Commercial Law (Essay Sample)

Name:
Instructor:
Couse:
Date:
Commercial Law
Introduction
The employment and labour force has been for long been characterized by collective rights of employees. The collectivism idea can be linked back to the industrialization period when individual rights were violated, and the workers and activists thought that the best way to deal with the violations is by joining into groups. Labour unions were formed to help fight for the rights of employees as after joining this unions and groups the workers become an indelible part of the group, (Sloane, et al. 2013) Modern Labour Economics, Abingdon: Routledge.. The group somehow owns the individual's life as everything they do is judged according to the group laws and everything they do is to the benefit of the group. Individualism in the United Kingdom was not in existence until in the 1997 when New Labour returned to power. There is a notable development in the management and Individualistic ideology has become so popular among private sectors. Today organisations in the public and private sectors are paying more attention to individual rights of their employees rather than the prior times when workers were treated as slaves. In this essay I focus on two ideological theories, collectivism and individualism and the impact they have on employment relations, focusing on United Kingdom and the European Union.
Collectivism in employment or a business context states that, all actions taken towards the employees are based on the employee group needs. Organisations applying collectivism, judge employees on the basis of schemes, team achievement and group incentives. Promotion in this management depends on seniority and the level the employee is positioned among the employees. Under collectivism, individuals are supposed to hold the needs of the group first rather than that of the individual. In case, there are conflicts between the individual and group needs the individual is expected to sacrifice their needs to the benefit of the group, (Grimshaw, & Rubery, 2011).
To achieve positive employment relations among all sectors of business collectivism has been regarded as the best idea for employees. Rules regulations and agreements regarding employment in the organizations are set by and the organizations in the presence of employee representatives. This gives a chance for the workers interest to be represented and reflected in the agreements made, (Rananoorthy, & Caroll, 2009). Collectivism will give individuals in the organizations a say in the decision process, making sure their grievances and needs are represented. Most European countries have the government regulating the pay, holidays and working hours for employees. This helps in making sure the employees get a fair payment according to the work they have done and the level of expertise. Most organizations make these decisions independently, and the results are poor payment for the employees. In the European Union, United Kingdom has been termed as the only country lagging behind in the regulation of working hours other countries have strict regulations for the organizations mostly pioneered by the government.
Issues in the organisation regarding employees are resolved under the Trade Unions or teams representing workers. Most of these negotiations are for the benefit of the employees in an organisation observing collectivism. Mediators help a lot in the settling of disputes amongst employees and the organisation, these mediators’ maybe representatives of the employee groups or union leaders who try and find an amicable long-term solution for the parties having differences. Most management teams will make decisions to discipline employees without consideration of a second chance mostly in the private sectors, (Armstrong M. & Baron, 2004). For organisations that fall under Trade Unions, it is expected before dismissal or disciplining an employee a series of dialogue be held. This is made possible by the formulated code of practice and for this case; the employees will have knowledge of the regulations as their representatives took part in making sure the codes are clear, fair to the employees and at the same time beneficial to the organisation (ACAS, 2014).
Individualism in employment, on the other hand, is a practice where management/organisations hire employees, fire them, reward them and promote them independently without influence from a third party. Use of individualistic theory, is common in the private sector, and it has its benefits and limitations according to the management ideology and the strategies applied. According to ACAS, it is the role of the management to come up with the best employment strategies. These practices are in hiring, training, communication and induction if they are carefully and well implemented there will be positive implications as grievances and discipline problems will be minimised, (ACAS, 2014).
The concept of industrial relations or employment relation is very important in any organization especially when the management wants to be in good terms with the employees. Industrial relations is the relationship between employer and employees a very important aspect in the employment contract. Individualism under industrial relations is defined as the way in which individuals pursue their personal defined self-interest, (Ayolt, 2014). The individual meet their goals without interfering with other people and also they are expected under industrial relation to make sure other people reach their goals. Most of private organisations in the United Kingdom do not have workers registered to the trade unions, (Pollert, 2005). Therefore, there is a lack of influence of collective bargaining that leaves the employee fate to be decided by their actions they take. The application of individualism has been facilitated by the creation of the Human Resource Management department which let self-interest and responsibility drive the organisations agenda. This change has contributed to the emergence of inventions in the business meant to improve efficiency, innovation and creativity among the workers, (Muller-Camen, Croucher, & Leigh, 2008).
Individualism in an organisation allows workers to explore new techniques and ideas while performing their duties as long as they come up with the required product or better than that. It is through individualism that employees will be given benefits of performing extra ordinarily or coming up with new innovative ideas. There is a chance to give a request for personal time from the management in an organisation following the individualistic ideology. Organisations applying individualism have been said to have more benefits for the employees, sometimes even better than the organisation is receiving. The change from collectivism to individualism can as well be regarded disadvantageous, in case the management only cares about the performance of the company. Employees will be underpaid, denied benefits/rewards, lack of promotions, and when they do a mistake, they will most likely lose their job instantly without being consideration or any dialogue to determine the cause of the problem. The autonomy granted to the management can be misused to the loss of the employees depending on the businesses agenda and the type of leadership. Management skills are important and as the ideas change leaders should apply the best strategies in running their businesses, (Johnson, 2004).
Collectivism and individualism have their impacts on the lives of individuals as well as that of organizations in the employment relations. The impacts are determined by the management and the employment laws in a certain country. If the laws are not strict or the Trade Unions do not pay much attention to the laws and terms of service, the rights of employees will be violated which means the employment relation is poor. For instance, the employees in the United Kingdom are said to be among the population in the European Union working for more hours than expected. The Britons have been reported to work an extra day per week. This problem can be resolved by the Trade Unions, who act as mediators in collective bargaining between employees and the organizations. The decisions made promote employment relations, (Hollinshead et al., 2003).
Trade unions are formulated to address individual needs of employees ensuring that change will be implemented by the organizational management personnel. It is the role of UK Trade Union (TUC) under collectivism theory to ensure that measures meant to regulate the powers of an employee are checked, (Heery & Noon 2008). Employees in the U.K needs intervention of collectivism as the management seems to be more interested in the hours of labour provided not the quality of work provided. Germany is reported as the only country in the European Union that do offer fair working hours compared to others, employees in Germany work for 35.6 hours per week compared to 43 hours in U.K and the situation is reported to be even worse in London where employees can work for up to 48 hours in a week, (Stewart, 2011). This is a failure in the collective bargaining process which calls for failure for both the organisation and the employees. Production rate in the U.K. is low and poor employment relations can be associated with the poor performance. Application of collectivism and government intervention would help a lot in changing the employment relation is the United Kingdom. A good example of how collective bargaining can assist in improving workers conditions and interests is the case at Land Rover in Solihull 2004 where a dispute in pay rise was settled after an intervention by Transport and General Workers' Union in a collective bargaining process, (Umarch, 2009). The process was lucrative as the employees got a pay rise of 6.5%, and because the negotiations were done in the right way, positive employment relations...