Rights of the Employer, Business Policy, and Work Regulations

According to human resource literature

The emphasis is more on employee rights than on employer rights. Employee rights usually take precedence over employer rights, with the latter being often ignored. This should not be the case, as employer rights are just as important as employee rights. The former is critical in creating a positive work atmosphere that enables for the attainment of organizational goals. This is due to the fact that employer rights, corporate regulations, and work rules are all examples of internal elements that management can modify to maintain organizational performance and success. As a result, proper drafting of employer rights, corporate policies, and work rules can have a favorable impact on healthy work relationships. This paper thus discusses how this can be achieved.

A suitable example of a company policy shaping work relationships

is how numerous of them forbid romantic relationships (Wilkie, 2013). Most company policies outlaw romantic engagements among employees asserting that such relationships lead to: reduced productivity, favoritism, and uncomfortable environment for other employees among other pitfalls that might offset healthy work relationships in the workspace (Conway, n.d.). Therefore, company policies that forbid these relationships promote healthy work relationships characterized by respect for other employees and increased productivity. A recent study conducted by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that these policies have gotten stricter since 2005, the last SHRM did a similar study (Wilkie, 2013). Most respondents (the subjects of the study remain private) stated that these policies are put in place to protect the company from being a party in sexual harassment charges. Other reasons for having such policies include; alleviating favoritism especially if it is a romantic relationship between a supervisor and a subordinate (Entrepreneur, n.d).

As earlier on stated, employer rights are critical in shaping positive work relationships

Employers, acting within the boundaries of their rights, can dictate how organizational objectives will be achieved without infringing on the rights of the employees. This, therefore, allows the managerial processes of planning, staffing, directing and controlling to take place (Phillips, & Gully, 2014). Without employer rights, this could be hardly possible.

However, work rules have come under sharp criticism for disorienting work relationships

Most work rules promote strict supervision and leave little room for autonomy of the employee. The employee is expected to follow, to the letter, the instructions of the supervisor, even when such instructions may lead to poor performance (Snader, 2015). In such scenarios, the blame is usually transferred to the employee thus leading to bad blood between the two (Phillips, & Gully, 2014). In such companies, supervisors are seen as an enemy by his/her subordinates. Consequently, the supervisor becomes unapproachable and a critical link within the organization's channel of communication breaks down. This, triggers a failure of other work-related organizational relationships (Phillips, & Gully, 2014).

In conclusion

While these three factors have always been portrayed in bad light, this paper has discussed that this is not necessarily true. Employer rights, company policies and work rules are essential to the success of any organization. My role as a human resource managers will be to formulate and constantly review policies and rules that will assist the organization to achieve the set objectives.

References

Conway, J. Effects of Supervisor-Employee Relationship on Job Performance - Applied Psychology OPUS - NYU Steinhardt. Steinhardt.nyu.edu. Retrieved from http://steinhardt.nyu.edu/appsych/opus/issues/2011/fall/effects

Phillips, J., & Gully, S. (2014). Human resource management (1st ed.). Mason, Ohio: South- Western.

Snader, N. (2015). 5 of the worst company policies of all time. USA TODAY. Retrieved from http://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2015/05/10/cheat-sheet-worst- company-policies/70898858/

The Importance of an HR Policies & Practices Strategy. (2017). Entrepreneur. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/76982

Wilkie, D. (2013). Forbidden Love: Workplace-Romance Policies Now Stricter. SHRM. Retrieved from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/hr-topics/employee- relations/pages/forbidden-love-workplace-romance-policies-stricter.aspx