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Employee Stakeholders & Workplace Issues

Employee Stakeholders and Workplace Issues

A stakeholder is any person affected by a company’s actions; employees are key company stakeholders contributing to the decision-making process and propelling the company towards achievements of their targets. The employee enters into a contract with an employer to provide services and be paid wages in returns. In 2015, Lewis observed that these social contracts have been experiencing dynamic changes over the past few years. This paper will explore the evolvement of social contracts between employees and employers; it will also compare the old and new social contracts as well as point out issues in workplaces.

Old and New Social Contracts

Before changes occurred in the human resource market, employees used to enjoy higher job security, they could even have one employer within their career life. They also had stable positions with fewer promotions or demotions and stable income, therefore, had loyalty to their employers. They also received several pieces of training concerning their work and were inspired by their accomplishments rather than teamwork or organizational achievements (Carroll and Buchholtz, 2015). The new contract, on the other hand, has been influenced by the employee wants and attitudes, employees have become more demanding and less satisfied with what they already have. According to Lewis (2015), employees want jobs with competitive salaries, satisfactory benefits and growth opportunities. In search of these, they have become loyal to themselves than to their employers and improved their diversity, they are also more mobile, with an estimated 11.3 jobs being an average of what today’s employee has held.

 

 

Employee Rights

Employee rights aim to protect employees in their places of work. These rights originate from the Constitution as statutory rights, employee unions as collective bargaining rights and enterprise rights set by a company or industry as a whole. Employees in the public sector enjoy protections by the Constitution, those on the private sector receive mistreatment from their employers, and this has forced them to form trade and labor unions to fight for their rights. These rights have stipulated the way organizations and employees are managed; the first model is the moral management where employees are given their rightfully deserved respect and dignity as they are an important human resource to a company. Carroll and Buchholtz (2015) explains that a moral management is where an organization only treats employees to a minimum as stipulated by the law stipulates. On the other hand, immoral management is a model disrespecting and exploiting employees, taking them to be just factors of production.

There are several issues that need to be addressed with regards to new social contracts. The rights of employees are being threatened as changes continue to drive workplace environment. The right not to be fired without good cause allows employees to have a secure job, and stable positions, the right to due process and fair treatment also give the employees the feeling of satisfaction and self-fulfillment while the right to freedom of speech allows employees to be open-minded and contribute towards company decision making. Whistle-blowing has been in constant growth in organizations due to this freedom (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2015).

 

 

 

 

Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

  1. Open-Door Policy

A senior management personnel is appointed to welcome complaints from employees who may be unfairly treated. This method may be unfair as complaints against another senior manager may not be resolved.

  1. Hearing Procedure

Employees elect representatives to participate in the hearing process; there would be an independent party to decide in a given case, ensuring that employees get fair judgments.

  • The Ombudsman

If an employee notices something wrong, he or she might be threatened so as not to reveal what they saw; ombudsman will help the individual by protecting them from mistreatment. This method is highly preferred due to the confidentiality factor.

  1. The Peer Review Panel

The company forms a committee, constituting both employees and management representatives to oversee employee complaints. The committee should be elected by the employees and should be well conversant with employee status and relevant ways to solve issues (Carroll & Buchholtz, 2015).

Conclusion

The changes in the human resource sector have raised different issues towards employee-employer contracts. Lewis (2015) explains that employees have demanded more from their employers and have become more selective; whistle-blowing is also on the rise due to increased freedom of speech, causing more conflicts. Alternative dispute resolution is being adopted as they are proving to be assisting both employees and employers to come to terms with minimum time and costs spent.

 

 

 

References

Carroll A., Buchholtz A., (2015). Business and Society: Ethics, Sustainability, and Stakeholder

Management, Chapter 17; Employee Stakeholders and Workplace Issues, Cengage Learning.

Lewis J. (2015). How Are Employees Affected as Stakeholders? Demand Media, Hearst

Newspaper, LLC. Available at <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/employees-affected-stakeholders-38732.html>

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