Influence of Employee Relations on Work Performance

INTRODUCTION

This research is based on the assumption that it is the good relation with staff factor that leads to increase staff performance in the service department of hotel industry. Both the variables are very important in hotel industry. Staff performance is key to success for the hospitality organizations because hospitality organization is labor intensive industry so it becomes very important to focus on those factors that motivate employees for the work and to deliver their best to the organization.

There are many factors that influence employee and work of employees. Relation with employee is one of them. Employee motivation may relate with money, position in the organization, future perspective, but relation with the peer group and boss is foremost factor that have direct impact on employee performance. Good employee relation means creation of congenial environment that retain the motivation of employees and keep motivating them for their commitments towards the organization.

1.2 AIM AND OBJECTIVES / RESEARCH QUESTIONS / HYPOTHESIS

1.2.1 Aim of this research:

aim of this research is to find out the influence of good employee relation on work performance of an employees, with special reference to restaurant service staff of hotel industry.

1.2.2 Objectives:

• To explore the ingredients of good employee relation
• To explore the ingredients of employee performance
• To explore good relation of employee as an factor of motivation.
• To find out the impact of good employee relation on employee performance

1.2.3 Research Questions:

R.Q.1 What are the basis of good relation?

R.Q.2 What are the basis of employee performance?

R.Q.3 How good relation of employee have positive impact on employee performance?

1.3 RATIONAL:

Author believes that employee relation is very important as an motivating factor, and employee performance is also very important for the development of an organization and in achieving organizational goal. This philosophy is very much important in the hospitality industry because hospitality industry is guest based business and employees are the only factor that brings guest satisfaction. So keep employee happy should be the right slogan for human resource department of the hotel and concerned functional department too. This is the thinking behind choice of this topic.

1.4 STRUCTURE OF THE DISSERTATION:

This research work is having many sections. Author is giving brief introduction and the sequence of the chapters. Chapter two is based on secondary research and placed just after this chapter, after that third chapter is on methodology and fourth is on depth analysis of the questions of the questionnaire and after that fifth chapter is containing conclusion of the research. After conclusion there is list of references followed by appendix section.

Literature Review

2.1 What is employee relations?

Employee relation or industrial relation is basically relation between employees and employer collectively. In this research author has established aim and objective which basically focus on impact of good employee relation on employee performance. Author is presenting this section as secondary research which is conducted through many books and websites.

There are many variables of this research topic such as employee relation and its basis, employee performance and its basis, so all the related areas are also explored in this section of the research so that a valid conclusion can be drawn at the end of this section which would be conclusion based on secondary research.

2.2 Employee relation:

Employee relations can be seen primarily as a skill-set or a philosophy, rather than as a management function or well-defined area of activity. Despite well-publicised instances of industrial action, the emphasis of employee relations continues to shift from ‘collective’ institutions, such as trade unions and collective bargaining, to the relationship with individual employees. The ideas of ’employee voice’ and the ‘psychological contract’ have been accepted by employers and reflected in their employee relations policies and aspirations. Employee relations skills and competencies are still seen by employers as critical to achieving performance benefits through a focus on employee involvement, commitment and engagement. Employee relations is seen as strategic in terms of managing business risk: both the downside risk of non-compliance with an expanded body of employment law, and the upside risk of failing to deliver maximum business performance.

http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/general/emprelsovr.htm

2.3 Job Satisfaction and Job performance:

To understand the nature of job satisfaction and its effects on work performance is not easy. For at least 50 years industrial/organizational psychologists have been wrestling with the question of the relationship between job satisfaction and job performance. Researchers have put a considerable amount of effort into attempts to demonstrate that the two are positively related in a particular fashion: a happy worker is a good worker. Although this sounds like a very appealing idea, the results of empirical literature are too mixed to support the hypothesis that job satisfaction leads to better performance or even that there is a reliable positive correlation between these two variables. On the other hand some researchers argue that the results are equally inconclusive with respect to the hypothesis that there is no such relationship. As a result of this ambiguity, this relationship continues to stimulate research and re-examination of previous attempts. This paper strives to describe the relation of job satisfaction and performance, keeping in mind the value this relation has for organizations. http://www.articlesbase.com/careers-articles/job-performance-and-satisfaction-53672.htm

Job satisfaction is a complex and multifaceted concept, which can mean different things to different people. Job satisfaction is usually linked with motivation, but the nature of this relationship is not clear. Satisfaction is not the same as motivation. “Job satisfaction is more an attitude, an internal state. It could, for example, be associated with a personal feeling of achievement, either quantitative or qualitative.” In recent years attention to job satisfaction has become more closely associated with broader approaches to improved job design and work organization, and the quality of working life movement. The relationship between job satisfaction and performance is an issue of continuing debate and controversy. One view, associated with the early human relation’s approach, is that satisfaction leads to performance. An alternative view is that performance leads to satisfaction. However, a variety of studies suggest that research has found only a limited relationship between satisfaction and work output and offer scant comfort to those seeking to confirm that a satisfied worker is also a productive one. Labor turnover and absenteeism are commonly associated with dissatisfaction, but although there may be some correlation, there are many other possible factors. No universal generalizations about worker dissatisfaction exist, to offer easy management solutions to problems of turnover and absenteeism. The study suggests that it is primarily in the realm of job design, where opportunity resides for a constructive improvement of the worker’s satisfaction level. Individual performance is generally determined by three factors. Motivation, the desire to do the job, ability, the capability to do the job, and the work environment, the tools, materials, and information needed to do the job. If an employee lacks ability, the manager can provide training or replace the worker. If there is an environmental problem, the manager can also usually make adjustments to promote higher performance. But if motivation is the problem, the manager’s task is more challenging. Individual behavior is a complex phenomenon, and the manager may not be able to figure out why the employee is not motivated and how to change the behavior. Thus, also motivation plays a vital role since it might influence negatively performance and because of its intangible nature.http://www.articlesbase.com/careers-articles/job-performance-and-satisfaction-53672.htm

2.4 The elements of a job that create job satisfaction

Flexible work arrangements, possibly including telecommuting

Training and other professional growth opportunities

Interesting work that offers variety and challenge and allows the worker opportunities to “put his or her signature” on the finished product

Opportunities to use one’s talents and to be creative

Opportunities to take responsibility and direct one’s own work

A stable, secure work environment that includes job security/continuity

An environment in which workers are supported by an accessible supervisor who provides timely feedback as well as congenial team members

Flexible benefits, such as child-care and exercise facilities

Up-to-date technology

Competitive salary and opportunities for promotion http://www.answers.com/topic/job-satisfaction

2.5 Workers’ Roles in Job Satisfaction

If job satisfaction is a worker benefit, surely the worker must be able to contribute to his or her own satisfaction and well-being on the job. The following suggestions can help a worker find personal job satisfaction:

Seek opportunities to demonstrate skills and talents. This often leads to more challenging work and greater responsibilities, with attendant increases in pay and other recognition.

Develop excellent communication skills. Employer's value and reward excellent reading, listening, writing, and speaking skills.

Know more. Acquire new job-related knowledge that helps you to perform tasks more efficiently and effectively. This will relieve boredom and often gets one noticed.

Demonstrate creativity and initiative. Qualities like these are valued by most organizations and often result in recognition as well as in increased responsibilities and rewards.

Develop teamwork and people skills. A large part of job success is the ability to work well with others to get the job done.

Accept the diversity in people. Accept people with their differences and their imperfections and learn how to give and receive criticism constructively.

See the value in your work. Appreciating the significance of what one does can lead to satisfaction with the work itself. This helps to give meaning to one’s existence, thus playing a vital role in job satisfaction.

Learn to de-stress. Plan to avoid burnout by developing healthy stress-management techniques. http://www.answers.com/topic/job-satisfaction

Employee engagement:

The achievement of business goals and financial returns is increasingly dependent on delivery by front-line employees. 'Engagement' has been described as a combination of commitment and organisational citizenship. There is no shortage of evidence about people management policies and practices that contribute to building employee engagement. They include: Employee voice: Managers are much more convinced than they were a decade ago that involvement produces business benefits. This is confirmed by the range of methods for direct communication and recognising individual employee contribution that HR departments now implement and operate. Teamworking: Training, teamworking, supervisors trained in employee relation matters and problem-solving groups are all associated with one another. In combination, this group of practices might be construed as a model of direct employee participation in decision-making. Work-life balance: Policies on work-life balance are being used by employers to underpin positive workplace behaviours. Our various surveys of employee attitudes, for example Guest and Conway5, have underlined the link between work-life balance, commitment and performance, and there is strong support by employers for the current legislation giving employees the right to request flexible working.

http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/general/emprelsovr.htm

HR and employee relation:

Communication is the glue that makes policies real and without which they are ineffective. The fact that communication is necessarily a two-way process, involving dialogue rather than simply instruction, is well established. Yet many organisations perform badly in this area, failing to give communication the priority it deserves.

Getting communication right involves both professionalism and persistence. The qualities required include focusing on positive behaviours and outcomes, taking a positive, problem-solving approach, anticipating problems, recommending solutions and being able to offer sound advice to senior managers about implementation. Negotiating skills are still useful but needed less often. A much wider area of knowledge is now required, along with the skills to apply it, including surveying and interpreting employee attitudes, communications and conflict management. Most important is the ability to fit policies and practices to suit the organisation's goals and the character of its workforce.

http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/general/emprelsovr.htm

Value of employee relation:

To a considerable extent, it is only in the public sector that trade unions retain a measure of their former strength and influence in the workplace. This is partly through the existence of institutions of collective consultation, reinforced by continued reliance in many cases on industry-level bargaining and the public policy emphasis on 'partnership'. Union influence in the private sector, on the other hand, continues to decline. The main areas of the private sector where industrial disputes are still experienced from time to time, for example, public transport, are those where there's a clear public or political interest and/or the Government is seen as the ultimate 'banker'. 'Employee relations' as a term remains ambiguous, with no clear boundaries. Most HR people don't use the term on an everyday basis. It is not calculated to help managers focus on what they need to know and do to increase performance – the language has echoes of a historical era that offers few insights into contemporary practice. The traditional academic models of industrial relations have only limited relevance to what managers do today. Employers are in charge and the role of 'joint control' and 'rule-making' by employers and trade unions has been substantially replaced by employment regulation and organisational values. Employee relations can nevertheless point to an underlying philosophy and attitudes and skills that are still needed by HR practitioners. The current 'business partner' model is helpful in identifying an 'added value' framework within which HR practitioners need to operate, but an unreflecting business focus may lead to a neglect of the softer skills, which are essential to managing the employment relationship, and of employee interests and influence. Employers also need HR managers with a positive, 'can do' attitude who will resist the temptation to adopt a defensive or compliance-led HR culture. Commitment and engagement are crucial to performance but they are not consistently high enough in the hierarchy of line management – or, often, HR – priorities. The Employee Information and Consultation Regulations may be helpful in raising the profile of employee voice and involvement, but the WERS 20042 findings give little basis for optimism that this will happen. More effort needs to be put into training and supporting line managers in, for example, teamworking and change management as the basis for establishing and maintaining motivation and commitment, which is a critical role for employee relations managers. Issues about alignment of HR and business strategies have mostly to be resolved within this area. There is too much focus within organisations on strategy formulation and planning, and not enough on implementation and delivery. Managing the employment relationship rests heavily on the shoulders of line managers, but their competence in this area is, in general, seriously neglected. The concept of engagement is helpful in promoting wider interest in the measurement of HR outputs, including through the widespread use of employee attitudes surveys and in performance management/appraisal systems. http://www.cipd.co.uk/subjects/empreltns/general/emprelsovr.htm

Maintaining employee relation:

Good employee relations means you create an environment which delivers what people want today. They want to feel good about who they are, what they do and where they work. Although there is probably an endless list of opinions as to what employees want today, here are 10 that are important as you consider building an employee relations program for your business:

Employees want to be comfortable with what their employer stands for. Social psychology research indicates the chances of success are much greater for your organization if you have a clearly defined vision that all your people can follow. In some organizations, this is also referred to as a mission statement. Does your organization, department or division have one? Use it as a part of your employee relations strategy to ensure that your employees are comfortable with what your business is about. Employees want to identify with corporate principles. Today employees are very opinionated about the moral and ethical issues in business today. They care about such things as employee privacy and employee rights. By having a set of guiding principles, and following these principles, your organization creates a framework within which to develop principle-centered policies and procedures or make principle-centered decisions regarding difficult employment related issues. Employees want to know their employer cares about their opinions and concerns. If you’re going to create a good employee relations program, you need to have a mechanism for finding out what your employees care about, what they are concerned about, what they think of you as an employer. Conduct employee opinion surveys. http://austin.bizjournals.com/austin/stories/1998/03/30/focus4.html

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3.1 RESEARCH METHODS

Research methods can be qualitative, quantitative or both (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2000). The selection of the particular research method depends on the kind of information required. Qualitative method collects, analyzes, and interprets data that cannot be meaningfully quantified, that is, summarized in the form of numbers. For this reason, qualitative method is sometimes referred to as soft research method. Any research using non-structured questioning or observation techniques can be labeled qualitative research. Qualitative method typically studies relatively few respondents or units. In other words, a research of a large, representative sample would normally not be called qualitative research method even if it used some non-structured questions or observations. The non-structured and small-sample features of qualitative research techniques have an important implication. They are intended to provide initial insights, ideas, or understanding about a problem, not to recommend a final course of action. Therefore, qualitative research techniques are most appropriate in situations calling for exploratory research. Quantitative research method, in contrast, is characterized by more structure and larger, more representative respondent samples. Consequently, the logical place for quantitative research techniques (usually in the form of large-scale questionnaire surveys or structured observations) is in conclusive studies. A primary role of qualitative research method is to generate hunches or hypotheses. In contrast, each of the situations under quantitative research calls for very specific data, capable of suggesting a final course of action (Parasuraman, et al. 2004).

The above description suggests us that qualitative research method is a soft approach in which collected and identified data or information cannot be meaningfully quantified and more importantly in this approach non-structured research is conducted; but so far as quantitative research method is concerned, in this approach structured research is conducted with approaching larger respondents and the collected data can be meaningfully quantified. This research is qualitative based so required qualitative data to achieve the aims and objectives of the research, therefore qualitative research approach has been applied to conduct this research.

3.2 DATA COLLECTION

Research data can be collected either in the form of secondary or primary or both (Clark et al, 2003). In this research both primary and secondary data were collected considering the aims and objectives of the research.

3.2.1 SECONDARY DATA:

Secondary Data usually factual information can be obtained through secondary data, that have already been collected from other sources and are readily available from those sources (Parasuraman, et al. 2004). The definition and characteristics of secondary data presented above suggest us that secondary data are data that have already been collected for purpose other than the problem in hand. Before detailing as how and what secondary data were collected in this research, in would be worth to examine the advantages and disadvantages of such data.

Secondary data are easily accessible, relatively inexpensive, and quickly obtained. Some secondary data, are available on topics where it would not be feasible for a firm to collect primary data. Although it is rare for secondary data to provide all the answers to a non-routine research problem, such data can be useful in a variety of ways (Kotabe, 2002). Secondary data can help: Identify the problem, better define the problem, develop an approach to the problem, formulate an appropriate research design (for example, by identifying the key variables), answer certain research questions and test some hypotheses and interpret primary data more insightfully. Because secondary data have been collected for purposes other than the problem at hand, their usefulness to the current problem may be limited in several important ways, including relevance and accuracy. The objectives, nature, and methods used to collect the secondary data may not be appropriate to the present situation. Also, secondary data may be lacking in accuracy, or they may not be completely current or dependable. Before using secondary data, it is important to evaluate them on these factors (Malhotra, 2004).

Although so many disadvantages are associated with the secondary data, but such data were found useful in this research as identifying and defining the problem, and developing research objectives. The secondary data in the this research is in the form of literature review. The various sources of secondary data in this research were: books, journals, periodicals, newspapers and magazines and websites.

3.2.2 PRIMARY DATA COLLECTION

Primary data is collected for the specific purpose of addressing the problem at hand. The collection of primary data involves various steps. Thus obtaining primary data can be expensive and time consuming (Malhotra, 2004). These suggest that primary data are those data that are collected for the particular purpose of research in hand. The disadvantage of collecting primary data is that it is lengthy and resource and time consuming process (in comparison of secondary data), but the advantage of primary data is that they are first hand information and comparatively more reliable (than secondary data).

Primary data can be collected from various sources and methods that are case studies, observation, questionnaire survey and interview (Clark et al, 2003). In this research questionnaire survey method was applied in order to collect primary data.

Designing questionnaires may appear to be simple, especially to those who have not designed one before. After all, you may think, once you have a clear notion of the information desired, it should be easy to formulate appropriate questions and arrange them in the form of an instrument (Parasuraman, 2004).

Primary data collection approach adopted in this research:

Sampling technique: Author has followed convenient sampling technique and chosen sample hotel based on the same technique. This technique involves choice of hotel which easily accessible by the author.

Sample: samples were based on Delhi based 5 star hotels.

Sample size:

Tools used in primary data collection: Author followed questionnaire technique to collect the data from the samples, in some cases author went to the sample hotel and met with the person concerned for this research but in many cases author referred telephonic talk and get the questionnaire filled over the phone.

3.3 DATA ANALYSIS

Before analyzing a data set using sophisticated techniques, a researcher should get a feeling for what the data are like. The purpose of preliminary data analysis is to reveal features of the basic composition of the data collected. It can also provide useful insights pertaining to the research objectives and suggest meaningful approaches for further analysis of the data. Preliminary data analysis examines the central tendency(mean) and the dispersion of the data on each variable in the data set. The measurement level of a variable that is, whether the variable is nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio has a bearing on which measures of central tendency and dispersion will be appropriate for it (Parasuraman, 2004). In accordance with the above prescription of data analysis, firstly all the collected data were coded and arranged in a systematic manner and then analysed in accordance with the objectives of the research to reach the conclusions after comparing secondary and primary data.

Author has followed tabulation of data and use of percentage technique to find out average of the response and based on the same conclusion has been drawn.

3.4 LIMITATIONS

Due to limited time and resources, the author had to downsize his plan on various fronts. Firstly, getting an appointment with the respondents was not easy as in some cases because they had tight schedule in their professional activities, whereas some were found unwilling to response. Secondly, due to provided limited time, the author could not get filled the questionnaire face-to-face or personally from the respondents, and thus in many cases the author had to satisfy with telephonic conversation for filling the questionnaire.

FINDING AND ANALYSIS

Question no-1-Do you feel that employee relation has importance in hotel industry?

Answer no-1- ( ) YES ( ) NO

OPTIONS

RESPONSE

PERCENTAGE

YES

10

100

NO

0

In the above response collected, it is visible that 100% of the employees said that good employee relation has significance in hotel Industry.

Question no-2-Good employee relation leads to employee motivation.

Answer no-2- ( ) TRUE ( ) FALSE

OPTIONS

RESPONSE

PERCENTAGE

TRUE

10

100

FALSE

0

Above tabulation shows that all the 10 respondents said that good employee relation is motivating factor for the restaurant staff and leads to employee performance.

Question no-3-Employees can compensated with other motivating factor with good relation?

Answer no-3- ( ) AGREE ( ) DISAGREE

OPTIONS

RESPONSE

PERCENTAGE

AGREE

9

90

DIS AGREE

1

10

90% of the staff working in the hotel restaurant agree that employee motivation can be compensated with good employee relation due to the good relationship of the staff with the employer helps this help motivating employees. Due to good relation employee may be happy with differed financial benefits.

Question no-4- Do you feel that Employees always want to be appreciated for job done?

Answer no-4- ( ) TRUE ( ) FALSE

OPTIONS

RESPONSE

PERCENTAGE

TRUE

7

70

FALSE

3

30

70% of them have said that the above statement is true as, employees want to be appreciated and recognized for a job done, and rest of them (30%) have said that this statement is false.

Question no-5- Do you think reward based work promotes the team spirit among employees?

Answer no-5- ( ) AGREE ( ) DISAGREE

OPTIONS

RESPONSE

PERCENTAGE

AGREE

4

40

DIS AGREE

6

60

above table shows that reward does not lead to team spirit among the employees. Here author would like to say that it is very much clear that individual performance may go up by introduction of reward but integration of efforts can not be achieved with reward. So author would like to highlight that it is the relation among peer and employer that promote employee satisfaction and so overall there will be enhancement in the performance of entire employee as a team.

Question no-6- Do you think gap between organizational objective and individual due to communication may lead to employee dissatisfaction and hence lower performance?

Answer no-6- ( ) YES ( ) NO

OPTIONS

RESPONSE

PERCENTAGE

AGREE

100

100

DIS AGREE

00

00

Here this response reveals that there should not be communication gap between employee and employer because this is also a reason of employee dissatisfaction. Employee actually want to know the overall direction of the organization failing which there is rise in reluctance and less performance. So this communication gap is part of good relation if there is gap means there is no good relation between employer and employee so again it is proved that good relation leading to positive impact.

Question no-7-what you feel about relation between communication gap between employer and employee leads to low performance and motivation of employees?

Answer no-7- ( ) TRUE ( ) FALSE

Above table shows that 90% of the staff of the hotels are agree and having the same belief that communication gap increases employee de-motivation hence lower performance of employees.

CONCLUSION

In order to conclude the topic author would like to mention the aim and objectives of this research which author had established at the starting of this research.

Objectives:

To explore the ingredients of good employee relation

To explore the ingredients of employee performance

To explore good relation of employee as an factor of motivation.

To find out the impact of good employee relation on employee performance

1.2.3 Research Questions:

R.Q.1 What are the basis of good relation?

R.Q.2 What are the basis of employee performance?

R.Q.3 How good relation of employee have positive impact on employee performance?

Based on the research conducted by author now at this stage author have been comparing what was to achieved and what have been achieved then author found there is no variance in the research objectives and all the steps of research till conclusion. All the aspects have been recognized and evaluated.

Based on the primary research conducted by the author it is very much clear that it is the good relation between employer and employee or peer group that leads to feeling of team work and overall performance of employees goes up that help organizations to achieve the organizational objectives effectively.