Why has the Employee relationships changed from 1900' to today and Essay

Why has the Employee relationships changed from 1900' to today and what does this mean to contemporary organisations - Essay Example The concept today applies to a broader, extensively multidimensional and a major function of strategic managers in companies, rather than being confined to the Human Resource Department (HRD) functions. Industrial relationship, in its earlier days of the 1900s was concerned about the management of association existing amid the trade unions and the authoritative managerial bodies, which further offered organisations with a greater control on managing negotiations, industrial conflicts and consultations. Although the inherent meaning, basic tenets and rudimental values of this particular managerial doctrine remains the same over the past century, its dimensions have become much vibrant and multifaceted, embracing the external as well as internal elements of strategic management including social, political, economic and legal contexts of the national and international realms along with the working culture, organisational values, motivational needs of the workers, ranging upto financial and strategic goals of the company (Sing & Kumar, 2011). Based on this concern, this essay hereby intends to examine and obtain a critical understanding of the changes witnessed in the concept of employee relationship since the 1900s to the current century and its implications on contemporary organisations. Employee Relationship in 1900s In general terms, ‘employee relationship’ can be understood as a practice or a theory that is principally allied with the management and with the regulations of employee relationship. It operates more as an array of necessary abilities and attitudes of the employees rather than a specific management function. Employee relationship is concerned about preventing and controlling the conflicts within workplaces, either at individual levels or at the group levels that are often likely to arise due to the inefficiency of an organisation (Brown University, 2013). It is worth mentioning in this context that there are many factors, which have co ntributed to the changes in employee relationship since the past era to the recent times. Employee relationship during the 1900s was highly influenced by the then continuing industry trends, which rooted since the mid nineteenth century. In the twentieth century, the factory system became the dominant mode of production in most of the developed and Western countries (Sing & Kumar, 2011). In the plight of political turmoil and rapidly changing social constructs, employment relationship in the twentieth century was characterized by the emergence of labour unions. Since the colonial days labour unions had a well-earned reputation for being cruel, antisocial and some even criminal. Accordingly, with increased number of labours in the extremes of the spectrum and fewer in the middle, the labour market became much polarized by the mid 1900s (European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training, 2011). The labour market polarisation had a deep impact on the employment relationship in the twentieth century context, whereby the notion followed by governmental bodies (including trade unions) and employers was shifting from liberalism (that developed in the early 1900s) to neo-liberalism structures in the later-half of the twentieth century. Correspondingly, the twentieth century labour market was also facing significant turmoil in terms of protests against exploitation, which was further backed by political groups along with the then uprising social communities (Kalleberg, 2009; Clarke, 1995). With the increasing pace in the liberalism reforms of the early 1900s,