BusinessWorld
April 23, 2021 | 12:01 am
I
’m the newly-hired human resource (HR) manager at a medium-sized corporation. Since my appointment, I have noticed an increasing number of complaints about the management style of team leaders, line supervisors, and managers. The issues involve such matters as the non-approval of leave applications and even a requirement that workers be at their desks 100% of the time. How should I handle these trivial issues? Golden Girl.
A common question raised by parents with young children during weekends is: “Do we hear too well or our children are just too noisy?” Applying this to your situation, the question becomes: “Is your management team too strict or the employees complaining about nothing?”
comprehensive configuration
Avoidance configuration occurs when firms choose not to provide workers with either dispute resolution or voice options. Without any formal practices in place, conflict is typically resolved informally and with a great deal of managerial discretion and authority.
Firms that engage in protective configuration elect to implement defensive resolution practices without providing workers access to formal voice mechanisms. This is designed to protect firms from the costs associated with litigation and other public regulatory enforcement mechanisms.
Operational configuration occurs when firms provide workers with access to production-centered voice without access to formal dispute-resolution. These firms are likely motivated by the potential benefits that voice can provide for producing goods or delivering services, but are not as concerned with the need to defend against external threats, such as litigation or unionization.
April 12, 2021
The ILR Review will publish a special issue focusing on new theories in employment relations. ILR Dean Alexander Colvin, Ph.D. 99, Associate Professor Virginia Doellgast and the Wharton School’s Matthew Bidwell are guest editors for the issue, as well as co-authors of a comprehensive introductory piece. The issue features eight empirical articles, a commentary section of essays by invited scholars and one book review symposium, which has invited essays focused on the same recently released book.
In the journal’s introduction, the guest editors “summarize the history of employment relations theory and reflect on the implications of recent disruptive changes in the economy and society for new theory development.” The trio identifies three changes: