Employer-employee Relationship Research Articles

Understanding the Nigerian Public Service Rules

The rules or regulations of any human enterprise or organization set out its guiding principles and policy, acceptable conduct, modalities for actualizing organizational objectives and the basic rights, duties and entitlements of its personnel. Any organization is as effective as the rules guiding its operations. The Nigerian Public Service can be likened to an organization of human activity which is governed and regulated by rules. The Public Service Rules (PSR) provides the operational framework, the regulatory principles and a charter of rights, privileges and duties of all public servants while detailing what sanctions erring conducts could attract. The PSR is a guidebook for employee-employer relationship which also stipulates conditions of their engagement.

POTENTIAL IMPLICATIONS OF COVID-19 ON WORK AND EMPLOYMENT IN GHANA

ABSTRACT COVID-19 is impacting the world of work and employment globally and nationally. Its impact has permeated the very fabric of life in multiple ways such as the following: the employee employer relationships, business continuity issues, health and safety (Preparing for a pandemic, responding to a pandemic, communicating during a pandemic), finance and cost implications, customer service issues. There must be an adjustment, and changes to the nature of work; and this also requires a rethinking of the social contract (“World Bank, 2020”). Additionally, there must be newer ways to protect people and invest in them irrespective of their employment standing. (“World Bank, 2020”). Keywords Covid-19, Work and employment, Employee Employer Relationships, Human Resource Management

What's the Deal? The Making, Shaping and Negotiating of First-Year Students' Psychological Contract With Their Personal Tutor in Higher Education

The Psychological Contract is widely used to study employer-employee relationships, but few studies have applied it to a higher education context. This research examines the usefulness of psychological contract theory to explore the student-personal tutor relationship from the student perspective. In-depth interviews with first year undergraduates revealed new insights into the formation of the psychological contract and the dynamic nature of this relationship. When experiencing a conflict, discrepancy or breach to their perceived contract with their personal tutor, students undertake a complex sense-making attribution process and attempt to rebalance their psychological contract. The findings revealed the vital role the personal tutor has in the making, shaping and negotiating of the student’s psychological contract which goes beyond the bounds of that specific relationship to the contract students have with the institution. The research highlights the potential uses of psychological contract theory to uncover and negotiate the ‘deal’ students have with the university. The findings are useful for those working within the UK but offer insights that could be transferred to other international contexts in terms of understanding the psychological contracts of their students with the PT and the institution.

Protective Function of Labour Law and Current Problems of Employee-Employer Relationship

Protective Function of Labour Law and Current Problems of Employee-Employer Relationship

Productivity or illusion? Assessing employees' behavior in an employability paradox

PurposeEmployability has been studied in different disciplines (e.g. occupational health and career) and has been seen as a personal resource with overall positive outcomes. The present research investigates the behavioral implications of (perceived) employability and responds to the recent call of research that perceived employability could have not only positive but also negative behavioral implications. Furthermore, this study aims to reduce the asymmetry of data set and replication of existing results in non-Western economies.Design/methodology/approachMultinationals were taken as context to test the hypotheses, and a sample of 230 white-collar employees was drawn from fast-moving consumer goods companies. Partial least square–structural equation modeling through SmartPLS was used to analyze the data.FindingsIn light of social exchange theory, the present research identified the dark side of employability, which may impair the employer–employee relationship. Perceived employability did not relate significantly with in-role performance, nor did it correlate with organizational citizenship behavior, that is, a discretionary behavior promotes the efficient and effective functioning. However, perceived employability had a positive significant relationship with OCBI, that is, helping supervisors and coworkers with heavy workloads, as well as with counterproductive behaviors.Practical implicationsEmployable workers have always been considered key players and an asset for organizations due to their high productivity skills. A balanced employer–employee relationship creates a mutual win; therefore, a carefully drafted human resources policy may help organizations to fulfill the needs of employable workers and reap optimal benefits in terms of productivity. Behavioral training to supervisors/managers may help to assertively deal with employees' negative behavior without further escalation.Originality/valueThe present study suggests a paradoxical perspective in employability – a behavior debate, which is in an initial phase where it is difficult to determine whether employable workers are productive to the organizations or not.

Is flu vaccination opt-out feasible? Evidence from vaccination programme implementers and managers in the English National Health Service

BackgroundIn 2018/19, English NHS trusts (NHSTs) implemented an 'opt-out' policy for seasonal flu vaccination in frontline healthcare workers (HCWs). HCWs declining the vaccination were asked to sign an opt-out form and provide a reason for their decision. In addition, HCWs working in higher risk hospital environments (e.g. oncology) were asked to inform their manager about their declination decision. The policy aimed to provide greater insight into reasons for vaccination decline and information from HCWs in higher risk areas was intended for use in considering HCW redeployment. This study investigated the feasibility, acceptability, and perceived value of the policy during the 2018/19 flu vaccination season. MethodsWe conducted semi-structured interviews across 9 NHSTs in England with different levels of HCW flu vaccination uptake in 2017/18. We interviewed 30 vaccination programme implementers and 27 managers. FindingsThe purpose of the policy was poorly understood, and interviewees did not know how data on decliners was being used. Most NHSTs tried to collect the personal details of decliners and, in some instances, these were recorded in Electronic Staff Records and reported to line-managers for action. This created strain on employer-employee relationships, leading to decliners refusing to complete opt-out forms and some vaccinators not implementing the policy. None of the NHSTs had a redeployment policy for decliners, arguing that this was impractical due to strain on staffing levels. ConclusionA flu-vaccination opt-out approach for HCWs did not appear acceptable in our sampled NHSTs, due to a lack of clear messaging about its purpose and complicated implementation. To promote an opt-out approach effectively, there needs to be clear communication of its purpose, which should be to explore reasons for decline rather than identify and 'push' decliners to vaccinate, so as not to damage staff relationships. NHSTs should involve their workforce in developing flu vaccination approaches.

Communication Climate as Predictor of Perceived Corporate Governance and Organizational Success

Communication Climate as Predictor of Perceived Corporate Governance and Organizational Success

Understanding depression as a workplace issue: Clarifying employers' attitudes to manage employees with depression.

Sickness absence due to depression has indirect and direct costs for employers. Whilst employers play a key role in establishing supportive work environments and providing work adjustments, there is a lack of knowledge on employers' attitudes to support employees with depression. To investigate employers' attitudes to manage employees' depression, focusing on the employers' opportunities and challenges to support employees with depression. Individual interviews were conducted with five employers. Interview transcripts were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Four categories emerged from the interviews: Attitude to and understanding of depression affect supportive practices; Dilemma between supporting employees with depression and accommodating workplace needs; The employer-employee relationship influences supportive practices; and Work accommodations target the employee's ability to work. Employers may need a wider understanding of depression and the importance of the work environment influencing work disability due to depression. Studies should investigate how knowledge of work disability due to depression can be transferred to workplaces.Conflicting agendas of the vocational rehabilitation stakeholders poison opportunities to support, and initiatives may aim to promote employers' understanding of the benefits of collaborating with other stakeholders. The involvement of decision-makers to provide initiatives that support employers in managing employees with depression to promote their work participation is recommended.

Impact of transactional, relational and balanced contract on affective commitment

PurposeThis paper is aimed at examining the impact of three types of psychological contracts such as transactional, relational and balanced contract on affective commitment by keeping meaningful work (MFW) as a mediator in this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe data of 355 employees was collected from the large heavy Indian manufacturing organizations. The mediation path was analyzed through SPSS macro computational tool, i.e. PROCESS.FindingsThe result suggests that MFW partially mediates the relationship between all three types of psychological contract and affective commitment.Originality/valueThe study adds value to research in organizational behavior and human psychology by providing new insights on employee-employer relationships, MFW, and commitment.

Government Equity Investments in Coronavirus Rescues: Why, How, When?

Governments around the world are attempting to support individuals’ incomes, rescue distressed businesses, and preserve employer-employee relationships damaged in the coronavirus pandemic by adopting fiscal stimulus programs of unprecedented scale. Although the bulk of this spending will involve direct payments to individuals or some type of direct lending or loan guarantees to businesses, large sums will (and should) take the form of government purchases of equity in distressed firms — either by direct purchase or by exercising warrants attached to rescue loans. We discuss why we think these equity injections will be necessary, but only in a limited number of cases; how they should be structured; when investments should be made and, almost as important, exited. We summarize (and tabulate) both the modest recent history of governments rescuing non-financial firms with equity injections and the voluminous research examining the efficacy of governments rescuing failing banks using equity investments. We highlight the dangers that would likely arise if governments permanently retain and vote the equity stakes purchased during the current crisis. Where equity investments must be made, we argue that these should: (1) be effective, in being large enough to be decisive; (2) be passive after the initial injection, when some financial restrictions should be imposed; (3) be temporary and preferably self-liquidating through open-market sales or redemptions; (4) provide taxpayers an upside claim if and when the rescued firm recovers; (5) be restricted to exchange-listed companies in all but extreme cases; and (6) be timely, as speed is crucial. In most cases, the default instrument to employ should be either non-voting preferred stock or warrants that convert into immediately marketable common shares, and we present a numerical example of how a preferred stock-with-warrants equity investment could pay off handsomely for taxpayers if rescued companies recover even partially.

Employer-employee relations and employee engagement in a tertiary institution in Benin-City, Edo State

Purpose: This study aimed to explore the relationship between employer-employee relations and employee engagement in a tertiary institution in Edo State. Research methodology: Semi-structured interviews were conducted on a cross-section of management staff, heads of department, and units in the University. A descriptive method was adopted for data analysis. Results: The results of this study revealed that employee engagement is a by-product of employer-employee relations and the quality of the relationship is one of the most critical factors that drive engagement and satisfaction of employees. Limitations: The challenge was the inadequate number of respondents interviewed due to time constraint. Contribution: The study provided insight into the so called soft aspect of an organization and the way people relate with one another, and advocated the need for employers, managers, and supervisors in organizations to recognize the emotional composite of an employee, and the creation of a healthy relationship that would meet the employee' emotional needs. Keywords: Effective employer-employee relations, Engagement, Psychological needs, Productivity

Charting directions for a new research era: addressing gaps and advancing scholarship in the study of psychological contracts

ABSTRACTThe nature of work and the contexts in which firms operate have changed significantly in the many decades since the study of psychological contracts (PCs) at work began in earnest. These changes have altered the contours of the traditional employer-employee relationship and are key motivators of this Special Issue. We seek to chart new directions for PC research over the next decade by widening the theoretical and methodological lenses used to explore PC processes. In the introductory editorial we briefly outline the PC construct, overview the collected papers, and discuss the next exciting wave of PC research (exploring PC dynamics, PC counterparties, and the PC context) inspired by this collection.

Platforms of Work, Labour, and Employment Relationship: The Grey Zones of a Digital Governance.

Drawing on numerous case studies, the article examines the specific conditions for organising and managing the employment relationship on digital labour platforms. We show that these conditions are largely due to the disruptive nature of the process of digitising the employee–employer relationship. Digitisation replaces the employment contract of the standard employment relationship with a triangular “worker–platform–customer” relationship. In this model, the boundaries of the employment relationship become opaque and more uncertain: the bond of subordination disappears, labour law gives way to commercial law, and the figures of the employer and the employee lose institutional visibility. The article seeks to clarify the contours of this “in-between” model and proposes the notion of the “grey zone,” borrowed from geopolitics. This notion of the “employment grey zone” makes it possible to shift the researcher's perspective by focusing attention on practices and “intermediate spaces of regulation,” which are relatively autonomous and endowed with their own dynamics. This framework of analysis broadens the perspective and helps to better understand the impact on the employment relationship of new forms of governance in a context of a digital turning point. The article first returns to the notion of the “grey zone” and argues on the foundations and interest of mobilising this notion in the field of industrial relations studies. The links between digital platforms and grey zones are then examined. In particular, we show that digital governance is based on a confusion of powers between coordination and leadership. The reflection continues in a third phase with an examination of digital management practices in two areas: the control of the activity of connected workers, and the production and management of externalities resulting from the operation of platforms. The article concludes with a discussion on the heuristic value of the notion of grey zones of employment.

Organisational trust: A case application in the air transport sector

In management, it is important to know what the likely feedback effects of employee-employer relationship outcomes might be on levels of ongoing employee trust. This paper looks to apply this important question to a case application of the air transport sector by testing the impact of recent changes in a case sample of air transport companies using a modified aggregate trust model. The findings of this study suggest that occupational group (flight crew/non-flight crew), airline type (Full Service Airline - FSA, Low Cost Carrier - LCC, Charter), and level of seniority (management/non-management level) all have an important bearing on levels of trust in the employee-employer relationship. Pre-existing labour agreements and legacy arrangements with senior and certain occupational groups were found to have a more damaging effect on the trust relationship than anything else. An underlying level of resentment and defensiveness has developed due to historical labour agreements being changed and have been observed most notably among FSAs, flight-crew and middle-management staff. The mediating role of the unions in the employee-employer trust relationship was found to be insignificant among the sampled air transport organisations mainly due to the perceived weakness among the sampled employees of unions to make any meaningful interventions.

Context and social exchange: perceived ethical climate strengthens the relationships between perceived organizational support and organizational identification and commitment

Effective human resource management involves maximizing the value gained from human resource practices and policies. Past research shows that practices and policies are beneficial because they strengthen the employer-employee relationship. We help contextualize research on this important relationship by exploring the moderating effect of perceived ethical climate on the relationships between perceived organizational support and three cognitive and affective employee outcomes: organizational identification, affective organizational commitment, and job-induced tension. We argue that ethical climate perceptions shape the attributions employees make about perceived organizational support and, consequently, how they respond to support perceptions. Drawing on a study of 254 employees from a health care organization, we find that perceived ethical climate strengthens the positive relationships between perceived organizational support and organizational identification and affective organizational commitment, respectively. These results suggest that employee perceptions of an organization’s ethical climate can be instrumental in their cognitive and affective organization-related responses, but not their affective job-related responses, to perceived organizational support. We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of our work.

Organizational Condition of Private Schools and Colleges in Nueva Ecija

Healthy organizations need to maximize human resources to achieve their goals; they need to integrate their programs and empower their employees. The study described the organizational condition of private schools and colleges in Nueva Ecija in terms of organizational structure, employer-employee relationship, and employee’s growth and development. The study used descriptive method and utilized survey research. A total of 114 employees (composed of 76 teaching and 38 non-teaching staff) from private schools and colleges in Nueva Ecija were involved in this study. Based on the gathered data and analysis of the results, the researchers concluded that the private schools and colleges of Nueva Ecija have demonstrated to be very satisfactory in their organizational condition. This was highlighted in the aspects of organizational structure and employee’s growth and development. This focuses on the commitment of all the members in achieving goals and objectives of their organizations, and at the same time giving opportunities to all the members to become productive according to distributed roles, and responsibilities, acknowledging one’s accomplishments, and group cohesiveness.

Troll Storms and Tort Liability for Speech Urging Action by Others: A First Amendment Analysis and An Initial Step Toward A Federal Rule

This Commentary examines when, consistent with First Amendment principles of free expression, speakers can be held tortiously responsible for the actions of others with whom they have no contractual or employer-employee relationship. It argues that recent lawsuits against Daily Stormer publisher Andrew Anglin for sparking “troll storms” provide a timely analytical springboard into the issue of vicarious tort liability. Furthermore, such liability is particularly problematic when a speaker’s message urging action does not fall into an unprotected category of expression, such as incitement or true threats, and thus, were it not for tort law, would be fully protected. In examining the possibility of vicarious tort liability, this Commentary reviews the U.S. Supreme Court’s “authorized, directed, or ratified” test for vicarious liability, which was established more than thirty-five years ago in the pre-Internet-era case of NAACP v. Claiborne Hardware Co. The Commentary concludes by proposing a framework for vicarious liability when speakers urge action that results in others’ tortious conduct.

Consent is an organizational behavior issue

Consent is central to many organizational interactions and obligations. Employees consent to various terms of employment, both formal (contractual obligations) and informal (extra-role responsibilities, interpersonal requests). Yet consent has traditionally been considered a legal matter, unrelated to organizational behavior. In this article, we make a case for why, and how, organizational behavior scholars should undertake the study of consent. We first review scholarship on the legal understanding of consent. We argue that the traditional legal understanding is an incomplete way to think about consent in organizations, and we call for a more nuanced understanding that incorporates psychological and philosophical insights about consent—particularly consent in employer-employee relationships. We then connect this understanding of consent to traditional organizational behavior topics (autonomy, fairness, and trust) and examine these connections within three organizational domains (employee surveillance, excessive work demands, and sexual harassment). We conclude with future directions for research on consent in organizations.

Behavioral Aspects of Communication in Organizations

This paper reviews experimental studies that investigate the effects of communication on be-havior in organizational settings. Two main classes of studies are identified: (a) studies on coordination and competition, which include experimental research that tests whether com-munication can help to overcome coordination failure within organizations, and (b) studies that analyze the role of communication in alleviating problems arising from information asym-metries at the workplace. The evidence from these studies indicates that communication is suited to improve efficient coordination within firms and to mitigate information problems in employer-employee relationships. In addition, studies are presented that focus on the interac- tion between communication and monetary incentive schemes in companies.

Employer-employee relations: A judicial perspective

This paper aims to assess the emerging pattern of employer-employee relationship in India which has been the key in sustaining balance in the industrial relations scenario. Judiciary has time and again tried to interpret statutes and attempted to come out with its interpretations that maintain harmony and peace in industrial establishments. Paper revisits judgments aimed at interpreting employer-employee relations. Judiciary has repeatedly provided indications that employers and employees have their respective obligations and they need to have the appreciation of each other's responsibilities, duties and obligations. Judiciary has reminded all stakeholders of industrial establishments from time to time that every dispute between the employer and the employee has, to take into consideration the third dimension, viz., the interests of the society as a whole, particularly the interest of those who are deprived of their basic rights and may be more unfortunate than others. Judiciary has also adjudicated upon as to whom the onus of establishing relationship of employer employee lies.