Managerial Prerogative Can Push the Employer-Employee
Relationship
1. Introduction
With the exposure of some cases about terrible employer-employee relationship, many people criticized managerial prerogative in some companies had gone too far. But actually, managerial prerogative is the inevitable result in the management of an organization or a business company. Within bureaucratic organizations, legitimate power is rooted in authority, which is based on formal rationality, for owners and managers to control means of production. (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2006). In Singapore, employment relationship is relatively stable, because Singapore has some useful and effective sectors focusing on dealing with the conflicts between employers and employees. Singapore has a legal prohibition on bargaining over issues such as hiring, promotion, job allocation and firing. Although the leadership has been given much managerial prerogative in the resources human management, the rate of dispute on employer-employee relationship is lower in the Asian countries. Therefore, we can believe that managerial prerogative can develop the employer-employee relationship.
Employment relationship is pretty important for development of an organization or a business company, as getting competent person is the most competitive factor in such a fast changing economic society. An employment relation is a bridging term that reflects the overlapping concerns of HRM and IR, and broadens the boundaries of both disciplines to encompass a wider range of stakeholders and environmental factors. (Balnave, 2007, p. 497). Generally speaking, we can consider the employment as a kind of economic exchange which is based on an agreement between employers and employees. Employment relationship is made in the process of repeated negotiations. Managerial prerogative is a factor that can affect the quality of employment relationship. Managerial prerogative is the right of managers or business owners to make unilateral decisions about all aspects of their business without interference from government, workers or unions. (Balnave, 2007, p.5). We can see that managerial prerogative is a kind of special unequal power possessed by the business owners or managers. Managerial prerogative can lead to the conflicts between employers and employees, but at the same time, conflict is also the motive power to develop.
2. A Reasonable Understanding of Managerial Prerogative
Managerial prerogative belongs to the managers and business owners, who can make use of that to get great benefits both from the employees and the running of the organizations. Managerial prerogative is a kind of special right possessed by the high managerial level. Such managerial prerogative makes managers or business owners have mandatory executive power to order their employees and decide on the developing direction of the organizations. Managerial prerogative is out of the reach of the government and unions to some extent, because the use of managerial
prerogative is going on inevitably underlying environment. Managerial prerogative can help the top managers and business owners pursue and get efficiency and great benefits, therefore, too much heavy managerial prerogative can lead to the disgusted feeling of the employees, which makes the employees be unwilling to work hard and effectively, sometimes even give rise to strikes and more conflicts. Some negative examples of using managerial prerogative spread, such as Foxconn case of Japan. The excessive managerial prerogative, not running counter to the unions or government, makes the employees feel pretty much pressure both physically and mentally and finally takes much trouble and blame to the company. “Crisis-prone organizations are systems wherein top management have inappropriate beliefs about the reality of their worlds, and that these inappropriate beliefs lead to inappropriate organizational cultures, structures, systems and behavior.” (Richardson & Curwen, 1995, in Conflict). So excessively abusing managerial prerogative is unwise.
However, everything has two sides. We cannot ignore positive functions of managerial prerogative in most organizations. Singapore is a good example to prove that managerial prerogative really contributes to the development of the organizations if people take good advantage of this resource. In Singapore, there are fewer conflicts between employers and employees. Especially, when challenging the economy crisis, Singapore still has a relatively stable rate of employment. The harmonious employment relationship of Singapore thanks to the tripartite system and multi departmental approach. Tripartite system is composed of employers, unions and the government. The National Wages Council, as a tripartite body, conducts an annual audit of changes in the Singapore economy, particularly in the wages sector in relation to the level of employment and unemployment, international competitiveness, equality to workers and employers, inflation rate, and productivity enhancement. (Lim, 1994) Multi departmental approach refers to the cooperation and involvement of all the relevant government sectors. Besides these, managerial prerogative also plays a vital role in a micro-way. In Singapore, the employers can utilize their managerial prerogative to motivate employees to get in the company culture and make them become the owners of the company to lead them to work actively.
3. The ways of managerial prerogative developing the organizations Managerial prerogative exists in the employment relations from the beginning to the end, especially when there is a conflict between employer and employee. The nature of the employment relations is based on the appearance of the conflicts which makes managerial prerogative exposes. Although employers hold the balance of power, employees bargain with their compliance commitment and work effort. (Balnave, 2007, p.7). If the employers adopt reasonable and suitable ways to deal with the bargaining of the employees, managerial prerogative plays a positive role in the conflicts. A lot of factors can affect the attitude of the employees to the managerial prerogative of the employers, and once bad attitude forms, the employees may do some resistance, such as absenteeism, labour turnover, sabotage, restriction of work effort, strict disciplinary codes linked to threats of dismissal etc. even more terrible. Therefore, the employers should make some positive actions to the managerial
prerogative.
The internal relationship of an organization can affect the positive role of the managerial prerogative, especially the relationship between upper class and lower class. Mismanagement and abuse are characterized by unilateral managerial power and control. (Hodson, 2001) To maintain a harmonious internal relationship, the employers should pay more attention to the emotions of the employees and should communicate with them frequently to form a comfortable and fluent communicative environment and good relationship. In some companies of Singapore, the managers or business owners provide the employees particularly for some prominent employees with relatively free workforce, elastic work hours and creative space. Employers sometimes should consider the employees as partners but not just order receivers. Harmonious communicative environment can pave an acceptable basis of the practice of the managerial prerogative.
An overall knowing of the management core f the organization is very vital for the employees to get a positive understanding of the managerial ways the managers or business owners use so that the carrying on of the managerial prerogative is under a acceptable situations. Therefore, it is seen that the core culture of an organization or a company and the homimizarion of the management in reality are two good ways to make the employees understand the managerial prerogative and get recognition of managerial power. Such core culture and necessary knowledge about the organization or company can also make a good psychological contract between the employers and the employees in the employment relationship. “Employment relationship cannot be viewed as a simple dialectic of (managers) control and (workers) resistance. Rather, it involves „a fractured interplay of control, consensus, and bargaining ‟”. (Balnave, 2007, p. 3). The employers should make the employees understand and even accept the executive power of the managerial prerogative and form a strong loyalty to the organization or the company.
The managerial prerogative should reasonably think about the basic demands and the personalities of the employees. As we all know that the basis of the employment relations is the resource exchange between employers and employees, so satisfying the basic demands of the employees are necessary. In Singapore, the laws about the benefits, the employees should get such as the insurance system and he protection from the unions are comprehensive. Such guarantee of the basic needs of the employees can make them feel safety to work in the organization and would like to submit to the managerial prerogative out of their satisfaction for the basic life and trust. In addition, the knowledge of the personalities of the employees also can be in favour of the practice of managerial prerogative. According to scientific study, employees with different personalities will have diverse response and attitude to the job. So to master the personality of the employees can help the employers adopt a suitable way to carry on the managerial prerogative so that the organization or company can have a comfortable employment relationship.
Managerial prerogative is often obvious when there is a conflict between the employers and the employees. In such situation, the practice of the managerial prerogative should put the most acceptance of compromise into consideration. In most
situations the practice of managerial prerogative has to run counter to the benefits of the employees, at these moments, the employers should find the most acceptance limit of the employees though negotiation to make the employees know and understand the decision of the managers and business owners.
4. Conclusion
Above all, we can see that the employment relationship can be seen as a kind of economic exchange between employers and employees. Managerial prerogative is a special internal executive power from the top managers and business owners which give rise to the conflicts between the employees and employers. However, reasonable managerial prerogative can make the organizations develop, and the use of managerial prerogative should be based on not only getting the best interests of the organizations but also the acceptance limit of the employees. Therefore, the managers or business owners should use their managerial prerogative reasonably so that the organizations can develop in a harmonious employment relationship
References
Balnave, N., Brown, J., Maconachie, G., & Stone, R.J. (2007). Employment Relations in Australia (pp. 3, 5, 7, 497). John Willey & Sons.
Employment Laws, Triparitite Alliance for Fair Employment Practice. 28th
Hatch, M..J., & Cunliffe, A.L., (2006). Organization theory: modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives . New York: Oxford University Press.
Hodson, R, (2001). Dignity at work. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lim, C.Y., (1994). Riding the Waves of Change together: a global perspective of the impact of HRD on the economy, World Productivity Assembly and Human Resource Development Asia Conference , Singapore.
Conflict. 27t h Employment Relations. 28th Oct.
Managerial Prerogative Can Push the Employer-Employee
Relationship
1. Introduction
With the exposure of some cases about terrible employer-employee relationship, many people criticized managerial prerogative in some companies had gone too far. But actually, managerial prerogative is the inevitable result in the management of an organization or a business company. Within bureaucratic organizations, legitimate power is rooted in authority, which is based on formal rationality, for owners and managers to control means of production. (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2006). In Singapore, employment relationship is relatively stable, because Singapore has some useful and effective sectors focusing on dealing with the conflicts between employers and employees. Singapore has a legal prohibition on bargaining over issues such as hiring, promotion, job allocation and firing. Although the leadership has been given much managerial prerogative in the resources human management, the rate of dispute on employer-employee relationship is lower in the Asian countries. Therefore, we can believe that managerial prerogative can develop the employer-employee relationship.
Employment relationship is pretty important for development of an organization or a business company, as getting competent person is the most competitive factor in such a fast changing economic society. An employment relation is a bridging term that reflects the overlapping concerns of HRM and IR, and broadens the boundaries of both disciplines to encompass a wider range of stakeholders and environmental factors. (Balnave, 2007, p. 497). Generally speaking, we can consider the employment as a kind of economic exchange which is based on an agreement between employers and employees. Employment relationship is made in the process of repeated negotiations. Managerial prerogative is a factor that can affect the quality of employment relationship. Managerial prerogative is the right of managers or business owners to make unilateral decisions about all aspects of their business without interference from government, workers or unions. (Balnave, 2007, p.5). We can see that managerial prerogative is a kind of special unequal power possessed by the business owners or managers. Managerial prerogative can lead to the conflicts between employers and employees, but at the same time, conflict is also the motive power to develop.
2. A Reasonable Understanding of Managerial Prerogative
Managerial prerogative belongs to the managers and business owners, who can make use of that to get great benefits both from the employees and the running of the organizations. Managerial prerogative is a kind of special right possessed by the high managerial level. Such managerial prerogative makes managers or business owners have mandatory executive power to order their employees and decide on the developing direction of the organizations. Managerial prerogative is out of the reach of the government and unions to some extent, because the use of managerial
prerogative is going on inevitably underlying environment. Managerial prerogative can help the top managers and business owners pursue and get efficiency and great benefits, therefore, too much heavy managerial prerogative can lead to the disgusted feeling of the employees, which makes the employees be unwilling to work hard and effectively, sometimes even give rise to strikes and more conflicts. Some negative examples of using managerial prerogative spread, such as Foxconn case of Japan. The excessive managerial prerogative, not running counter to the unions or government, makes the employees feel pretty much pressure both physically and mentally and finally takes much trouble and blame to the company. “Crisis-prone organizations are systems wherein top management have inappropriate beliefs about the reality of their worlds, and that these inappropriate beliefs lead to inappropriate organizational cultures, structures, systems and behavior.” (Richardson & Curwen, 1995, in Conflict). So excessively abusing managerial prerogative is unwise.
However, everything has two sides. We cannot ignore positive functions of managerial prerogative in most organizations. Singapore is a good example to prove that managerial prerogative really contributes to the development of the organizations if people take good advantage of this resource. In Singapore, there are fewer conflicts between employers and employees. Especially, when challenging the economy crisis, Singapore still has a relatively stable rate of employment. The harmonious employment relationship of Singapore thanks to the tripartite system and multi departmental approach. Tripartite system is composed of employers, unions and the government. The National Wages Council, as a tripartite body, conducts an annual audit of changes in the Singapore economy, particularly in the wages sector in relation to the level of employment and unemployment, international competitiveness, equality to workers and employers, inflation rate, and productivity enhancement. (Lim, 1994) Multi departmental approach refers to the cooperation and involvement of all the relevant government sectors. Besides these, managerial prerogative also plays a vital role in a micro-way. In Singapore, the employers can utilize their managerial prerogative to motivate employees to get in the company culture and make them become the owners of the company to lead them to work actively.
3. The ways of managerial prerogative developing the organizations Managerial prerogative exists in the employment relations from the beginning to the end, especially when there is a conflict between employer and employee. The nature of the employment relations is based on the appearance of the conflicts which makes managerial prerogative exposes. Although employers hold the balance of power, employees bargain with their compliance commitment and work effort. (Balnave, 2007, p.7). If the employers adopt reasonable and suitable ways to deal with the bargaining of the employees, managerial prerogative plays a positive role in the conflicts. A lot of factors can affect the attitude of the employees to the managerial prerogative of the employers, and once bad attitude forms, the employees may do some resistance, such as absenteeism, labour turnover, sabotage, restriction of work effort, strict disciplinary codes linked to threats of dismissal etc. even more terrible. Therefore, the employers should make some positive actions to the managerial
prerogative.
The internal relationship of an organization can affect the positive role of the managerial prerogative, especially the relationship between upper class and lower class. Mismanagement and abuse are characterized by unilateral managerial power and control. (Hodson, 2001) To maintain a harmonious internal relationship, the employers should pay more attention to the emotions of the employees and should communicate with them frequently to form a comfortable and fluent communicative environment and good relationship. In some companies of Singapore, the managers or business owners provide the employees particularly for some prominent employees with relatively free workforce, elastic work hours and creative space. Employers sometimes should consider the employees as partners but not just order receivers. Harmonious communicative environment can pave an acceptable basis of the practice of the managerial prerogative.
An overall knowing of the management core f the organization is very vital for the employees to get a positive understanding of the managerial ways the managers or business owners use so that the carrying on of the managerial prerogative is under a acceptable situations. Therefore, it is seen that the core culture of an organization or a company and the homimizarion of the management in reality are two good ways to make the employees understand the managerial prerogative and get recognition of managerial power. Such core culture and necessary knowledge about the organization or company can also make a good psychological contract between the employers and the employees in the employment relationship. “Employment relationship cannot be viewed as a simple dialectic of (managers) control and (workers) resistance. Rather, it involves „a fractured interplay of control, consensus, and bargaining ‟”. (Balnave, 2007, p. 3). The employers should make the employees understand and even accept the executive power of the managerial prerogative and form a strong loyalty to the organization or the company.
The managerial prerogative should reasonably think about the basic demands and the personalities of the employees. As we all know that the basis of the employment relations is the resource exchange between employers and employees, so satisfying the basic demands of the employees are necessary. In Singapore, the laws about the benefits, the employees should get such as the insurance system and he protection from the unions are comprehensive. Such guarantee of the basic needs of the employees can make them feel safety to work in the organization and would like to submit to the managerial prerogative out of their satisfaction for the basic life and trust. In addition, the knowledge of the personalities of the employees also can be in favour of the practice of managerial prerogative. According to scientific study, employees with different personalities will have diverse response and attitude to the job. So to master the personality of the employees can help the employers adopt a suitable way to carry on the managerial prerogative so that the organization or company can have a comfortable employment relationship.
Managerial prerogative is often obvious when there is a conflict between the employers and the employees. In such situation, the practice of the managerial prerogative should put the most acceptance of compromise into consideration. In most
situations the practice of managerial prerogative has to run counter to the benefits of the employees, at these moments, the employers should find the most acceptance limit of the employees though negotiation to make the employees know and understand the decision of the managers and business owners.
4. Conclusion
Above all, we can see that the employment relationship can be seen as a kind of economic exchange between employers and employees. Managerial prerogative is a special internal executive power from the top managers and business owners which give rise to the conflicts between the employees and employers. However, reasonable managerial prerogative can make the organizations develop, and the use of managerial prerogative should be based on not only getting the best interests of the organizations but also the acceptance limit of the employees. Therefore, the managers or business owners should use their managerial prerogative reasonably so that the organizations can develop in a harmonious employment relationship
References
Balnave, N., Brown, J., Maconachie, G., & Stone, R.J. (2007). Employment Relations in Australia (pp. 3, 5, 7, 497). John Willey & Sons.
Employment Laws, Triparitite Alliance for Fair Employment Practice. 28th
Hatch, M..J., & Cunliffe, A.L., (2006). Organization theory: modern, symbolic, and postmodern perspectives . New York: Oxford University Press.
Hodson, R, (2001). Dignity at work. New York: Cambridge University Press.
Lim, C.Y., (1994). Riding the Waves of Change together: a global perspective of the impact of HRD on the economy, World Productivity Assembly and Human Resource Development Asia Conference , Singapore.
Conflict. 27t h Employment Relations. 28th Oct.