Industrial Relations in Aviation and Creating the Multicultural Organization - Literature review Example

Name Class Unit Industrial Relations (IR) The article by Bussell (2010) looks at the industrial relations (IR) in the aviation industry. The article looks at the IR issues in the industry through a practioner perspective. The article starts by outlining that the cost of getting the IR wrong can be bankruptcy for the industry. The first area that the article looks at is providing adequate information about the airline industry so that it can provide a specific perspective on IR. The second area that the article looks at is the national debate on IR. The article addresses the issues of IR through Qantas Airlines in Australia (Bussell, 2010). The report outlines that airline industry is low margin, low return, highly competitive and needs high investments. The three main important outcomes to the airline industry are cost control, wage control and the industrial relations. This has made airlines such as Qantas to be tough on their industrial relations policy. Competition is high both domestically and internationally with Qantas losing its share of international market. The decline of air ticket costs poses a major problem to the industrial relations. This is due to fact labour cost plays a key part in the total cost structure (Baird, 2011). The wages have become competitive and control of wages is fundamental to the airline industry (Morley, Gunnigle & Collings, 2006). The article explains that when an airline loses control of their costs, the results are; aging aircrafts, uncompetitive products and decline as was the case of Ansett. Qantas has a tough IR to remain profitable and provide employment (Bussell, 2010). The article points out that the safety net was strengthened by the Fair Work Act and expansion of that Legislated national Employment Standards. This has protected employees from unfair dismissal established awards and special arbitration for low paid employees in the industry. The safety net in the industry has helped the employees to reduce venerability when bargaining with employer. The article states that Qantas has comprehensive human resource policies which have enhanced the employee safety. There is the introduction of the “good faith bargaining” which requires the employer to be involved in collective bargaining. This also implies that the parties involved in the IR will not have obligations and responsibilities. The airline experience with the new bargaining rules is limited (Bussell, 2010). Under the fair Work Act, the future agreements in the industry will be carried out directly with the employees as opposed to the unions. This according to the article will compromise individual and collective interests (Kelly, 2002). Under the new flexible arrangements, the employees have a right to walk away from any agreements if they provide a 28 days notice. This makes it hard for the unions to manage the evolving trends. The article concludes that the current legislation have tension. Fair Work which is seen as repeal to WorkChoices is an extension of the safety net. The article sees enterprise bargaining as the centre of the aviation industry relations. This makes it fundamental to the airlines such as Qantas for their success to understand enterprise bargaining (Bussell, 2010). Diversity Initiatives The article in question written by Singh (2010) looks at how McDonald restaurant which serves more than 56 million customers daily have become a leader in diversity hiring and retention. The article gives the view of the diversity management team from the McDonald’s Hamburger University in Chicago. The main emphasis given by the news article is the fact that McDonald’s long term sustainability is based on diversity. The company strategy in diversity is training professionals from different backgrounds and identifying those with potential. The company has 73% of its employees being women and people of color (Singh, 2010). The article asserts that diversity has been central to every element in McDonalds’ workplace as well as the product line. Inclusion and diversity have been incorporated as part of the organisation policy. Through Global Inclusion and Intercultural Management team, the organization has numerous roles and looks at every individual which have enhanced diversity. Diversity in McDonalds has been embraced by different departments such as talent acquisition, education and also through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). To enable diversity, McDonalds have used top leadership commitment (Singh, 2010). Diversity has been incorporated as part of the organization strategic plan and also linked to performance. During recruitment, the organisation puts efforts to attract qualified employees from different backgrounds. The article shows that the management at McDonalds’ has a responsibility to meet the diversity goals. Advantages of diversity are varied. Having a diverse workforce ensures there is synergy (Carr-Ruffino, 1996). When a diverse group of workforce comes together, they are able to enhance creativity in the organisation (Mor, 2005). Use of diverse workforce enables the organisation to have a large pool of employees to choose from. The business is also able to improve its reputation hence gaining more customers. This has been the case of McDonalds who, according to the article are among the leading organizations in diversity (Singh, 2010). Despite the advantages that McDonalds has been enjoying due to embracing of diversity, they face some problems. In some cases, the members of the majority groups may feel isolated and take it that the minority groups are receiving better treatment (Cox, 2001). Diversity practices such as diversity management carried out by McDonalds is costly. The organisation has to invest a lot in diversity by hiring of experts. Despite the commitment of McDonalds to achieving diversity, the positive outcomes are not always attained. The organisation may become frustrated by not achieving the expected competitive advantage (Maier, 2005). Some of the employee sees diversity training in the organisation as useless and waste of resources. This may lower the level of employee commitment to diversity. Success in diversity is not an easy task (Singh, 2010). The global competition and financial controls make it hard to meet the diversity requirements (Cox, 2001). To avoid failure of the diversity process, McDonalds have to ensure that dedication and efforts of those involved are enhanced. McDonalds have to ensure that diversity in work environment portrayed in the article is maintained. A synchronized society will have a better performance (Mor, 2005). A diverse workforce as seen in MacDonalds is in a better position to meet the customer needs and attain high profitability (Singh, 2010). Ethics The article by Christina, Richard & Cate (2012) looks at the ethical issues that BP has faced in its operations. The article outlines the issues regarding employees’ safety, environmental pollution and unsafe performance conditions. The article focuses on the Deepwater Horizon in the Gulf of Mexico, which had an explosion in 2010. This was the biggest oil spillage in the petroleum industry with 11 employees losing their lives and 17 others being injured. During investigations, the article points out that BP was found to have been unethical which led to the disaster. The article points out that BP installed a cheap oil platform which was risky to use endangering the lives of employees and the environment. Seafood and tourism industry was also indirectly affected by the disaster. The organisation CEO lacked professional behaviour in handling the issue which led to BP jeopardising their social responsibility. The article points out that the decisions made by BP days and hours prior to the disaster was unethical (Christina, Richard & Cate, 2012). The organisation negligence caused the loss of lives to their employees. According to the article, a lot of actions that were undertaken during construction of the oil platforms were negligent of employees’ safety. BP made decisions that were aimed at saving costs at the expense of safety which was unethical. The oil company negligence caused a heavy toll on the rig, employees and the area inhabitants. The article points out BP actions that led to disaster which are, few barriers to gas flow, misinterpretation of pressure tests, premature removal of mud barrier, use of few centralisers and failure of the blowout preventer (Christina, Richard & Cate, 2012). Organisations have an ethical responsibility to ensure that their employees are working in a safe environment (McEwan, 2001). They have to make sure they are in compliant with the environmental laws in place and avoid compromising them (Griseri, 1998). In this case, BP failed in all aspects of ethics, especially ensuring that their employees are in good working conditions and the safety of those around. The company had 11 of their employees died and 17 suffering injuries. This is an ethical matter of negligence to the employees (Parrott, 2010). The way the management handled the disaster compromised their ethical conduct. There was a lot of blame game during the investigations. This led to some of their customers boycotting their products leading to loss. BP also lost investors at the time due to the way they handled the crisis. The organisation was seen as more concerned on cost reduction even when there was need to spend more in order to avert risk. According to the article, BP pledged to compensate the victim of the disaster. BP was later accused of lack of transparency in paying the claims. BP was forced to make the process more transparent and ensured that its compensation remained in place till 2013 (Christina, Richard & Cate, 2012). The article concludes that there is an urgency to examine the relationship that exists between BP organisation structure and their contractors. References Baird, M. (2011). Industrial relations. Los Angeles: SAGE. Bussell, S. (19 April 2010). Turbulent Times – A Practitioner’s Perspective of Industrial Relations in Aviation, Laffer Lecture, University of Sydney. Carr-Ruffino, N. (1996). Managing diversity: People skills for a multicultural workplace. Stamford, CT: Thompson Executive Press. Christina, I., Richard, M. L., & Cate, R., (2012). BP and the Deepwater Horizon Disaster of 2010, MITSloan management. Cox, T., Jr. (2001).Creating the multicultural organization: A strategy for capturing the power of diversity. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Griseri, P. (1998). Managing values: Ethical change in organisations. Basingstoke: Macmillan. Kelly, J. E. (2002). Rethinking industrial relations: Mobilization, collectivism and long waves. London: Routledge. Maier, C. (2005). A conceptual framework for leading diversity. International Journal of Human Resources Development and Management, Vol.5, no1., p.412-424. McEwan, T. (2001). Managing values and beliefs in organisations. Harlow, England: Financial Times/Prentice Hall. Mor B. M. (2005). Managing diversity: Toward a globally inclusive workplace. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications. Morley, M., Gunnigle, P., & Collings, D. G. (2006). Global industrial relations. London: Routledge. Parrott, L. (2010). Values and Ethics in Social Work Practice. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd. Singh, A. (2010). McDonald's Makes Diversity About the Bottom Line, Forbes, Retrieved 27 November 2014 from, http://www.forbes.com/sites/csr/2010/09/08/mcdonalds-makes- diversity-about-the-bottom-line/ Read More