Employee relations policies and approaches

Employee relations policies describe what type of relationships between management and employees are needed and how the pay-work bargain should be managed based on the philosophy of the organization (Armstrong, 2010). Creating and maintaining a positive, productive, corporative and trusting climate of employee relations should be the main objective of employee relation policies (Armstrong, 2010).

The areas that can be covered according to Armstrong (2010) are,

• The employment relationship: the level to which terms and conditions of employment should be administered by using collective agreements or using individual contracts of employment. This can also be described as collectivism vs individualism.
• Trade union recognition: recognition or derecognition of trade unions, which are the preferred trade union or unions to the organization to deal with, and the decision on whether it's desirable to recognize one union for collective bargaining and/or employee representation.
• Collective bargaining: this describes the scope of areas to be covered under collective bargaining if unions are recognized with negotiating rights.
• Managing workplace conflict: explains how disputes are resolved and grievances should be settled.
• Participation and involvement: how much the organization is prepared to give the employee a voice on matters that concern them.
• Partnership: how much a partnership method is believed to be desirable.
• Synchronization of terms and conditions of employment for staff and other manual workers.
• Working arrangements: the level of right which management used to determine the working arrangements without reference to employees or trade unions if they are recognized.

The Unitary view:

Characteristically management holds the unitary view, they also see its purposes as that of directing and controlling the workforce to achieve economic and growth objectives. The main idea is that management finds it as a rule-making authority and they have a habit of seeing the enterprise as a unitary system with one source of authority. “Management’s right to manage” is sometimes how this expressed in arguments and this is basically falling under autocratic and authoritarian views (Armstrong, 2010).

Gennard and Judge (2002), describes that the unitary method understands organizations as harmonious and integrated in such a way that all employees share the organizational goals and work as a member of one team. A focus on mutual partnerships at work characterizes the unitary viewpoint. It rejects the assumption that there is a fundamental antagonism between employers and employees; conflict is largely caused by external agitators, trade unions, whose interference disrupts the harmonious state or otherwise existing relationships (Williams and Adam-Smith, 2010). As indicated by the lack of open conflict behavior, the unitarists are likely to see peace as proof of good employee relations. They are also likely to see the lack of alternative sources of employee loyalty inside the organization as proof of good control/prerogative management relationships, lack of alternative sources of employee loyalty within the company and efficient labor use as indicated by increased productivity and reduced unit costs (Leat, 2007).

The Pluralist View:

As described by Fox (1966), Industrial organization is considered as a plural society that is comprising many distinct but interconnected interests and objectives that must be maintained in some sort of a balance. In this view, management has to accept the presence of rival sources of leadership and attachment, in place of corporate unity, reflected in a single focus of authority and loyalty. This view certainly respects the workforce as being characterized by ‘an opposition that does not seek to govern’ (Armstrong, 2010).

Recognizing that different groups exist within an organization and that conflict can, and does, exist between employer and employees is the pluralist approach described by Gennard and Judge (2002).

From a pluralist viewpoint, the solution was not to resist the intervention of the unions as a way of reaffirming managerial authority, as the owners of unitary views, would argue; instead, better-negotiated ties between employers and unions should be promoted, given the advantages of establishing robust and efficient containment or institutionalization procedures, conflict through shared organizational control. Thus, until the 1980s, the pluralist perspective exerted a significant influence on both public policy and management attitudes towards employment relations, though not at the expense of the fundamental unitary convictions of the latter (Williams and Adam-Smith, 2010). As evidence of good employee relationships, the pluralist is likely to focus on the presence of active processes for conflict resolution. These mechanisms should be common, demonstrating the recognition and the willingness of management to resolve conflicts by shared decision making and compromise. It is also possible that employees with this perspective would point to the presence and recognition of successful trade unions as additional criteria to be fulfilled if workplace relationships are to be deemed good (Leat, 2007).

Below are the four approaches to employee relations according to Armstrong (2014),

1. Adversarial: In this approach, the organization makes the decision about what it really wants to do expect the employees to fit in. Employees can only exercise power by refusing to cooperate with those organization decisions.
2. Traditional: this is rationally a good everyday working relationship but still management makes the proposes. Workforce reacts through its selected elected representatives if there are any. If there are no elected representatives, they just accept the situation or walk.
3. Partnership: Employees get involved by the organization in both the drawing up and execution of policy phases in this method. However, the organization retains the right to manage.
4. Power Sharing: In this method, employees are involved in both everyday and strategic level decision-making processes.

The below chart describes how the organization's component parts are put together in terms of resources, processes people and their skills to form a strategic structure that will definitely provide the overall strategic direction.

Figure 2: Strategic employee relations management: an overview

(Gennard and Judge, 2005)

In Figure 2 above, they illustrate how employee relations strategies are developed – the business strategy drives the HRM strategy which drives employee relations strategies in turn, and the practices and policies that affect employment relationships are extracted from this process. Having reached this level of operational strategy, it is crucial that the various functions pay attention to how they organize themselves, not only to accomplish their goals but also to ensure synergy with the rest of the business (Gennard and Judge, 2005).

References

Armstrong, M. (2010). Armstrong's essential human resource management practice. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page, pp.297,298,299,309.

Armstrong, M. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. 13th ed. London: Kogan Page, p.406.

Gennard, J. and Judge, G. (2002). Employee relations. 3rd ed. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, p.208.

Gennard, J. and Judge, G. (2005). Employee relations. 4th ed. London: Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, p.48.

Leat, M. (2007). Exploring employee relations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, p.23.

Williams, S. and Adam-Smith, D. (2010). Contemporary employment relations. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.12-14.

Nature of the psychological contract

Stephen and Timothy (2002) explain the psychological contract as an unwritten agreement that exists between employees and employers. This agreement will define the mutual expectations, what management expects from workers and what workers will expect from the management. Also, management is usually expected to treat employees justly, provide acceptable working conditions, clearly communicate what is a fair day’s work, and finally give feedback on how well an employee is doing. Whereas employees are expected to respond by demonstrating a good attitude, following directions and showing loyalty to the organization (Stephen and Timothy, 2002). 

The current 'psychological contract' concept attempts to capture the idea of employees' explicit and implicit expectations about what their work will deliver (Edwards, 2003).The analysis of this definition of a psychological contract often emphasizes the importance of principles in and in the relationship of employment Equity, justice, dignity, and confidence are among the values that are often argued to be fundamental to the effectiveness of the employment relationship and the accomplishment of the goals of the organizations (Leat, 2007).

According to Rousseau (1989), the psychological contract can be defined as relations between organizations and their members that derive from two forms of unwritten contracts. Further, these are individual beliefs in a reciprocal obligation between the individual and the organization. The definition 'psychological contract' discusses many areas such as subjective expectations, beliefs and obligations and finally as perceived by the employer and the worker. This is the core to understanding employment relationship and this concept first emerged in the early 1960s. The concept of psychological contract has been primarily studied from the viewpoint of the employee through the notion describes the expectations of both employers and individual workers (CIPD, 2019).

CIPD (2019) further explains the legal contract of employment offers only a limited representation of the employment relationship on its own, mainly because workers contributing little to its terms beyond accepting them. In this logic, the psychological contract may be more influential as it explains the insights of the relationship between employers and workers and it influences how people behave from day to day. Everyday actions and statements made by one party – and how they are perceived and interpreted by the other is the core of how psychological contract is built on. Unlike the legal contract of employment signed by employers and workers, the psychological contract is intangible by nature (CIPD, 2019).

Armstrong (2014) defines the psychological contract as the expectations that exist between individual employees and their employers which is a set of reciprocals but unwritten.

The psychological contract is more than just a transaction regulated by a legal contract, it emphasizes that the relationship between employers and workers are much more. Like in any relationship, the length, and quality of their relationship can be significantly affected since both parties have informal expectations of each other that are even unwritten (CIPD, 2019). From my experience working for many local and multinational companies, most of these unwritten promises were fulfilled unless there is an organizational change that’s limiting the ability to do so.

Irrespective of the expectations of an individual worker, employers should be transparent about what they offer, and consult with the current and future workforce on the employee value proposition in order to manage the psychological contract effectively. Also, in order to understand and adjust the perceived balance of what employees contribute and what they get back, they should also strengthen the capability of line managers (CIPD, 2019).

Below are some general aspects that psychological contract may cover the employment relationship:

• Job security
• Career prospects
• Training and development
• Perceived fairness of pay and benefits
• Manager support
• Employer’s reputation and the impact on society

(CIPD, 2019)

Psychological contract provides a powerful foundation for the employers to pay attention to the ’human’ side of the employment relationship, such as individuals’ values, motivations, and ambitions. However, this varies across time and individuals. For example, job security is not something everyone desires these days and it is rarely the main offer of the modern employment relationship. But the availability of training and development like opportunities might be more attractive (CIPD, 2019). This is proven to be a fact-based on our company data gathered during initial job interviews because people these days are more keen to know about their career progression opportunities available and other training provided rather than asking about job security related questions.

As per Rousseau (1989), typically the development, maintenance, and violation of psychological and implied contracts are described along with their organizational implications. So, what would happen if management is derelict in keeping its part of the bargain is that it will then have negative effects on employee performance and satisfaction. According to a study done on restaurant managers, they have found that psychological contract violations were related to greater intentions to quit the job, another study conducted on a variety of different industries found they were associated with lower levels of productivity, higher levels of theft, and greater work withdrawal (Stephen and Timothy, 2002). One good example I can bring in from the organization I work for is that people who initially joined the company when its first launched in Sri Lanka, expected promotions or growth within a shorter time period and employers initially acknowledged but couldn’t cope up with that later mainly due to lack of results and growth of the company. Eventually, these employees left the company mainly due to this reason of the violation of the psychological contract.

References

Armstrong, M. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. 13th ed. London: Kogan Page, p.210.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2019, 12^th February 2019, London: The Psychological Contract [Online], Available https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/employees/psychological-factsheet#6110 [Accessed 13 September 2019].

Edwards, P. (2003). Industrial relations. 2nd ed. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing Ltd, p.15.

Leat, M. (2007). Exploring employee relations. 2nd ed. London: Routledge, p.9.

Rousseau, D. (1989). Psychological and implied contracts in organizations. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, [online] 2(2), pp.121-139. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226857215_Psychological_and_Implied_Contracts_in_Organisations [Accessed 12 September 2019].

Stephen, P. and Timothy, A. (2013). Organizational Behavior. 15th ed. Boston: Pearson, p.278.

Employee relations methods

Trade Union recognition

According to Kelly (2002), a trade union is an external organization with respect to a business enterprise. Further, it’s a separate social system which isn’t part of its organizational social system, however the membership of the two can overlap. Farnham (1997) further explains that trade union strategy should point the ways in which unions adapt their policies and objectives and in response to changing economic and social factors, employer initiatives and the framework of public policy within which employers and unions operate, they should adjust their means and methods.

They may participate in the making of internal rules either separately or jointly with management as spokesmen of workgroups in the enterprise. Also, they have a responsibility for enforcing its rules or the agreement that it has entered into with employers as representatives of their union (Kelly, 2002). Two main reasons why unions can fail to attract members are either because they don’t deliver the goods and services that workers expect, or they are unable to uphold the norm or social custom, which, in the absence of coercion, assures that a sufficient number of workers share in the cost of producing these goods and services (Visser, 2002). As per my own working experience, I have only been included once in a trade union out of six places I have worked so far and most of these new companies don’t have a trade union recognition as they are more focused on individual needs. 

Below chart is taken from the annual report done by Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy of UK Government on trade union statistics in the year 2019,

Figure 3: Trade union density by sector, 1995 to 2018

(GOV.UK, 2019)

According to this chart, there is a clear decline of trade union membership over the years in both the private and public sectors.    

                             

Collective bargaining

Collective bargaining will regulate the industrial relations system, as explained by Flanders (1970) as a social process that ‘continually turns disagreements into agreements in an orderly fashion’.Trade unions had steady growth through the first part of the twentieth century along with employer recognition of trade unions and public policy support for collective bargaining. Donovan Commission (1968:50) had a conclusion that ‘collective bargaining is the best method of conducting industrial relations’. Further, it is noted that multi-employer, industry-wide bargaining was not capable of imposing its decisions on the participants. Therefore, they recommended taking the initiative and responsibility for reforming collective bargain at company and plant levels by that management (Farnham,1997). My own experience is those collective bargaining methods are far more suitable for both employers and employees to come to certain agreements and works well being able to achieve expected results. Collective bargaining, and particularly multi-employer bargaining persisted throughout the 1990s and early 2000s in an almost inexorable decline. Further, according to WERS98, multi-employer bar-gaining influenced the wages of some or all workers in 34% of recognized trade union workplaces in 1998, compared to 68% in 1980 and 60% in 1990 (Rose, 2004).

Ultimately, HRM has been viewed as an open anti-union management strategy or as increasing the satisfaction of workers to reduce their need for unions. Besides, its beneficial effects on organizational performance should ensure that wage increases and other non-pecuniary gains are received by workers (Frege and Kelly, 2013). The employment relationship is concerned in part with groups of employees represented by trade unions. Therefore, the character of this representation is collective. Further, Employees who are collectively represented by trade unions may have greater power to influence decisions, such as pay levels and working conditions, than employees who are not members of trade unions (Rose, 2004).

References

Farnham, D. (1997). Employee relations in context. 2nd ed. London: Institute of Personnel Management, pp.33,287.

Flanders, A. (1970). Management and unions. London: Faber.

Frege, C. and Kelly, J. (2013). Comparative Employment Relations in the Global Economy. 1st ed. London: Routledge, p. 1 of chapter 6.

GOV.UK. (2019). Trade union statistics. [online] Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/trade-union-statistics [Accessed 10 Sep. 2019].

Kelly, J. (2002). Industrial relations. 1st ed. London: Routledge, p.46.

Rose, E. (2004). Employment relations. 2nd ed. London: Pearson Education, pp.4-667.

Visser, J. (2002). Why Fewer Workers Join Unions in Europe: A Social Custom Explanation of Membership Trends. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 40(3), pp.403-430.

Current developments in employee relations - Discussion Videos

Video 01: Current developments in employee relations

(Source : Ellis and Taylor, 2017)

In this video, CIPD Chief Examiner Stephen Taylor talks Employee Relations with Cecillia Ellis the Senior Human Resource Management Lecturer from Manchester Metropolitan University. They discuss the 3 most important current developments in employee relations. The first one they identify as employee voice. They have identified this as one of the key drivers in employee relations. As the second point, they are highlighting the area of conflict. Here they talk about both collective and individual conflicts and how they can affect. The third key area they talk about is around trust. They talk about the implications that could occur around attitude and behavior changes on employees and organizations. One of the challenges they highlight would be for organizations is to regain trust.

Video 02: Employment Relations in the USA: Current Trends

(Source : Bamber and Colvin, 2018)

In this video, Professor Greg Bamber and Professor Alex Colvin here talks about the latest trends in employee relations in the USA. They talk about the decline of the labor movement in America and its current influence. Also, they talk about how other countries try to revitalize the labor movement. They highlight the fact that the rise of individual rights in United States and its impact in these modern days. Interesting thoughts shared about the new development of radical movements in USA market. Finally, they do a comparison with USA and other countries about what’s happening in terms of employee relations which is quite interesting. 

Reference

Ellis, C. and Taylor, S. (2017). CIPD - Current developments in employee relations | Cecillia Ellis & Stephen Taylor. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGWIqDglqvE [Accessed 02 September 2019].

Bamber, G. and Colvin, A. (2018). Employment Relations in the USA: Current Trends. [video] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bvlz_MfGBRU [Accessed 01 September 2019].

Modern situation of employee relations

The role of industrial relations and their significance in the political, economic and cultural framework has not been questioned throughout most of the 20th century. But, factors such as enhanced globalization, technological progress, decreases in trade union size and the decentralization of collective bargaining, however, began to have a major effect on the structures of industrial relations from the 1980s onward (Caprile et al., 2017). Deogaonkar (2013) explains that the trend in staff relations also led to standardized processes and mechanization of the job duties being done by the staff with the growing development in technological trends in Industry. This has improved the quality of the job and also enhanced efficiency at the organizational level.

In the latest years, changes in some EU Member States have accelerated some of these long-term trends as a result of the economic and financial crisis, resulting in fresh developments: declining collective bargaining coverage; de-standardizing employment relationships; reducing the size of the workforce in the public sector; and changes in welfare schemes in many nations (Caprile et al., 2017). Deogaonkar (2013) describes the recent developments in technology that have enhanced analyzability, fast exchange of data. Accordingly, employees are becoming more system-oriented and the scope for the growth of individual staff levels is also increasing. According to Ravi (2011) in his article explains that in contrast, the multiplicity of trade unions and trade union rivalry in Sri Lanka resulted in opposing labour relations. Although there have been some changes over the past two decades in labour relations between employers and trade unions, these developments have been confined to individual workplaces. Further, nothing significant has been achieved at the macro level that has modified the structure of labour relations to fit business requirements.

A mixture of technology and strategy has an effect on the relationship between employees. So, the main drawback of the evolving technological development is that employees may have very little scope of personal interaction on official issues (Deogaonkar, 2013). Evolving technologies have a profound effect on employee relations and the effect is both positive and negative. Employee relationships become clearer and more system dependent on sophisticated software systems applications. The disadvantages of technological development also affect employee relationships and can be regulated by regularly involving staff in the cross-functional communication forum and evaluating employee satisfaction. The Human Resource segment has a significant part to play in handling the effect of technology on employee relationships (Deogaonkar, 2013).

Developing the skills of employees’ in dispute resolution, participatory leadership and other soft skills generate a better environment for employee participation. Training also plays a significant role in assisting employees with the greatest possible use of collective bargaining systems involving the trade union. The trade union and the Employees' councils can coexist friendly where the management deals with both without undermining either and on an equal footing (Ranaraja, 2019). The early growth of industrial relations was linked to trade union growth itself and trade unions are largely a result of the system of factories that developed during the industrial revolution. Also, trade union development in the UK was slowed by the Combination Acts of 1799 and 1800, and most trade union actions were illegal until these Acts were replaced with the Combination Laws in 1825 (Rose, 2004). The volatile modern business environment has had a major impact on the traditional connection between employee and employer. The psychological contract is being redefined, and this change from the' old' to a new type of partnership is a major challenge for organizations and those involved in handling the organizational workforce (Akinyemi, 2009). The company I work for is more keen on satisfying individual needs rather than collective bargaining and this has worked well for them in the recent past.

References

Akinyemi, B. (2009). Managing the New Psychological Contract. Information Science Reference, [online] 2, p.645. Available at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/325060099 [Accessed 25 August 2019].

Caprile, M., Sanz, P., Riobóo, I., Welz, C. and Rodriguez, R. (2017). Mapping varieties of industrial relations. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union, pp.2,5.

Deogaonkar, A. (2013). Emerging Technologies and Impact on Employee Relations. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, [online] 3(9), pp.1, 2. Available at: http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0913/ijsrp-p2176.pdf  [Accessed 26 August 2019].

Ranaraja, S. (2019). Emerging trends in employee participation in Sri Lanka. Industrial and Employment Relations Department, [online] p.41. Available at: https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_dialogue/---dialogue/documents/publication/wcms_206005.pdf [Accessed 25 August 2019].

Ravi, P. (2011) Managing Employer-employee relations in a competitive business environment. The employers’federation of ceylon. [Online] 20 December 2011, Available at:: http://employers.lk/efc-training/efc-training/497-managing-employer-employee-relations-in-a-competitive-business-environment-ravi-peiris?date=2019-03-01. [Accessed 24 August 2019].

Rose, E. (2004). Employment relations. 2nd ed. London: Pearson Education, p.19.

Important aspects of employee relations in summary

Employee relations covering more than industrial relations these days and it has given a new meaning for industrial relations (CIPD, 2019). Further, it's covering what’s happening between management, trade unions, and other officials while enabling collective agreements. Employee relations are basically intended to establish certain laws, regulations, and agreements that will govern the relationship. Employment and industrial relations are only one important management concern, and there are significant variations in how different organizations ' management interpret their roles in industrial relations (Rose, 2004). Modern classification of the relationship between workers speak of individual and collective relationships in the workplace, but it always indicates the growing individualization of the employment relationship due to increased individual rights and the weakening of the trade union and its effect on employees (Armstrong, 2014).

As Armstrong (2014) says, workers deserve primarily a ' good day's pay for a fair day's work, ' and they want to have a say on their terms and conditions of employment and how they organize their jobs. Also, it's noted that employees are always looking for the best monetary and non-monetary offer available on the market. Further, employers expect that they want workers to do what they are told to do without costing them too much.

Employee relationship policies define what kind of management-employee partnerships are required and how pay-work negotiations should be handled based on the organization's ideology (Armstrong, 2010). The main goal of employee relations policies should be to create and maintain a healthy, efficient, corporate and trusting environment of employee relationships. Four main approached to employee relations according to Armstrong (2014) are Adversarial, Traditional, Partnership and Power sharing as explained before.

According to Stephen and Timothy (2002), the psychological contract is an unwritten agreement that happens between employees and employer which will define mutual expectations as well as what both parties expect. The psychological contract is more than just a legal contract-regulated activity, it stresses that there is much more to the relationship between employers and employees (CIPD, 2019).

Trade unions could participate in the development of internal rules either separately or in conjunction with management as spokesmen for working groups in the company (Kelly, 2002). There are two main reasons why unions that struggle to attract members either because they do not deliver the goods and services that workers expect, or because they cannot maintain the standard or social practice (Visser, 2002). As Flanders (1970) clarified, collective bargaining would govern the structure of industrial relations as a social process that "continuously turns conflicts into compromises in an orderly fashion." The Commission of Donovan (1968:50) found that' collective bargaining is the only way to conduct industrial relations'.The move from collectivism to individualism was also supported by the wide-ranging legislative programs designed to erode perceived trade union ' monopoly power, ' while at the same time enhancing centralized management influence over the employment relationship (Rose, 2004).

According to Ellis and Taylor (2017) discussion, employee voice, area of conflict and trust are the 3 most important current developments in employee relations. Evolving innovations have a profound impact on the relationship between workers and the effect is both positive and negative. Relationships among employees become simpler and more system dependent on sophisticated implementation of software systems. Technological development drawbacks often impact workplace relationships and can be managed by routinely engaging workers in the cross-functional interaction forum and measuring employee satisfaction (Deogaonkar, 2013).

My final thoughts are that the goal of employee relations is all focused-on trust and visibility of everyone in an organization. Everyone is going to have a role to play and it is their shared responsibility. However, in order to get much closer and push towards that goal, everyone needs to work together. We will have to choose suitable approaches and techniques that best suit our own organizational culture while on this journey.

“By aligning the expectations of employees and employers, both can thrive, creating a workplace that meets the emotional and career needs of its occupants, as well as the business needs of the company” (Mullich, 2019).

References

Armstrong, M. (2010). Armstrong's essential human resource management practice. 1st ed. London: Kogan Page, pp.297,298,299,309.

Armstrong, M. (2014). Armstrong's handbook of human resource management practice. 13th ed. London: Kogan Page, p.406.

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2019, 16 May 2019, London: Employee relations: an introduction [Online], Available at:https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/employees/factsheet#6053 [Accessed 22 August 2019].

Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development 2019, 12^th February 2019, London: The Psychological Contract [Online], Available https://www.cipd.co.uk/knowledge/fundamentals/relations/employees/psychological-factsheet#6110 [Accessed 21 August 2019].

Deogaonkar, A. (2013). Emerging Technologies and Impact on Employee Relations. International Journal of Scientific and Research Publications, [online] 3(9), pp.1, 2. Available at: http://www.ijsrp.org/research-paper-0913/ijsrp-p2176.pdf  [Accessed 22 August 2019].

Kelly, J. (2002). Industrial relations. 1st ed. London: Routledge, p.46.

Mullich, J. (2019). ADP BrandVoice: How To Close The Gap Between Employer And Employee Expectations. [online] Forbes.com. Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/adp/2018/03/27/how-to-close-the-gap-between-employer-and-employee-expectations/#6dec207f20cf [Accessed 02 October 2019].

Rose, E. (2004). Employment relations. 2nd ed. London: Pearson Education, pp.9-664.

Stephen, P. and Timothy, A. (2013). Organizational Behavior. 15th ed. Boston: Pearson, p.278.

Visser, J. (2002). Why Fewer Workers Join Unions in Europe: A Social Custom Explanation of Membership Trends. British Journal of Industrial Relations, 40(3), pp.403-430.