The Fair Work Act - Assignment Example

Take-Home Examination Name: Institutional Affiliation: Take-Home Examination PART A Question 1: The Fair Work Act dictates that an enterprise agreement needs to entail certain terms that are mandatory in nature. Enterprise agreements must have a precise flexibility terms that enable individuals to enjoy flexibility arrangements. Modern awards also call for this clause. The failure of an arrangement to include the above clause will call for the application for a model term. The Act emphasizes on an application and nature of any flexibility term and the flexibility of an individual’s arrangement. An individual flexibility arrangement refers to an agreement between an employer and the individual worker. This agreement derogates from the conditions of the award or enterprise agreement. Concerning the model clause, the terms of the employer and the individual employee may vary with a wide range issues such as overtime rates, allowances, penalty rates and leave loading (Hugh, 2000, p91). One-sided flexibility The aforementioned Act requires a genuine agreement between an employer and an individual worker to have to individual flexibility arrangements. It must result into better employees than ever before; the agreement must be in formal writing and only related to the law. All the above all issues of procedure that guarantees an individual with regards to the prevailing inequalities experienced by most employees in their relationship with their employers. Instances where employers have not obeyed individual flexibility arrangements exist. Some of them have often operated in an impartial and one-sided fashion whereby employers give employees letter to sign and later return them to employers within a specified period. This suggests that breaching of any agreements under the Fair Work Act by the employer should lead to termination of the arrangement by the mutual agreement by issuing a notice (Hugh, 2000, p195). Implications for collective bargaining of an individual flexibility clause Enterprise agreements that are collectively bargained can be undermined in different ways. Regarding the individual flexibility arrangements, undermining of collective bargaining occurs when individual arrangements calls for fundamental changes in the terms and content of the bargained enterprise agreement. From the perspective of the International Human Rights Law, the Fair Work Act has correctly interpreted the flexibility term. The protection of the right to collective bargaining in international human rights law and the industrial relations framework The international human rights law protects individuals from the right to bargain collectively through the freedom of association clause. Unionists and workers use the right to bargain as a means of making sure that human rights are protected. The right to collectively bargain states that there is an equal relationship between an employer and an individual worker. The international human rights law protects the right to collectively bargain in numerous treaties. Despite the excessive emphasis on collective bargaining provided by the Fair Work Act at the enterprise level, there is no significant shift from the predecessor (Kling, 1995, p.29). Evidently, there are critical questions relating to the mandatory inclusion of clauses of flexibility in modern awards and enterprise agreements from the International Human Rights perspective. The International Human Rights framework provides a critical way of reflecting on labor laws through addressing some issues of human dignity. It also provides a vital basis used in campaigning around social justice issues. Question 5 An organization can easily attain competitive advantage through developing its capability and resources. For any organization to cope with rivals in the market, it has to sustain its competitive advantage. An organization that seeks to achieve competitive advantage must have resources that are of high value, competitors must not emulate them easily and resources that are not easily substituted. Organizational resources include both tangible and intangible such as management skills, machines, knowledge, information, and organizational routines. Resources come in the form of employees’ capabilities and resources. Employee capabilities work together with resources to improve the productivity of an organization. Resources are vital and must not be copied by competitors. The resources perspective emphasizes on the organization’s management of its resources. It promotes the creation of strategic management focuses on the internal resources of an organization with an aim of increasing productivity (Stone, 2004, pp 101). The resource perspective provides a link between human resource and competitive advantage of an organization. Competitors can easily copy some human resource practices thus; they cannot help an organization attain a competitive advantage. Competitive advantage can be achieved through having a human resource bundle that is highly skilled and motivated. An ambiguous and synergistic HR system could be different from other HR practices thus becoming too difficult to be emulated by rival organizations. Resources are unique, and firms have a unique history of resources. Organizations take time to develop their resources thus competitors are not likely to meet the same conditions. This resource-based perspective suggests that organizations should focus on their internal resources such as intellectual and physical as sources of competitive advantage (Stone, 2004, p157). Organizations must be able to meet customers’ demands and preferences thus they are required to be more attentive to product modifications and improvements. Highly skilled and motivated employees are fundamental to a firm because they have the capability to transform ideas into products that are marketable. This process of transformation calls for employees who are innovative in decision-making, teamwork, and quality circles. As a result, firms ought to provide extensive training to employees so that they can enhance their ability, skills, and knowledge. Such development activities are likely to generate improvements in the product quality (Stone, 2004, pp 411). However, firms are experiences a monumental challenge when it comes to retaining skilled employees. This is because firms are competing for resources in order to attain and sustain competitive advantage in the market. Firms are competing to own and sustain the right employees for the right purpose. Therefore, it is necessary for firms to provide quality compensation packages as well as job security. Moreover, firms are facing uncertain market conditions. Therefore, it is vital for HR managers to focus on human resource planning (DuBrin, 2008, p.247). Organizations operating in declining industries face a challenge of declining customer demands and competitors. Such firms do not need much employee participation in modifying customer demands and improving the quality of products. Such firms usually adopt a strategy of cost reduction. In addition, they tend to have routine HR practices. Therefore, such firms do not need human resource practices that are costly or even still, they do not need to be innovative. In summary, the performance of an industry and employees will affect the relationship between the firm’s performance and the HPWS through influencing the adoption of HRM practices. Therefore, this suggests that the relationship between employee productivity and HPWS can be moderated by industry growth. Similarly, the relationship between employee innovation and HPWS can be moderated by industry growth (Stone, 2004, p444). Question 6: The above theme can be well explained through the theory of competing interests in the current workplace changes. The pluralist industrial relations assume that labor markets have stopped being competitive. Employment relations are experiencing a conflict of interest; employees are mere human beings and not factors of production. The above assumptions produce a theoretical angle of the employment relationship that is different from the other perspectives of the employment relationship: human resource management, neoclassical relations, and critical industrial relations. According to the theory of neoclassical economics, conflict is not a crucial factor, sellers and buyers of products are simply looking for transactions that maximize their utility. The primary purpose of work is to earn money so that an individual can afford consumption and leisure (Ryckman, 2004, pp121). On the other hand, human resource management, pluralist industrial relations, and critical industrial relations do not support rational economic and competitive markets. However, each of them supports a different perception of the employment relationship conflicts. Human resource management emphasizes on a unitary perception of conflict whereby employment practices and policies can align both the interest of employers and employees. However, the Marxist industrial relations spectrum is based on unequal power relations among different classes in the society. The above perceptions suggest that numerous competing interests such as lower labor costs versus higher wages characterize employment relationships flexibility versus employment security, high output versus secured working environment, shared interests among employees, profitable employees, productive workers and a healthy economy. In summary, employment relationship conflict qualifies to be a pluralist rather than pathological (Ryckman, 2004, pp 237). The above contrasting perceptions of employee conflicts are necessary in understanding the theory of pluralist industrial relations. Industrial relations are well analyzed by institutions such as trade unions. This is because such institutions provide alternative methods of mediating conflicts n interest. According to pluralist industrial relations, places of work are highly influenced by the external environment and not the political class. The concept of pluralist industrial relations cannot be well analyzed in class. Pluralist argues that conflict has a direct relationship with the fairly competitive labor markets. Early research studies suggest that labor problems are attributed to the power of large corporations, which appear to be superior compared to individual employees. This superior power is derived from imperfections in the market: lack of resources, mobility costs, isolated company towns, and excess labor supply. The above perspective seeks for unions as a mechanism for leveling the playing field between employers and employees. This promotes the optimal operation of markets and does not interfere with market operations as other theories have suggested (Ryckman, 2004, pp 312). The pluralist argues that the structures of the labor markets should provide the benchmarks upon which judgment on policy interventions are made. Research indicates that the impact of minimum wage laws does not comply with models of compensations. This call for labor unions to ensure a combination of factors thus employers will not have the power of monopoly (Ryckman, 2004, pp 401). This means that there can be imperfect labor markets as employers seek to attract highly skilled workers. If employers do not observe employees’ investment in human capital, there could be a bargaining problem in the employment relationship. The above theories conclude that workers have complex interest at the workplace. Managers and employees do not make decisions on a pure and rational basis. Workers might go on strike if they are facing frustration and aggression. Wage outcomes might be affected by coercive comparisons. Additionally, internal labor markets might be at odds with competitive forces because of the complexity. PART B Question 1: At MailCo, the Union is involved in the process of making crucial decisions about changes in the corporate policy. This standard procedure is unique and makes the company a lovely place to work. The company has a scheme that encourages employees to submit their suggestions on how to improve machine performance. In addition, employees are allowed to have a sense of ownership in everything they do thus they enjoy their work. When such freedom is exercised at workplace, employees feel that they are doing the right thing. The feedback system at the company allows employees to be aware of the status of their suggestions and recommendations. The company’s leadership considers most of their suggestions positively. Question 2: Cite specific examples: (a) Formal and informal rules Formal: job blocks – This involves the job rotation policy. Employees are supposed to change their tasks after every hour or two hours allowing them to be flexible at the workplace. Informal: No one has explained to Bill the meaning of an HPO and assumes that it is related to introducing work groups. (b) Substantive and procedural rules Procedural: State mangers are in charge of controlling the implementation of policies. Bill has to abide by a group of state officers who have been allocated at the MailCo with the primary purpose of conducting industrial relations. Substantive: the state is involved in all negotiations such as the EBA. The state is responsible for approving any Bill negotiations to be adopted between MailCo and any company. (c) The different ways in which rules are recorded: Most rules are recorded in print form like manuals, employment letters, contracts, and company magazines. All the above modes of recording company rule would make it easy for every employee to access the rules thus avoiding cases of employees breaching rules. Question 3: The first strategy would be to discuss, review, and agree with the senior management on the strategic direction to take. I will advice the team to select a neutral facilitator. This is because the person chosen will help in overcoming the group’s dynamics, processes, and interpersonal issues. I would suggest that we begin by reviewing the firm’s future possibilities and current state. SWOT analysis would be the best because it will enable us to identify the firm’s strength and key capabilities in people, products, customers, and resources. After we have agreed on the strategies, implementation would be the next step. Most failures occur in this section while strategic plans might affect entire company. Ii would recommend the total communication effort method of implementation. This involves posters, memos, slogans, events, websites, and videos. A key success indicator would be whether the senior team buys into my strategy. If a highly visible leader of the CEO appears to champion my strategy, then this indicates high chances of success. Question 4: Currently, there are so many technologies introduced with an aim of saving on labor costs. However, some technological devices increase workload and stress rather than reducing. Introduction of internet at Fedex has made most employees work longer hours than expected. When the internet connection goes down at the company, most employees feel that they have been cut off. Research indicates that, with the introduction of internet, employees ate the company rarely go out for lunch. They would rather take their lunch at their tables while busy on their computers. Clearly, new technology has made employees work longer hours. This means that it is difficult for them to get away and switch off from the internet. Question 5: As a leader, I would get to the cause of the problem affecting work performance. Because the performance of the entire organization is affected by a single employee performance, I would tend to seek for a quick solution. Such solutions include organizing for trainings or shifting employees to different departments. Performance requires both motivation and ability. Improving Motivation: Sometimes employees perform poorly because of low or lack of motivation. In this case, I would work closely with them to ensure that I create a pleasant working environment. I would observe the following key factors to intervene and improve their motivation: 1. Setting of performance objectives 2. Provision of systems of performance assistance 3. Provision of systems and mechanisms of performance feedback As such, employees will be aware of what is expected of them and agree on the necessary assistance provided in order for them to improve on their performance. Word Count: 2454 References DuBrin, A. J. (2008). Essentials of Management. New York: Cengage Learning Hugh C. (2000). Legal Regulation of the Employment Relation. New York: Kluwer Law International Kling, J. (1995). High Performance Work Systems and Firm Performance. Monthly Labor Review, pp29-36 Ryckman, R. (2004). Theories of Personality. Washington: Greenwood Press. Stone, K. (2004). From Widgets to Digits: Employment Regulation for the Changing Workplace. Michigan: Pearson Prentice Hall Read More