The Relationship Between Corporate Governance And Employment Relations In The UK

Statement of the Problem

Corporate governance debates revolve around on how to deliver better performance of the companies as well as distribute equal justice when dealing with company stakeholders. Understanding the relationship between corporate governance and long-term performance of companies is important for examining how stakeholders are playing a role in ensuring that good relations at workplace can be maintained for better performance to be achieved. Recent years have seen a rise in consideration of relationship between corporate governance and employment relations. This has led to growing interests in ensuring that HRM is influencing organization performance. The need to incorporate corporate governance and integration of employment relations arises due to the fact that employees control the external and internal environment in which a company operates and also the HRM practices contribute towards shaping how a company operates.

Establishment of employment laws in UK provides benefits to both employees and employers. Under the national and European laws, many rules and regulation have been established which provide framework through which work related rules and regulation can benefit stakeholders in the industry. Most of the laws established in UK provides guidelines on how workplaces should be regulated so as to create an ideal environment in which all parties can mutually benefit from the engagement created. In UK, employment laws correspond with statutory law provisions which to a large extent deals with a range of issues at workplace with different range of issues. Whenever issues arise at workplace, such issues have always been presented and heard in courts which within their jurisdictions have been ruling either in favor of employees or employers. As provided under section 230 of Employment Rights Act 1996, an employer is supposed to be treated with dignity and be provided with flexible working environment in which the employees are able to work in harmony and generate maximum benefits with one another.

In the course of employees working in their respective workplaces, there has been growing concerns with regards to how employment is provided. It is evident that there are certain employers who are discriminating in regards to hiring whereby for instance, people with disability are not provided with equal employment opportunities like their counterparts who are not disabled as argued by Rotarou et al. (2021); Emerson et al.  (2020). On the other hand, Hussein (2022) argued that inequality at workplaces is common in UK whereby minority workers are limited from accessing employment even during theCovid-19 period. It is also evident that not only does employees face discrimination at workplaces even in the way in which work is distributed among employees. It is therefore evident that workplaces at UK are not fully adhering to provisions of Employment Rights Act 1996. This research therefore seeks to provide an insight into challenges that employees faced in UK during the Covid-19 era especially with regards to access to employment opportunities and work distribution.

Aims and Objectives

The aim of the research is to determine challenges that employees with disability and minority faced in UK when it comes to seeking employment and also evaluate what can be done to amend such negative practices which are affecting equal employment provision in UK. Evaluation of   corporate governance practices will also be evaluated to determine the position of UK laws when it comes to employment and sharing of work in company setting.

Objectives of the research is to:

1. Determine issues and factors in corporate governance which affect performance of companies.
2. Evaluate how UK companies are handling employees with disability.
3. Contribution of corporate governance to operation of companies in UK

To generate answers to these research objectives, the research will dwell on the following research questions.

1. What is the scope of corporate governance in UK public limited companies?
2. What challenges are facing people with disability Unilever Company?
3. Are there special support and considerations made to people with disability to ensure that they are not discriminated?
4. How does corporate governance favor and enhance good relations at workplace?

Corporate governance regulate ownership as well as control of organizations. Corporate governance sets legal terms for regulating the relationship between stakeholders in the company setting. Cooperation among stakeholders is important as it helps in diffusion of responsibilities as well as it also serves as a commitment to objectives of the organization (Susanto and Pradipta 2016).

Securing effective cooperation is the purpose of HRM as it has a role in enhancing performance of organizations. HRM practices influence corporate governance through uniting employees and providing course of action that will be followed in order to enhance performance of the company. In light of addressing corporate performance, the concept has evolved since late 1980s after a number of corporate scandals were experienced in the UK. Under the UK corporate governance codes, companies are required to comply with these principles and provisions which among the things that it addresses include the leadership of the board and the purpose of the company, division of duties and responsibilities at workplace, audit risks and internal control mechanisms and lastly, employee performance and remunerations (Almagtome et al. 2020; Petrovic et al. 2018).

During the Covid-19 era, there has been a growing concern in the way in which employment is provided to job seekers and even on how work is distributed among the workers at the company.  The issues which revolve around company operations has been outcry among company stakeholders on hiring principles which appear to be discriminatory against statute provisions. On the other hand, there has been outcry among company’s employees on the way in which they have been treated at workplaces whereby favoritism has been a major concern in which discrimination even in work distribution has been evident and this has contributed to affecting the reputation of the company (Koutoupis et al. 2021).

Whenever employees are discriminated or unfairly treated, such companies are regarded to be operating against the law provisions.  Adherence to corporate governance codes such as the 2018 corporate governance codes has been a major concern that has contributed to affecting the reputation of companies and even such companies have been subjected to legal suites whereby they have been compelled to comply or risk being subjected to penalties due to discrimination at workplaces. It is therefore evident that corporate governance forms part and parcel of company operations (Piao et al. 2022; Pazarskis et al. 2021).

In this quantitative research design, data will be gathered, handled, and qualitatively assessed using a quantitative research methodology, which calls for computing the research findings using a statistical data analysis method. Data will be gathered and evaluated using statistical techniques using this strategy to produce a better knowledge of the many difficulties discovered during the investigation.

Literature Review

The research will involve analysis of how an organization in UK setting is dealing with employee issues and in particular, how the enterprise is able to create a conducive environment for employees owing to the fact that it is the responsibility of management and coordination that can bring about handling and solving of issues affecting employees. The research will be conducted at Unilever which is a multinational enterprise unit.  The key target respondents for the research are tabulated below and their respective sample size is also provided as shown.

;A total of 11 respondents will be engaged in the research as shown in the table in which these respondents include 6 individuals who are living with disability working at Unilever company. 

A well-structured questionnaire will be used to collect data from the respondents in the study. The questionnaire will be provided to the respondents who will be tasked to respond over the issues that will be raised on the questions so that they can provide an idea of the information that the research is seeking to collect.

The use of questionnaire will help to analyze the research in order to develop an insight on the information collected on whether it is meaningful and can be used to provide insight on the various issues relating to corporate governance issues. Through the questionnaire, an understanding can be established on the contribution of corporate governance and how organizations are handling people with disability especially in regards to their hiring, job allocation and distribution of chores as well as remuneration issues.

The data collected will be analyzed through the use of statistical descriptive methods in which the data will be processed through using computational methods such as determining the mean, median and standard deviation of the findings which then will be analyzed to identify the perception of the respondents in regards to the information that the research was seeking to explore.

Having intentions to deploy the use of primary data collection approach, the research will take in mind ethical issues such as.

1. Only relevant research questions will be asked in which the respondents will only be engaged on relevant issues only.
2. Informed consent of the respondents will be sough before engaging them in the research so as to make them to be aware of the intended research and prepare in advance.
3. Anonymity of the respondents will be maintained.
4. The information collected will be used for confidential purposes that is, the information will be used for research purposes only.

This research will be conducted within a period of three months as shown below.

Reference 

Almagtome, A., Khaghaany, M. and Önce, S., 2020. Corporate governance quality, stakeholders’ pressure, and sustainable development: An integrated approach. International Journal of Mathematical, Engineering and Management Sciences, 5(6), pp.1077-1090.

Emerson, E., Fortune, N., Aitken, Z., Hatton, C., Stancliffe, R. and Llewellyn, G., 2020. The wellbeing of working-age adults with and without disability in the UK: associations with age, gender, ethnicity, partnership status, educational attainment and employment status. Disability and health journal, 13(3), p.100889.

Hussein, S., 2022. Employment inequalities among British minority ethnic workers in health and social care at the time of COVID-19: A rapid review of the literature. Social Policy and Society, 21(2), pp.316-330.

Koutoupis, A., Kyriakogkonas, P., Pazarskis, M. and Davidopoulos, L., 2021. Corporate governance and COVID-19: a literature review. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society.

Pazarskis, M., Koutoupis, A., Kyriakou, M. and Galanis, S., 2021. Corporate governance & internal audit at Greek municipal enterprises in the COVID-19 era. A Search for Emerging Trends in the Pandemic Times”, p.119.

Petrovic, J., Saridakis, G. and Johnstone, S., 2018. An integrative approach to HRM–firm performance relationship: a missing link to corporate governance. Corporate Governance: The International Journal of Business in Society.

Piao, X., Xie, J. and Managi, S., 2022. Environmental, social, and corporate governance activities with employee psychological well-being improvement. BMC Public Health, 22(1), pp.1-12.

Rotarou, E.S., Sakellariou, D., Kakoullis, E.J. and Warren, N., 2021. Disabled people in the time of COVID-19: identifying needs, promoting inclusivity. Journal of global health, 11.

Susanto, Y.K. and Pradipta, A., 2016. Corporate governance and real earnings management. International Journal of Business, Economics and Law, 9(1), pp.17-23. 

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