, or non-profits
  • A non-profit is an organization which is not motivationally commercialized.
• Functions of public relations

  • Determine overall purpose/goals of the enterprise
  • Keep managers aware of public preferences and status
  • Suggest good public relations activities and identify unfavorable reactions
  • Relay company policy and actions to the media
• Types of public relations

  • Publicity
  • Events management
  • Publication design
• Publicity


  • Communication written and produced by PR professionals to create a favorable public image for a client
  • Can be in the form of text, images, video news spread through media
• Events management


  Conception, creation, development, scheduling, arrangement, coordination, talent sourcing, production, promotion, and execution of events
• Publication design


  Conception, writing, layout and production of presentation media like catalogs, brochures, manuals, flyers, websites, etc.
• Steps in public relations process

  • Research
  • Planning
  • Action and communication
  • Evaluation
• Public relations programs


  • Attitude surveys
  • Employee communication
  • Civic activity
  • Press relations
  • Radio, TV, and films
  • School programs
  • Employee Family Contacts
  • Professional Group Communications
• Public relations


  Helps the company to have a good and pleasing overall image whenever it interacts with the general public or with potential investors
• Advertising


  Concerned with informing the public about the product, and trying to sell that product to the public

  
  

  any form of non-personal communication involving the presentation and promotion of ideas, goods or services by an identified sponsor using media to persuade or influence people to buy”
• Difference between public relations and advertising

  Public relations is tasked to take care of the overall corporate image of the company, while advertising is concerned with ensuring that the company is making profit out of its operations
• Collective bargaining


  The process by which the management negotiates with a group of employees, helping to address the employees' needs
• Labor-management relations


  Covers the concepts of supervision, negotiation and government intervention, the plight of the ordinary employee against employers and the problems the employer has to face, the importance of information exchange and conflict-resolving skills, and how people can get along with one another in the workplace
• Wagner Act of 1935


  The United States' basic labor relations statute that governs the relationship among employers, employees, and their labor unions in the private sector, and led to the establishment of the National Labor Relations Board
• Taft-Hartley Act of 1947


  Also known as the Labor Management Relations Act; established remedies for Unfair Labor Practices committed by unions, including prohibitions on management interference, discrimination, and refusal to agree to collective bargaining
• Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959


  Also known as the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act; regulates internal union affairs, providing standards for disclosure and reporting of financial transactions and administrative processes, the administration of labor organizations, the rights of union members, and the election of officers