Solution

Table of Contents

Task- Written Answers. 2

1.1 Employee involvement and Participation; Building effective employment relationships. 2

1.2 Union and non-union forms of employee representation. 3

Role of Unions. 3

Non-Union Forms. 3

1.3 Employee voice and organisation performance. 4

1.4 Better working lives; designed. 5

2.1 Organisational conflict and misbehaviour. 6

2.2 Emerging trends in conflicts types and industrial sanctions. 8

2.3 Third Party Conciliation, mediation and arbitration. 9

3.1 Principles of legislation of unfair dismissal and procedure. 10

Employment Rights Act 1996. 10

Dismissal due to Capability. 10

Dismissal owing to misconduct issues. 11

3.2 Key causes of employee grievances. 11

3.3 Importance of handling grievances. 12

References. 14

Task- Written Answers

1.1 Employee involvement and Participation; Building effective employment relationships

Employees Involvement is identified as a process in which the employees have an influence on decision made by input of thoughts, expert-based data and capability. The process is defined in Tortorella et al. (2021) to prioritise on ensuring employees are appointed to participate in their organisations, developing process and set goals. The outcome of this is gaining a view of ownership of the process followed and empowered to execute their roles.

Example of employee involvement– In an organisation such as the provided case study, they can work on implementing IDEAS campaign intended for offering the different staff with an opportunity for raising the ideas they have for improvement of their entity goals and objectives. All the ideas they offer would end up being collated collaboratively as a priority. This example would result to increasing recognition of the staff and feeling well rewarded due to the contribution they make to the organisation.

Employees Participation is a collaborative process with empowerment to the employees with essential resources, responsibility and support for success and growth (Knezović & Smajić, 2022). Hence, a more official-based inclusion of the employee to be part of decision making in their organisations achieved. The example of this is work councils and representatives of these employees. The voice harness how they define set regulations and procedures with their viewpoints integrated.

Example of employee participation– For the case study organisation, the employees participation could be inclusive of set of practices pursued for improving team-building initiatives by embracing appropriate workshop sessions. In line with Zhang and Losekoot (2021), this represent a strategy executed by the employees in capitalising on appropriate opportunities for coming up with relevant suggestions for effective work strategies based on appropriateness of their operations. Further, for the case study situation, this could be attained through an effective brainstorm of initiatives, generating fresh ideas with innovativeness being an assurance. This would similarly contribute to an increased participation in practices promoting workplace engagement scope and with success.

Differences

Decision-Making Influence– With involvement, employees offer ideas and viewpoints with management making the final decision. This is different from participation where the final say has input of the employees.

Formality in engagement– Participation is primarily non-formal/casual-based enhancing the dialogue and working in teams. This is different from involvement where employees interaction is formal including use of representative bodies and councils (Coward, 2023).

Employment Relationships

Through an active involvement and participation, collaborative, trust-based relations are achieved to the benefit of developing sustainable relations (Keller & Kirsch, 2020). The expertise, experiences possessed by employees and integrated in their operation is important for holistic decision making. The outcome of this is holistic decisions being made which are all-inclusive and as such owning up to the final decisions made. With staff achieving a feel of high-value, permission and capable to appreciate workplace differences, sustainable relations are initiated.

1.2 Union and non-union forms of employee representation

Employee representation “represents opportunities in which employees are involved in voicing their opinions and concern pertaining workplace factors” (Barreiro & Treglown, 2020). The outcome of developing two-way feedback of employees and team-leaders fostering appropriate workplace accommodating all people interests.

Role of Unions

The unions play a critical responsibility in pursuing negotiations on their behalf for negotiating remuneration and workplace environment. For example, the Trade Union Congress (TUC) operating in UK Unionised type in different operation areas (Fitzgerald et al., 2022). By being able to negotiate for their employees, they lead to appropriate decisions being made pertaining to policies and regulations guiding an organisation operation.

Non-Union Forms

The examples of this include the employees forums and work councils (Dobbins & Dundon, 2020). Through facilitating a non-official engagement, these forms offer employees voice in regard to their opinions in employees development. Further, councils are more formal/official and enhance provision of interests of the employees while making core organisations decision particularly in Western countries/jurisdictions.

Similarities

Advocacy– For both forms, they prioritise on the employees input on different issues which impact the organisations operations in their workplaces.

Communication– The two approaches have a positive implication in improving engagement and interaction of management and employees. The outcome of this is harnessing open working environment and team-based working.

Differences

Status– The operation of unions are guided by labour laws and pursued in a formal-based operations. This is different from non-union forms which put emphasis on collaboration with no seniority involved (Aloisi & Gramano, 2020).

The consultative bodies could similarly be noted as core to guide the employers in prioritising on best practice with consultative bodies initiated by the employers successfully. This is made up of employees representatives with UK employers which inform and consult with employees in their economy and employment linked issues/challenges.

1.3 Employee voice and organisation performance

Different available research have evidenced the existence of a direct correlation of the employees voice and an increased organisation performance. According to CIPD (2024), “employees voice entail employees having opportunities for sharing thoughts and feel of their employers”. Employees voice influence performance by impacting innovativeness, profits and productivity.

Increased innovation– According to Basheer et al (2021), through an enhanced employees voice, transparent and cooperative practice is achieved. The outcome of this is the employees being highly innovative and creative in their roles. An increase in the employees voice lead to ability to adapt to market needs, creativity in ideas sharing and inventions is also achieved in such an organisation.

Increased employees participation/engagement– With employees voice being involved to guide an organisation operations, engagement levels are increased hence high-level performance. The employees engagement, commitment level and motivation are increased after identifying their input as prioritised. According to Suen et al. (2022), by improving the engagement levels, the employees are in a position of harnessing an increased organisation performance.

By enhancing the employees voice, High-Performance Working Practices (HPWPs) could be enhanced for efficient, effective and detailed engagement (Tawk, 2021). The examples include;

• Frequently evaluating and prompt feedback offering employees with required insights for performance increase with appropriate input included for successful performance
• Investment of staff knowledge and investments are improved in an event of employees inclusion in making decisions. Cumulatively, the organisation performance is enhanced

In line with (REF), there is a direct relationship of employees gained feedback and organisation performance. Organisations which promote their employees voice leverage from getting unique insights and prioritising their staff insights with consistency. Hence, performance outcomes are improved with a culture of being creative, inclusion and engaging all employees enhanced.

Taking into account of my final judgement, it is elaborate and clear that the level of employees voice influence organisation performance directly. In the case information provided, employees voice can contribute to good positioning in being a best performer and capitalising on effective competitive advantage.

1.4 Better working lives; designed

Better working lives are identified in Wang et al. (2021) to include physical, social and mental wellbeing of their employees. This has a direct implication on the employees engagement scope, inclusion and effective management of organisation operations. In line with CIPD Good Work Index (CIPD, 2024a), better working lives have a positive implication in improving the work-life balance, greater working experience and job satisfaction which are features of high-level working lives.

Designing better working lives is enhanced by prioritising on physical, social and mental improvement strategies. According to Findlay et al. (2021), the strategies assists individuals to achieve better working lives. Employees end up reporting limited stress and burnouts since their work and individual lives are managed appreciating increased flexibility of their workplace plan.

Further, best practice include flexible working, working hours adjustment or reduction of overall workload for providing the employees with an increased control for their operations. In line with Gill (2021), mental health efforts are similarly critical. The resources including EAP Therapies and resilient capacity development improve overall wellbeing.

Considering employees who suffer from mental health demand need to foster workplace culture encouraging open-based engagement on issues impacting them. According to Khorram-Manesh et al. (2021), this is organisations launching different wellbeing strategies including mental health screening and public learning initiatives.

Also, by ensuring pay and benefits are provided, a positive increase in feeling valued is achieved. The pay categories is in terms of paid time-off, perks offered to the employees, wellness strategies and reimbursing tuition costs.

The CIPD Wellbeing Framework is popular and used in enhancing the scope of employees satisfaction and being retained in for long in an organisation with their wellbeing a priority (CIPD, 2024a). This prioritise on increased workplace satisfaction and retention levels with employees wellbeing a priority. This is with a reduction of absenteeism levels and turnover achieved successfully.

2.1 Organisational conflict and misbehaviour

Organisation conflicts are identified in Reddy et al. (2020) as the disputes emerging amongst employees or different departments. It is manifested in varying dimensions such as debating and sharing formalised grievance informed by core distinction. This can be manifested by the employees demonstrating their anger and subsequently raising a complaint of how things are being done in the organisation.

A strike for example could entail concerted labour stoppage being an option of employees working on occupational claims and defend materials or moral-based interests. This is unique from work to rule identified as a form of protest of employees doing exactly as identified in their employment contracts and nothing more to slow performance. This protect employees from lower remuneration and bad working conditions.  Overtime bans are also identified to be a type of industrial action with employees noted to not support overtime working arrangement. This contribute to dislocated from the normalcy with less time applied which is the situation in total striking process.

 Misbehaviours are identified as intentional behaviours of disobeying the set organisation norms and way of doing things manifested by bullying trends, thieving and failing to adhere to health and safety requirements. According to Frey et al. (2022), misbehaviours intentionally violate the organisation ways of doing things while conflicts emerge in a natural manner because of disagreement.

With organisation conflicts and misbehaviours being the same, there are areas they differ. Failing in management of the organisation conflicts lead to a negative implication on the organisation performance. In majority of the instances, there is an opportunity to resolve the conflicts in an amicable manner by working on mediation or a detailed engagement (Thompson et al., 2020).

The misbehaviours conversely is an illegal undertaking as it contribute to disruption of way of doing things in an organisation and crossing the line. Discipline strategies in line with business policies are essential.  Overlapping of the two concepts would be evidenced by damage of organisation reputation when the conflicts which are not under control contribute to misbehaviours. In an event issues linked with cultural insensitivity occurs and not managed, disputes would emerge anchored on individual identity.

Differences

Informal and Formal Conflicts

There are often disagreements which are informal amongst the employees which are not reflected on legislations or policies. According to Tappel and Sirris (2024), it comes from simple occurrences having an interference with their roles. For instance, employees could disagree on their assigned functions where mediating, dialoguing and information sharing could be adopted to resolve these issues. The conflicts emerging can be as a result of issues linked to leadership conflicts, interdependent in work roles, difference in working styles, culture different and employees personality clashing.

In an event discrimination and harassment issues occurred, this is identified as formal conflict. According to Van Gramberg et al. (2020), these conflicts are reflected on the organisation legislations and policies. The outcome of this could lead to detailed evaluation, punitive practices and legal actions.

2.2 Emerging trends in conflicts types and industrial sanctions

Over the years, there has been changes in forms of conflicts and industrial sanctions informed by the varying trade unions requirements and management support. According to Lyddon (2021), the changes have been evident in industrial sanction, picketing and other initiatives.

The emerging trends include;

Localised as opposed to national strikes–

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