Background of the issue
Conflict is an important force that governs every aspects of life, whether it be personal or professional one. It is a part of business and it happens everywhere and ignoring them could be both costly and risky. As per Kotter (2012), every unaddressed conflict wastes about 8 hours of time of a firm in gossiping and other type of unproductive activities. However, understanding the reasons behind the conflict is really important as it can help the HR professionals in tackling the issue after or prior to the turning of the issue into a face-off. Also, resolution of conflicts fall under the key role of a HR manger and he or she is always regarded as the justice provider. For conducting this paper, the recent case of Telstra has been used. It shall assess a total of three options to resolve the issue and shall also justify for which reason the selected option is best suitable for resolving such type of conflicts. Furthermore, it is going to defend the choice in relation to what constitutes professional and ethical behaviour.
Telstra is one of the leading telecommunications company of Australia. At present, the company is considering a rebuilding of how it calculated the bonuses of its executives after undergoing the first strike from the shareholders who opposed to its report of remuneration. Above 60% of the total investors of the company have voted against the remuneration of Telco report at the annual general meeting on 16th October (Dunckley, 2018). They raised the prospect of a board spill in 1 year if it fails to address the widespread unhappiness among its shareholders. Also, in case if above 25% of the shareholders vote against the remuneration report at the AGM of next year, then it would comprise a second strike and then would trigger a forced spill of board positions. However, the issue is that, John Mullen, the Chairman of Telstra claimed in the very meeting that there could be a merit of replacing the complex remuneration calculations with the former or the traditional method of payment structure like the half-shares or half-cash, locked in for a total of five years. With the same, he also admitted that the salaries of the executives were very high, all across the boards but then, he said that he was disappointed with the refusal of a plan for cutting the bonuses by thirty percent for one year and in that, the dividends fell nearly one-third.
Possible Solutions
In this regard, the HRM should intervene in the matter to safeguard the interests of the employees. As a matter of fact, it can be stated that the role of the HR Manager is to meet the employee interests intact so that the company or organisation will never exploit them rapidly. Based on this understanding and highlighting the role of HRM the report underlines three possible solutions in order to resolve the issue in a better way. Therefore, the three solutions are as follows,
Based on the case study it can be stated that Telstra must possess some framework to reduce the turnover of the employees. However, in this context the organisational executives or specifically the CEO of Telstra was responsible to terminate more than 8000 employees. Therefore, it is essential for the HRM of Telstra is to intervene into the issue and inform the senior management about stopping skills and knowledge drains (Carnahan, Kryscynski & Olson, 2015). It can be stated that the employees who were highly skilled and resourceful lose their jobs due to the worse decision making by the CEO of Telstra. Henceforth, it is the responsibility of the HRM of Telstra to reinvigorate the employee retention process through some useful strategies. In this regard, the financial motivation, safeguarding the employee interest and the appraisal process can transform the perception regarding job satisfaction in Telstra.
According to Aguenza and Som (2018) it can be argued that the financial motivation is considered to be one of the major factor that can bring satisfaction among the employees. Moreover, in his research, Katsikea, Theodosiou and Morgan (2015) showed that the financial benefits helped the organisations to reduce the employee turnover to a great extent because the employees became highly motivated due to the financial benefits. Moreover, it can be stated that the financial benefits also motivate the employees to get attached with the company intricately (Han, Bonn & Cho, 2016). It is identified as a strategic measures for the organisation to incorporate such measures. In fact, this process also generates a greater understanding of the values of employees to the senior management so that they will think twice before terminating an efficient employee.
Moreover, it is essential for the HRM to support the interests of the employees. From the research of Ozolina-Ozola (2014) it is evident that the present day business operation has changed a lot and the companies are focused on both the external and internal sustainability to get competitive advantages. Moreover, Li et al., (2016) advocated that the human resource is considered to be an essential part for the organisations and not a single company interests to terminate quality workers. Moreover, it is also pertinent to understand that the role of the HRM is to make a bridge of communication between the senior management and the employees. Therefore, in case of any workplace related issue the employees ventilate their grievances to the HR. in other words, Rubenstein et al., (2018) mentioned the HRM as trustworthy to the employees.
Reduction of employee turnover
Appraisals are also identified as effective measures the help to increase the motivation of the employees and encourage them to stick with the company as long as it takes. As a role of HR it is his or her responsibility to recruit better people who can cope with the aims and objectives of the company (Kalidass & Bahron, 2015). Besides this, it is important for the HR to appoint people who will be valuable for the organisation. Based on this understanding, it can be stated that the appraisal will satisfy the employees and they feel encouraged to become a part of that company.
Moreover, it can be stated that the role of HR is dynamic and associated with a number of factors like the setting up the workplace environment more healthy and productive. As per the research of Mullane et al., (2017) it can be stated that the objective of HR is to balance between the interests of the employees and the aims of the company. Therefore, it is essential to make a better workplace environment that can increase the production and profitability of the organisation. It requires healthy, happy and relaxed employees to increase the production and quality of the organisation. In addition to this, it can be asserted that Occupational health and safety regulations are very strict in Australia as the government takes a deep concern on the employee interests (Sharif et al., 2017). As far as the Health and Safety measures of the Australian legislation, it can be argued that the employee safety and health concern is of paramount importance and in this course the HR will play a significant role to ensure the security of the employees. In other words, Johnsen et al., (2018) articulated that the better workplace environment make a better productivity for the organisation as the employees feel more safe and satisfy. As a result of that all their focus will be on the creativity and quality management. Moreover, Thoman andd Lloyd (2018) claimed that the better workplace environment will leads to a better image and moral of the organisation. Therefore, the senior management has to understand the importance of workplace environment. In this regard, the role of the HR is to feed the management with the significance of effective workplace environment. Moreover, it can be ascribed that HRM has pivotal role to make a better workplace environment by continuous negotiation and communication with both the employees and the senior management.
Financial motivation
Generally it can be stated that the payroll is a part of the finance department of an organisation and it is true that the finance department are solely responsible to calculate and make a budget of the employee payroll. However, in case of the payroll Patel et al., (2017) proved that the HR played a significant role because of making a transparent payroll mechanism for the employees. Avoiding biasness and corruption also pave the way for Human Resource Manager to take initiatives and facilitate a better environment for the employees. As a matter of fact, Krneta, Candrlic and Pavlic (2016) advocated that role of HR in workplace harmony pushed the HRM to interfere in the payroll process. As a result of that more transparency and effectiveness in the organisational framework will be installed. In addition to this, Patel et al., (2017) stated that it is legitimate to involve the HR in the process of payroll because the payroll of the employees is depended on their performances. In this context, the HR is the perfect person to evaluate performance of the employees. Unbiased nature of the HR is considered to be an important aspect in this context that helps to maintain a better business culture.
In this context, it can be stated that the change in payroll is the best possible option for solving the problem. A number of beneficial factors are responsible for this.
- At first, it can be stated that transparency in work is a very important aspect to foster better organisational image and moral consideration. In many cases, it was seen that for their own benefits the corporate organisations did not have transparent payment schemes and as a result of that the employees became dissatisfied. Henceforth, proper HR intervention in the process of payroll will be considered as a beneficial and benevolent approach for the organisation. Moreover, it can be argued that the employees were also get satisfied due to assurance of their payment safety.
- Furthermore, in case of the Telstra Company, the senior management was very much biased and to safeguarding their own interests and profits the man agent terminated 8000 employees. However, a better control of the HRM on payroll could not make that happened because it was part of the job of the HR to inform the management about the good and bad decisions regarding the employees. In the Telstra case lack of appreciation of the interests of employees and dearth of understanding of its importance instigated the CEO of Telstra to take such worse decision.
- As a matter of fact, the purpose of the HR intervention in payroll is resembled with the prospect of work in harmony. In this context, it can be argued that the role of the HR is to bring a better organisational framework that is based on efficacy and harmony. Interfering in the payroll system and understating the importance will put some light on the HR’s initiative towards creating a better system. It also satisfy the employees because of the HR is entitled to take care of the safety of their salaries.
- Besides this, it is inarguably true that the issues of payroll and securing the job of the employees in Telstra are interlinked and the CEO of Telstra Andy Penn was solely responsible for terminating huge workforce. The reason behind such nefarious task was that the CEO wanted to secure his annual salary of $4.5 million on the cost of the terminating 8000 employees. In this context, the intervention of HR in payroll system is highly important and it will able to control the interests of both the company and the employees which was highly important for Telstra to revive its business operation effectively.
In course of this understanding, it can be stated that the HR department has to follow some ethical practices in its professional behaviour. As all the employees in an organisation are keen to increase the profit percentage of the organisation and at the same time earning more money and respect, therefore, there are some specific practices that the HR has to follow in course of his or her professional behaviour.
- Positivism is considered to be an important aspect in this matter that is very important for an HR manager to incorporate in his or her attitude. As a result of that the employees will feel comfortable to ventilate their grievances effectively.
- On the other hand, the transparency in work is also identified as an important factor for the betterment of organisational working culture. HR can set an example so that all other employees will come forward and practice ethical business practice.
- Moreover, it is also essential to get acknowledged with the unbiased behaviour of the HR. it can be stated that as the employees are depended on the HR and the HRM is entitled to deal with the process therefore, it is important to put great concern for safeguarding the interests of the employees.
Conclusion
Hence, from the above analysis it is to state that understanding and managing conflict in workplace is a very important investment for improving the performance of the organisation. A total of three possible solutions have been identified to resolve the case of Telstra. The very first is the reduction of employee turnover under which falls the financial motivation, supporting the interest of the employees and praising them for their significant contribution. The next is making a better workplace environment and the last is changing the payroll of the employees. However, the best possible solution that is assumed to be suitable for the case is that of the change in the payroll. It is because of the several beneficial factors that it possess such as- it would satisfy the workers and the staffs working in the company and they would get satisfied due to assurance of their payment safety. Also, in Telstra, it has been found that there is lack of appreciation of the interests of the employees and due to which most of the employees are unsatisfied with the management system of the company. With the same, it is also to mention that the issues of payroll and securing the job of the employees are both interconnected and the CEO of Telstra is solely responsible for the process of termination. Notwithstanding this fact, this paper has also examined the choice in relation to what constitutes professional and ethical behaviour. It has briefly assessed the process in managing the individual and the collective conflict in Telstra with taking into consideration the difference frame of the references. A large range of conflict management technique has been highlighted in order to solve the problem and it is believed that the chosen solution would be the best for it.
Supporting the employee interest
Reference
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