EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 Who is an employee?

According to International Classification by Status in Employment

(ICSE 1958),an employee is a person who works for a public or

private employer and receives remuneration in wages, salary,

commission, tips, piece-rates or pay in kind. The International

Labor Laws describes an employee as anyone who has agreed to be

employed, under a contract of service, to work for some form of

payment. This can include wages, salary, commission and piece

rates. Therefore, from the two definitions, it’s clear that an

employee is anyone who works for some form of payment under a

contractual agreement.

A closer look at the above definitions will also bring out the

issue of who has employed, hence we recognize the fact that,

where there is an employee, there has to be an employer i.e the

party which has offered employment to the employee. Under such

scenarios, we realize that there is a relationship that is bound

to happen between the employer and the employee, which drives us

to our subject “Employee relations”.

1.2 Employee Relations.

According to (Broom 2005) Employee relations comprise a plan of

work which is concerned with sustaining employer – employee

relationships that contributes to satisfactory productivity,

motivation and morale. The Public Relations section is charged

with the effort of prevention and resolving issues or problems

which involve individuals, arising out of or affect work

situations through proper communication strategies. Andréa Rea

2003 indicates that Employee relation means managing employer-

employee relationships. It involves the company’s effort to

prevent any misunderstanding that originates from situations at

work. The objective of this program in any organization is to

increase employee gratification, while maintaining positive

enthusiasm and morale among workers. It is said that more often

than not, happy workers are more productive and productivity

means a better outcome for the organization. An organization

which has good employee relations consistently provides fair and

proper treatment to all employees who then become committed to

their jobs and loyal to the organization.

But as (Njiiri 2015) indicates; One of the least appreciated

publics in most organizations are the employees; most employers

think they are actually doing the employees a favor by giving

them a job and a salary at the end of the month. Organizations

will go to great lengths to ensure that external publics

relations are built and maintained yet forget to go the same

lengths for their internal publics who are integral for the

success of the organization.

Therefore, with the above descriptions, I deduce that employee

relations is the effort put forth by an employer through public

relations office to ensure that its employees are happy,

productive and enthusiastic in their daily work.

This paper will consequently seek to show the functions of

employee relations section in an organization, the importance of

Employee relations function, discuss the impact of organizational

culture on employee relations, discuss some of the regulations

that involve employee relations and finally, link employee

relations to some of the theories put forward to explain the

same. The paper will also look at a case study in a Kenyan

organization known as Kenya Airways, which treated some of its

employees poorly during a retrenchment program in 2012 and what

led to the conclusion that they had poor employee relations then.

2.0 Functions of Employee Relations Section as Part of Public

Relations

Employee relations section has several purposes in an

organization. Their first function is to assimilate employees

into the organization's culture and values. Second, they help to

inform employees of organizational developments, happenings, and

news. Third, it’s an avenue for the organization to listen to its

employees, to hear employees' concerns and questions. Fourth,

it’s a connection between employees working at different

departments to get to know each other.

2.1 Assimilation of Employees

This function starts when an employee is hired. Ordinarily, there

should be no difference between information about organizational

culture that is given to internal and external publics. This

similarity of internal and external messaging has two benefits.

First, it guarantees that employees get the same information

about organizational culture as everyone else. Secondly, it helps

to draw closer new employees who already believe in the

organization's culture and values. Organizational culture is

often expressed in vision statements, mission statements, policy

documents, ethics statements, and training manuals. The Vision

statement will answer the question of why does the organization

exists? This will help the new employee set in on the right

footing. Vision statements are important tools of employee

relations, as it will help manage reactions to changes in the

environment. The mission statement is a tool used by employee

relations to help employees set priorities and goals, so that all

members of the organization are committed to achieving the

mission specified in the statement. The employee relations

section will also ensure employees are familiar to the

organization policies such as employee nondisclosure of

confidential or privileged information. Therefore, new employee

orientation at all levels of the organization, from subordinates

to executive management, can help set clear expectations for

employees and also allows them to proceed in their duties with

the confidence that the organization will stand with them when

they act in accordance with its values.

2.2 Informing employees of organizational developments,

happenings, and news

This function is quite important as it helps employees understand

what is going on in the organization. This will help reduce

anxiety and rumors that might reduce productivity. The employee

relations section is at the core of this function and it can

inform employees through mediated or non-mediated communication

channels.

2.2.1 Non-mediated channels

According to (Ronald Smith 2012) the most remarkable, effective,

and ideal type of message distribution for employees is

traditional face-to-face communication. He indicates that Verbal

communication has a major impact on organizational culture and

deserves attention, as much as it is looked at as an informal

medium. We all agree that in most organizations, there has to be

some sort of grapevine. This usually happens when there is a wind

of layoffs, merge or conflict that is happening. Therefore,

employee relations staff needs to stays tuned in to the grapevine

so that when trouble arises, they flatten the gossip by releasing

facts. What needs to be learnt is that grapevine will always

make up for the information gaps left by an inadequate internal

communication program. The informal, uncontrolled channels hijack

the formal, controlled channels that do not meet the need and

demand for information. In the KQ case study, the employees who

were demonstrating on the streets indicated that “they further

wondered why the airline was recruiting foreigners, who are often paid twice or three

times the salaries of local staff“ This to me sounded like grapevine or

unconfirmed reports that needed to be clarified by the employee

relations office. Unfortunately, we as the Kenyan public did not

hear of any such clarifications. What the Employee relations

needed to do is have a sitting with the disgruntled staff and

listen to them, instead of leaving them to go to the streets.

2.2.2 Mediated Channels

This includes the traditional newsletters, to the most current

emails and intranet channels. Publications are usually preferred

due to the permanence, and reference value. Printed words remain

the pillars of employee communication. Every publication, issue,

printed word is part of a corresponding employee communication

program intended to achieve several goals set in response to

particular organizational situations. An organizational

publication can take the form of a regularly distributed email, a

newspaper, a magazine, a simple newsletter, a website or

intranet. In the KQ case study, the employee relations section

needed to ensure that the staff got the financial reports on a

monthly basis. This would communicate to them how the company was

doing and in the event that the issue of retrenchment was brought

forth, it would not come as a shocker. After all, they know that

the company has been incurring losses. Managing a prepared mind

would be easier.

2.3 Listening to Employees

This is the third function of Employee relations section. When

organizational culture is participative, or has a low power

distance culture, employees usually get chances to communicate

their concerns and ask questions to the management. The feedback

can be pursued using employee publications and emails.

Nevertheless, there is always a challenge to getting Feedback

from employees as most employees fear being branded a

"troublemaker." Therefore, it’s the function of the employee

/Internal relations section to create emails or hot lines that

can be used to report incidences without fear of victimization.

Also, Hotlines should not be limited to whistle-blower alerts,

they can be used for detecting trends within the organization

that are challenging and need resolution before they rise to the

level of a crisis. The concerns reported here can range from work

schedule conflicts, to uncovering someone with tendencies of

sexual harassment. Organizations can listen to their employees

through numerous informal and formal methods of collecting data,

or conducting research. The understanding of research results is

crucial for employee relations section, as it helps them resolve

problems way before they go out of hand.

2.4 Connecting Employees

Internal/Employee relations have a function of connecting

employees from different departments of the organization.

Traditionally, Activities such as family fun day, Christmas

parties, team building are usually arranged by the section just

to ensure employees get to meet and know each other. Such

activities will also help ease tension between management and

subordinate staff who usually work on serious environments during

working hours. The events can be used to define strong points in

individual’s personality and also benefit individual by giving

them greater job satisfaction & the opportunity to progress to

their full potential as their strengths are highlighted. It comes

with positive feedback following positive action; a far more

efficient way to have efficient workers.

Therefore, with the above functions it would be good to

understand why employee relations are important after all.

3.0 Importance of Employee Relations as part of Public Relations

Employees are the most important audience for every

organization. They function as ambassadors for your mission and

can make or break relationships with an organization’s customers.

Secondly, employees are the living, breathing reflections of an

organizations brand. Therefore, anything but a determined effort

to build and maintain a healthy relationship with your whole team

is mandatory. Thirdly, for an organization to function

efficiently in attaining its goals in order to survive, the

employees have to be happy and satisfied. In short, accurate

employee relations can help to secure employee action in favor of

company goals.

Employee relations results from the power of the organization’s

top management to ensure pure maintenance of good relationships

with all the public’s inside the organization. The public

relations office is at the center of this function. These

employees include subordinate workers, managers, supervisors,

administrative staff, and facilities among many others.

An example is given of a former CEO of General Motors (GM) who

identified employee relations as a "top three priority" since it

is so crucial to organizational success. As Waterman Jr (2010) in

his journal In search of Excellence puts it;"an organization's most

important audience is, has been and always will be its

employees." He continues to say that: "When your employees aren't

advocating for you, you're in trouble. There's no amount of

advertising to overcome someone saying, 'I work at that hospital

and it has got problems.” Therefore, all these quotes indicate

how important employees are for an organization’s success.

A practical example is given of an employee from Domino's Pizza

who prepared sandwiches using cheese that he had put up his nose,

while his colleague filmed the prank in a video that they later

posted to YouTube. This incident not only violated health-code

standards and disgusted customers it also demonstrated how two

employees at a single location could bring major damage to a

national corporation's reputation.

“The store in Conover, North Carolina was closed to

decontaminate it.It was the posting of the video on

YouTube that led to the biggest issue. The video had

been viewed over a million times” wrote

(dailymail.co.uk).

The above is a clear indication of how poor employee relations

can bring down an organization. Even though the article did not

indicate why the two employees decided to act that way, what I

can be sure of is that, they were not happy with their working

relationship at Domino. From this, we see that Domino had to

close down for decontamination to take place so as to assure

customers that their products are back to normal. What a waste!

According to Kim Harrison 2011, an Author and consultant of

cuttingedge PR, two factors are changing in employee relations

and at the centre of it, is communication with employees and

enhancing management's respect for this part of the public

relations function;

The first is the value we place as top management in

understanding our employees, teamwork, and commitment by

employees in achieving bottom-line results. In the KQ case study,

it seems management did not bother to understand the frustrations

that the employees who were being laid off were going through. In

one of the Kenyan newspapers, the then prime minister was quoted

saying” The airline should prepare a brief explaining some of the issues raised by

workers “This means that the management had not taken time to

resolve issues raised by their employees to an extent that the

government is coming in. Such an attitude would even affect the

productivity of those who are remaining to continue working at

the organization. They would work with lots of fear and anxiety

as to what will happen next. This in turn would the organizations

goals. Therefore, the aspects of teamwork and commitment can only

be influenced by effective interactive communications throughout

the Organization.

The second factor is the need to build a strong manager

communication network, one that makes every supervisor at every

level accountable for communicating effectively with his or her

employees. The employee relations section needs to ensure that

this is carried out effectively. This needs to be more than just

job-related information and should include key business and

public issues affecting the whole organization. In most of our

organizations today, you will find that managers communicate to

the employees only when there is a problem or when they need to

remind employees of a duty they did not perform well. This

creates animosity between the two levels. One that makes the

subordinates fear even to see an email popping in from their

manager. The question we always ask is “what have I done? “This

is the point then, that public relations functions need to work

well, by sensitizing every level of management to create a

culture of frequent communication that is more than duty related.

It has been noted by most scholars that Organizations miss out on

the point of their public relations potential because they do not

put a high priority on effective, two-way communication. Alvie

Smith, a former corporate communications manager at General

Motors in His Book Innovative Employee Communications (Prentice

Hall, 1991) indicates that;

The ugly truth is that employee disloyalty and lack of commitment to

organizational goals

may be costing businesses more than $50 billion a year ... the cost of

absenteeism, Labor grievances, production interruptions, poor quality, repair

and warranty expenses. Perhaps most costly of all is inaction by employees who

withhold their best efforts and ideas; who cruise along with just passable

performance.

The coordination and arbitration necessary for dealing with

employees today put the public Relations staff, with its

communication knowledge and skills, right at the centre of

managing employee relationships. From our KQ case study it’s

evident that communication to employees being retrenched was not

done effectively. According to (Alvie Smith 2011), there are six

rules that must be followed in order to achieve excellent

employee relations through communication. They include:

i. A clear statement of commitment by Top Management, as well

as its participation and support in employee communication.

ii. Communication must be a planned process.

iii. There must be a strategy involving both communication

professionals and key management people

iv. Managers are the key channels and catalysts for effective

communication, therefore, they must be briefed well before

any communication goes out from Top management

v. Priority business issues should be at the core content of

the employee communication program and should be discussed

in an understandable and open manner through various

channels of communication

vi. The communication system should undergo regular evaluations

to prove its worth.

In our case study of KQ layoffs, none of the above was followed.

We hear the Union staff indicating that “Workers were informed

about their sacking through SMS”.When the corporate

communications manager was asked about the issue, he said that

“this is an internal process”, and declined to share the targeted

number of employees or the estimated cost saving the company

intended to make, meaning, the staff were told nothing about this

plan.

To summarize the importance of Employee relations, it’s good to

note that, generally ‘good’ employee relations should be a part

of the larger public relations function. Their goal is to

establish and maintain mutually beneficial relationships between

an organization and the employees on whom its success or failure

depends. With the above in mind, the public relations office need

to ensure that they think of employees in their everyday

activities which may include Education campaigns, employee

training, special events, printed communications, and loyalty

initiatives & awards programs. This may go a long way in

guaranteeing the establishment of good employee relations and

boost morale and longevity. However, what needs to be looked at

keenly is the organizational culture. The culture of an

organization might be hindering the public relations office from

doing their tasks properly. Some of the cultures described will

be discussed next.

4.0 Impact of organizational culture on employee relations

According to Needle (2004),iorganizational culture represents the

collective values, beliefs and principles of organizational

members and is a product of such factors as history, strategy,

type of employees and management style. Culture includes the

organization's vision, values, norms, systems, symbols, language,

assumptions, beliefs, and habits. Ravasi and Schultz (2006)

indicate that organizational culture is a set of shared

assumptions that guide what happens in organizations by defining

appropriate behavior for various situations. It is also the

pattern of such collective behaviors and assumptions that are

taught to new organizational members as a way of perceiving and,

even, thinking and feeling. Therefore, organizational culture

affects the way people and groups interact with each other, with

clients, and with stakeholders. Furthermore, organizational

culture may affect how much employees identify with an

organization.

With the above definitions, it’s correct to assume that

understanding employee relations of any organization requires

analysis of the culture of that organization. Organizational

culture is an important consideration because it has a

significant impact on the model of public relations an

organization practices and on the employee relations.

Professionals advise that a poor cultural fit can make even very

qualified employees unproductive on the job. The culture of an

organization is often what defines it as different from other

organizations, and-if managed properly-can be a valuable asset in

building cohesion and teamwork inside the organization. A good

culture will therefore promote better employee relations making

the work of the Public relations easy by ensuring maintenance of

the same.

Geert Hofstede conducted a study in cultural dimensions and

managed to classify organizational cultures into four major

categories namely; Power –distance, individualism, uncertainty

avoidance and masculinity.

4.1 Power –Distance: Under this category, employees and managers

see each other as naturally different. They find inequality as a

normal thing in the organization and cannot be changed. In High

power-distance organizations, Employees respect managers merely

because of the position they hold within the organization and

promotion from the subordinate employee levels to the managerial

levels would be rare. In high power distance cultures the

superior is the person who more often takes decisions without the

subordinates’ participation and gives the subordinates precise

instructions in how to execute his decisions. (Hofstede, p. 77

and 9)The responsibility for decision making is in the hands of

the staff at top. Jobs are narrowly and tightly specified,

giving the employees limited discretion. Communication takes

place vertical downwards, with no or little horizontal

communication. Overall communication is weak. A large

communication gap exists between superiors and their subordinates

because it is hard for the subordinates to air their views.

Power distance gives managers unlimited power and control over

subordinates. Employees, in turn, have an unquestioning,

submissive attitude. Further, because of little resistance from

lower level employees, decisions are made and implemented faster

in a high power distance organization. However, because of lack

of input from lower level employees as well as poor communication

and information sharing, quality of decisions is poorer in a high

power distance organization. High power distance organizations

are prone to unethical behavior. This is because top managers

have not to justify or defend their decisions to lower level

employees or to the larger organization. Unethical behavior gets

covered up or goes undetected. Managers tend to micromanage and

even minor decisions go to the top. Thus, higher level managers

are clouded with routine decisions. On the other hand, in a low

power-distance organization, managers and Employees see each

other as equals, despite their different positions within the

organization. In these organizations, there are no special

washrooms or dining area or lifts for high-level managers of

different positions. There is a preference for consultation and

subordinates will quite readily approach and contradict their

bosses. The parties will openly work towards resolving any

dispute by stating their own points of view. If they cannot come

to a satisfactory conclusion, they may choose to involve a

mediator. Leaders actually encourage independent thought and

contributions to problem solving and expect to be challenged. In

Kenya, the High -Power distance culture can be attributed to

government offices where the top managers see themselves to be

way superior and even have their own special bathrooms. Most

private companies have low power distance and a subordinate could

even have lunch with the CEO. Therefore, in a power-distance

culture, the public relations officer would deal with employee

relations differently. The PR practioner has to be very keen

while conducting employee relations activities, in a high power

distance organization. The control of activities/communication

may emphasize the authority of managers and it would be done

without any interference or questioning.Infact,PR, PR activities

might have to be done differently for managers and subordinates.

In a low power distance organization, the PR activities or

communication would be very interactive and information might be

received positively if the managers highlighted similarities

between themselves and the employees in terms of goals, values,

or concerns. For organizations with such a high power distance

culture, good employee relations is very rare, you never find

workers giving their best. They are very demotivated and perform

poorly.

Worldwide, China has been known to be good at practicing high

power distance culture while the USA has a low power distance

culture.

4.2 Individualism

This is the second category of cultures found in different

organizations. This is the culture whereby, single employees put

their own individual needs in front of the needs of the group. In

other words, It’s about “me” and not “us”. Organizations with

high individualistic cultures recognize employees on the basis of

their personal achievements, and hence there is too much

competition among employees in order to be the best to get the

prize. In contrast, organizations with low individualism are

strong in communism, emphasizing teamwork. Such organizations

focus on the goals of the group and not that of an individual.

Therefore, the public relations officer in such an organization

will have to organize activities for employees depending on the

culture of that organization. For high individualistic cultures

the PRO might emphasize on activities which require less

standardization such as quizzes to determine the best employee.

For low individualistic cultures, the PRO might consider

activities like team building or group lunch. Most corporate in

Kenya have this culture as their goal is always high sales and

more profit.

4.3 Uncertainty avoidance

This is the third category and it emphasizes on structures that

reduce social anxiety.

Organizations with high uncertainty avoidance, have employees

who want “clear requirements and instructions," in order to be

within the organizations rules and regulations. They want clear

Key performance indicators to be able to achieve the required

targets and avoid risks while demonstrating more loyalty to the

employer. On the other hand, organizations with lower uncertainty

avoidance culture, employees are freelance and liberal of

ambiguous situations, have lower resistance to change, and not

afraid of taking risks. Therefore, organizations with low

uncertainty avoidance tend to have good employee relations as

they interact a lot and take any risk from their environment.

This culture is more prevalent in NGOs.

4.4 Masculinity

This is the fourth and final category which is quite

stereotypical. It emphasizes on behaviours which are masculine

such as aggressiveness and autonomy. A high masculinity culture

stresses on competition and initiative, while a low masculinity

culture goes for cooperation and cultivation. Therefore, a PRO

will need to know if an organization has a high masculity culture

so as to get employee relations activities that promote

competition between individuals or departments, while in low

masculinity, the activities will have to be those that promote a

sense of confidence like education campaigns.

In addition to the above four types of organizational cultures

described by Hofstede, scholars have identified some other two

types of cultures namely, Authoritarian culture and Participative

culture. The two might be linked to the systems theory. It

indicates that an organization can either have an open systems or

a closed system. A closed system organizations does not receive

input from the environment; hence, they are less likely to adjust

to environmental changes. This mostly results to an authoritarian

kind of organization, with an asymmetrical worldview. Its

employee relations and communication is usually structured and

formalized within a decision-making hierarchy. In such cultures,

communication is one-sided-or that which management directs

employees, but little communication flows from employees back to

management. Therefore, when there is some trouble brewing, it’s

highly unlikely that management will know early. We tend to have

high employee turnover and lower levels of job satisfaction in

this type of organizational culture. In an open system,

organizations receive input from the environment and adapt

themselves in response to that input. This kind of culture is

usually referred to as a participative culture which has a

symmetrical worldview. Such a culture integrates the ideas of

negotiation, conflict resolution, and compromise in an

organization's operating procedures. Feedback and upward

communication allow employees and those at lower levels of an

organization to have a voice in management decision making. You

will never hear of striking workers in such organizations

According to studies conducted, employees will always be happier

in an environment where they feel that they are being listened to

and that their opinions count.

Therefore, in summary, whether defined using Hofstede’s

dimensions of culture or organizational systems, culture has

significant impact on employee relations and employee

communication. Efforts to maintain a good employee’s relation can

only be successful when they account for and work with an

organization's culture and worldviews. (Tsuma 2015) indicates

that; an employee-driven workplace is rooted in the

organization’s corporate culture. Many organizations have a

culture that reads well on paper, but doesn’t live well in

reality.

In our case study, KQ seems to have a closed system or high-power

distance culture, this is because the management did not bother

to interact with their employees to try and explain to them the

goals of the company and what they intend to do. The Employee

relations officer should have organized a session whereby, the

employees and top management should have sat down and discussed

modalities to go about the losses they were experiencing as an

organization before they resorted to lay off. But since the

culture was a high power distanced one, this needed to be done

without any interference. The PR officer seemed powerless. If no

results would be gotten from these forums, they would then resort

to layoffs. From one of the dailies, an employee indicated that”

all options were not exhausted before they were sent home, adding

that the retrenchment is discriminatory, unlawful, irregular and

inhuman and a cover-up for corrupt deals”.

This shows that the culture there was not participative at all as

directives were issued and had to be followed.

5.0 EMPLOYEE RELATIONS AND BUSINESS REGULATIONS

Employee relations comprises more than PR activities that enhance

relationships within an organization. There are legal and

business issues in which and about which employees need to be

informed about on a regular basis.

Some of these include Organizational Change, safety & compliance

rules and labor relations among others.

4.1 Organizational Change

Organizational change usually involves mergers, acquisitions or

layoffs.

Such changes most often cause panic among employees. Rumors

easily run wild, triggering unsettling questions about the

changes that may occur: Will I have a different boss?; Will our

location change?; Will I have to take on new duties?; or the most

anxiety-inducing question, Will I get laid off? Such questions

will also run through the minds of the most capable people in the

organization, making them no exception among the many employees

who would resign to go to other organizations they perceive to be

more stable. And, of course, the time and money spent replacing

these employees can be enormous. In circumstances like this,

public relations specialists who deal with employee relations at

all levels have an important role of communicating about the

future of employees in the organization. The role of PR should be

to guide the merger or acquisition communication with employees

in a straightforward and convenient manner, dealing with all

questions and doubts reliably. If better change management means

better morale management, then the key to an effective merger or

acquisition is communication as early as possible, It should be

ongoing, frequent, and open. The reason why we insist on early is

because, regardless of how cagy an organization tries to be about

such a significant business deal, someone will find out somehow,

and the rumor will spread. And with all the uncertainty this

change which was a secret, will only make things worse.

Therefore, Communication with employees needs to continue

throughout the entire deal process, and as frequently as

possible. This has to be detailed and perhaps even involve

addressing specific individuals about their likelihood of being

able to stay with the organization. It might be wise to advise

them that, the management is still working on it, rather than “No

comment”.

Employee relations professionals have significant strategic responsibilities

during organizational change. Communication during periods of change and

uncertainty is more than just “hand-holding," as it plays an important role in

helping employees cope with uncertainty and adjust to change (McKinney,

APR, 2012).

The bottom line is that employees feel better when managers

provide face time via group meetings and one-on-one time,

delivering updates that not only explain what’s happening with

the deal, but also why those things are happening, and what the

advantages are to the organization all in a supportive tone. This

process should be supported entirely by the public relations

office to ensure the employee’s morale is not injured and the

company goals are still on track throughout.

In our case study, this was not done as the Aviation Allied Union

workers indicated that none of them were informed of the

impending layoffs.

5.2 Safety and Compliance Rules

Every organization has a duty to comply with the governing rules

and regulations of the country, in which it operates. Even if

it’s a multi-national corporation, the different standards for

each country apply as they are.

It’s the duty of the Public relations office to ensure that

employees work towards knowing the standards of each country.

This may be done through constant employee relations activities

such as demonstrations or through pamphlets. Employee relations

staffs in public relations office also need to educate employees

about compliance with government Regulations. Employees need to

comprehend the rules under which they are required to function in

order to be safe. In the United States, one primary

responsibility of the employee relations function is to

communicate Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA)

worker safety standards required by the government (Harrison

2013).Employee relations office need to hang posters in the

workplace that shows safety standards. These posters, which are

usually displayed on bulletin boards or near time lockers,

include topics such as safety standards, hand washing, and

wearing protective equipment. Therefore, in serious

organizations, employee relations provide communication support

to ensure that environmental regulations and worker safety

standards are sustained. Responsible organizations ensure that

internal communication about safety precautions is a matter of

life and death and this helps prevent accidents and violations

that damage organizational reputations. For example, they can Use

Screensaver messages, desktop alerts and on-line forums.

Screensaver messages are a great visual way to raise the profile

of important messages. Usually, we see marketing posters and work

rules, but it’s important that legal compliance, financial

compliance, health and safety rules are also included. Use a

compliance desktop alert to ensure that employees read and

acknowledge important messages. And an on-line forum that allows

anonymous posts can let employees ‘blow the whistle’ and bring

oppressing issues to the surface so that you can address them

before they become a crisis and damage the reputation of the

organization.

5.3 Labor Relations

This is one of a very crucial task that the employees’ relations

section in an organization need to keep abreast. The relationship

with labor is a significant relationship on which the success or

failure of the organization literally depends. Maintenance of the

relationship with labor Unions constitutes a large part of an

internal/employee relations specialist's work, particularly in

organizations with a "unionized members."

Usually, there is a natural and irrefutable tension between the

roles of management and labor. This tension is the root cause of

many people who believe, that labor and management are seen as

rivals locked in an eternal battle between the "haves" and the

“have nots." Out of this socioeconomic theory comes the tension

that exists in everyday relations with labor. There is a basic

value that labor approves work and management controls work.

Controlling resource allocations and number of jobs-is a key

function of management, but workers would also like a voice in

this process, and that is where internal relations come into

play. Relationships with unionized workers and their unions must

be maintained without ceasing by the employee relations

specialists. Most organizations assume that this is a Human

Resource function which is mistaken. HR’s role is to hire, fire,

training, and look at employees’ benefits. If a union thinks of

having a strike, it is the public relations function in

management, usually the internal relations specialist who should

be the first to learn of the disgruntlement. It is also the

responsibility of internal relations to communicate about matters

of conflict and try to find ways to resolve labor-management

relationship problems. In this day and error, employee relations

section should have ways and means of getting information from

employees on what is happening on the ground. Some organizations

are reluctant of setting up social media channels internally as

they are concerned they will turn into an ‘on-line complaints

desk’. This can be a valid concern. However, you cannot turn off

employees’ discontent just by refusing to hear it and many crises

start as small, fiery problems that people have chosen to ignore.

Social media are a good way to bring these issues to the

forefront. While they may create more work in the short term,

they will let you keep a finger on the internal temperatures and

help respond to issues early. As much as unions regularly attract

much attention, the employee relations manager should give just

as much time and attention to communicating with nonunionized

labor as well.

In the case study of KQ, we see a big conflict that emanated just

because the labor union was not informed of the real plan the

management was planning to undertake. The former Union leader

Mr. Muchai was heard saying” As far as Cotu is concerned, KQ did not notify the

Aviation and Allied Workers Union of its intentions to declare the workers redundant as

required by the Employment Act. What they did was to inform employees directly.”

This clearly indicates that there was zero relationship between

KQ management and the Union, which was wrong.

Challenges faced by Employee relations in the organization

Narrow Focus: Many employees simply view their managers as

someone who tells them what to do rather than as a facilitator

that can help them achieve their own professional goals as well

as bring the company to a point where it reaches the goals of the

business. This makes it hard to deal with them

Inflexibility of Employer: When an employer is inflexible, this

can stifle the creativity of employees. When employees feel as if

their creativity is being squashed or that their opinions do not

matter, this can cause strife between the employees and

management of the business. This makes it hard for employee

relations to foster.

Division: The issue of “us against them” mentality. Many

employees believe there is a great divide that exists between

them and the management of the company. This division between the

two groups of a business can cause several problems such as

strikes. But when management and employees can relate and

communicate with each other, it typically alleviates the

problems.

6.0 THEORIES ON EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

6.1 Human relations theory

This theory was developed by Elton Mayo in 1933. The theory

examined the effects of social relations, motivation and employee

satisfaction on factory productivity.Mayo’s human relations

theory had three assumptions which emphasized;

The power of natural groups, in which social aspects take precedence over functional organizational structures.

The need for reciprocal communication, in which communication is two way, from worker to chief executive, aswell as vice versa.

The development of high quality leadership to communicate goals and to ensure effective and coherent decision making.

From this theory, the reduction of organizational tension is

ceased on the ability of individuals to achieve self-fulfillment

in the workplace. if workers are denied independence on the job,

or are reduced to acting as mere extensions of the machinery they

operate, or are given work that constrains their capacity to

create and think, it is argued that they will invariably find

ways to destabilize the methods of control that enforce these

conditions. Mostly, they form natural groups, which push them to

come up with grapevine that might eventually lead to strikes. In

the case study, we see workers who seemed unhappy with management

decision to leave them out of the plans hence they decided to go

to the streets in order to be heard.

6.2 Systems Theory

The theory was developed by John Dunlop’s in 1958. Systems theory, which argues that industrial relations are best regarded as a sub-system of the wider social system. The theory holds that work is governed by a wide range of formal and informal rules and regulations, which cover everything from recruitment, performance, wages, and numerous of other details of employment. The theory indicates that Organizations can be relatively in openor closed systems. This approach applies as well to employee relations as it does its communication. It states that open systems are organizations that receive input from the environmentand adjust while closed systems are organizations that do not receive input from the environment goals.

Our case study seem to fall under the closed system, since when

the prime minister asked them to halt the retrenchment, they did

not heed to this but went ahead.

CONCLUSIONEach individual at the workplace shares a certain relationship with

his colleagues. Human beings are not machines who can start working

just at the push of a simple button. They need people to talk to,

discuss ideas with each other and share their happiness and sorrows.

An individual cannot work alone, he needs people around. (Nyakundi

2015) The senior leaders and managers therefore need to change tact,

from spending significant portions of their budgets taking staff to

trips, trainings and workshops as a way of motivating them, to

fostering better interpersonal relations such as through regular face

to face meetings to discuss issues of concern. If the organization is

all empty, you will not feel like sitting there and working. An

isolated environment will always demoralizes an individual and spreads

negativity around. It is essential that people are comfortable with

each other and work together as a single unit towards a common goal.

Therefore, Public relations role is to ensure that all employees are

comfortable and open enough in there working environment.t is good to

share a warm relation with fellow workers, because they are a back

borne to the organization. Moreover healthy employee relations also

spread positivity around.

REFERENCES

1. Blyton , P. & Turnbull, P. (1998), The Dynamics of Employee Relations, Macmillan, London

2. David Needle (2004), Business in Context: An Introduction to Business andIts Environment. 4th Edition, Bedford Row, London

3. Dunlop, J. (1958), Industrial Relations Systems, Rhinehart &Winston, New York.

4. Hofstede, Geert and Michael Minkov (2010). Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind, 3rd Ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.

5. Glen M Broom (2012), Cutlip and Center's Effective Public Relations ,11th Ed. Prentice Hall, London

6. Kim Harrison (2013) ,Excel with Employee communication, cutting edge PR, Century Consulting Group

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