MN3075 Human Resource Management

Marking notes: SIM Prelim exam 2020

Question 1

(a) The employment relationship is an unusually complex social

relationship. Why is this the case? (10 marks)

The employment relationship is usually seen as an exchange relationship

between the employee and the employer. The employee gives time or effort in
exchange for money, and the employer gives money in exchange for the
employee’s effort.

The employment relationship is an unusually complex social relationship for

three main reasons (see pages 245-247 in subject guide):

First, the parties do not share the same interests. The typical employee wants
to maximise the ratio of wage to effort, while the employer wants to maximise
the ratio of effort to wage. At one level, their interests are in complete
opposition to one another. However, both parties normally have an interest in
the other being ‘healthy’, as both normally want the relationship to continue;
so the employee wants the employer to be sufficiently successful that he will
have a job in the future, and the employer wants the employee to be
sufficiently content to stay in the job. The interests of the two parties are
simultaneously in agreement and in opposition.

Second, the parties have incomplete information about one another and may
not always have the same views of a situation due to this asymmetrical
information. For example, an employee might attribute a breach in the
psychological contract to the employer reneging on a promise, whereas the
employer sees it as a case of incongruence (employer and employee having
different perceptions of what has been promised/what is expected).

Third, there are many aspects/dimensions to the relationship. Initial

employment contracts tend to be incomplete and this incompleteness
increases with the level/complexity of the job. As the contract can’t possibly
cover everything that the job will entail and that the employer will do,
employees ‘fill in the blanks’ with guesswork and their best estimates of what
is likely to be expected. This contributes to the subjectivity of contract breach
perceptions.

(b) How does social exchange theory differ from agency theory in its
approach to understanding the employment relationship? (15 marks)

Agency theory is referred to as principal-agent theory in the subject guide

(page 246). An agency is the relationship between two parties, where one is a
principal (employer) and the other is an agent (employee). The employer hires
the employee to perform tasks on the employer’s behalf. Agency theory

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assumes the employer and employee have divergent interests and goals (i.e.,
lazy employee and greedy employer) and that the employee’s combination of
rational self-interest and risk aversion produces moral hazard: Employees
may act to maximise their outcomes (e.g., pay) without putting forth effort
toward the employer’s goals. Due to asymmetrical information, the employer
is unable to verify (because it difficult and/or expensive to do so) what the
employee is actually doing.

Agency theory focuses on forms of incentives that can be used to overcome

moral hazard and shirking: Control mechanisms (close monitoring and
supervision) or reward systems (performance-related pay). Social exchange
on the other hand focuses on reciprocity and exchanges based on trust
between employees and the organisation, and discusses ways in which trust
can be built though HR practices (e.g., socialisation, training etc.). So each of
these theories represents a different perspective (one more negative/cynical,
one more positive/optimistic) in understanding the employment relationship.

Question 2

(a) Human resource strategy can be understood as a combination of

‘analysis’ and ‘action’. What elements do these two components
address? (10 marks)

The material relevant to answering this part of the question can be found on
page 235 in the subject guide.

Analysis addresses three elements:

1. What is the organisation trying to achieve? In other words, what are its
mission, goals or objectives?
2. What stands in the way of the organisation achieving what it wants? This
might cover various aspects of the external environment as well as what
the organisation is itself already doing.
3. What can the organisation do to improve its chances of achieving what it
wants?

Action flows from the analysis and results in policies and practices. It consists
of (1) the organisation making its choices from the various possibilities on
offer, and (2) the organisation’s attempt to implement that choice (the actual
implementation, whether of individual policies or strategies, is nearly always
complex and problematic).

(b) Is HR strategy of any significance to organisations? Justify your

answer. (15 marks)

The material relevant to answering this part of the question can be found on
page 243 in the subject guide and points might include the following:

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HR as a source of competitive advantage: Solving HR problems can become
a valuable and durable source of competitive advantage for an organisation.
So the core task of HR is to improve performance by ensuring employees are
fully trained/competent and highly motivated. It is increasingly seen to be
important for this core task that all the individual HR policies and practices
should combine to achieve one or both of these aims. The way in which
individual HR areas (e.g., recruitment & selection, job design, reward
systems) connect with one another is now seen to be highly important for
overall success. So in contrast to an earlier tradition, which discussed
personnel matters as a series of distinct and largely piecemeal issues,
modern HR places great importance on strategic integration. Any one HR
policy should be harmonious with all the others, and the set of policies, taken
together, should serve whatever wider business strategy the organisation
chooses to adopt.

Building an effective employment relationship: Underlying any successful HR

strategy is a ‘philosophy’ about how employees are to be understood and
treated. In other words, an effective employment relationship is at the heart of
modern HR. As the subject guide says, “People at work are not robots. They
have choices, and the choices they make strongly affect the employer.” What
HR strategy tries to do is ensure that employees are treated in ways (e.g.,
fairly, respectfully) that will result in their attitudes and behaviour toward the
organisation being positive (and having a positive impact on organisational
outcomes/performance).

More sophisticated answers will note that we do not yet fully understand the
ways in which HR policies or strategies result in success or failure; people
sometimes say that there is a ‘black box’ linking policies to the performance
outcome (i.e., that we don’t truly understand the detailed links between the
two). So while an HR strategy is clearly important, we don’t yet have concrete
empirical evidence on all aspects that HR strategy affects and the
mechanisms behind this.

Question 3

(a) Define ‘reneging’ and ‘incongruence’ in the context of psychological

contract violation and discuss what factors explain their occurrence. (10
marks)

Material relevant to answering this part of the question can be found on pages
93-94 of the subject guide. Excellent answers will cover all the points below. If
students only define reneging and incongruence, the maximum mark that can
be awarded is 5.

Reneging occurs when the organisation knowingly breaks a promise to the

employee. This may occur because the organisation is unable to fulfil a
promise or because it is unwilling to do so.

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Inability: The organisation may at one point in time have promised job security
to new recruits but finds itself in a position of not being able to deliver this due
to changes in the external environment.

Unwillingness: The organisation may make a promise with no intention of

fulfilling it, or they may have originally intended to keep it but subsequently
decided not to fulfil it. An organisation’s decision to renege depends on the
costs and benefits associated with reneging.

• One factor is the power both parties have: If the employee has critical
skills that the organisation is dependent on, the organisation will be less
likely to renege than the situation where the employee is easily
replaceable.
• A second factor is how well the employee has fulfilled their contract: The
organisation may perceive the costs to be lower when an employee has
not fulfilled their contract rather than when the employee is seen as
fulfilling their contract.
• The third factor is the type of contract: The costs of reneging are
considered greater when the contract is viewed as relational and reneging
will be less likely.

Incongruence occurs when an employee has perceptions of a given promise

that differ from the organisation. This may be a consequence of three factors:

• Different schemata: Schemata are cognitive frameworks that help people

process data in order to make sense of events and situations. One
schema relates to the employment relationship, which helps individuals
define what a typical employment relationship entails. These schemata are
heavily influenced by prior experiences and culture (e.g., a Japanese
manager may have a different schema from the one held by an American
manager).
• Complexity and ambiguity of obligations: The more complex and
ambiguous the obligations, the more likely that different perceptions
between the two parties will occur.
• Communication: The greater the accuracy and truthfulness of
communication, the more likely there will be agreement between the two
parties.

(b) What advice would you give organisations wishing to avoid or

minimise perceptions of psychological contract breach amongst their
employees? (15 marks)

Material relevant to answering this part of the question can be found on pages
96-98 of the subject guide.

Given that contract breach can arise from reneging or incongruence, these
causes have practical implications for the management of contract breach.
Some examples include:

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 - organisations need to be careful in making promises to employees as
they may later find they cannot fulfil them. This can happen as early as
the recruitment stage, but also later on.
- to minimise incongruence, organisations may want to increase
communication between organisational agents and employees.
- The use of realistic job previews may minimise subsequent perceptions
of contract breach, as employees will have a good understanding of the
job prior to hiring.

Students may also discuss the importance of everyday HR practices in giving

employees cues regarding expected contributions and inducement, and thus
in reducing perceptions of breach:

Recruitment – what impression does the organisation give in the way it

recruits? What ‘promises’ are made in the recruitment advertising?

Selection – does the organisation treat employees well and with respect
during the selection process? Does it communicate clearly and appropriately?
What promises are given during this process?

Training – employees may feel more valued if they are sent on training
courses. Induction training helps to shape employee expectations about what
behaviours are rewarded and what is on offer from the organisation.

Rewards – are all employees treated fairly? (not necessarily equally?) Are
promises of pay rises and bonuses honoured? If a pay freeze is necessary,
how would this be communicated to employees? Who would tell workers what
to expect?

Better answers will be based on the causes of reneging or incongruence

identified in the answer to part (a) of the question, and will develop the
argumentation accordingly.

Question 4

(a) Distinguish between ‘procedural’, ‘distributive’ and ‘interactional’

justice. (10 marks)

The material relevant to answering this part of the question is featured on pp.
183-187 in the subject guide.

Distributive justice – the content or outcomes of a decision – the fairness of

the ends achieved (e.g., was a particular resource or outcome allocated
fairly?). Allocations can be made on the basis of equality, equity, or need.
Adams’ equity theory predicts how employees will respond to perceptions of
inequity, but discussions of this should be presented in the answer to part (b)
of this question rather than here.

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Procedural justice – concerned with the fairness of the process(es) by which a
decision is made. Procedures are typically considered fair if they show
consistency, bias suppression, accuracy of information, correctability,
representativeness, and ethicality.

Interactional justice – the communication criterion of fairness; the quality of

interpersonal treatment received during the enactment of organisational
procedures. Components include truthfulness, candidness, respect, and
propriety of questions.

(b) How do people react to feelings of inequity (unfairness) at work, and

what role does procedural justice play in this process? (15 marks)

Equity theory says that employees compare their outcomes to their inputs and
then compare this ratio to the ratio(s) of comparison other(s). If they perceive
that their ratio is different than that of the comparison other(s), they will feel
unfairly treated. Usually this is only a problem when people feel under-
rewarded, rather than over-rewarded. To restore equity, they may (see pages
184-185 in the subject guide):

1. Alter inputs (put more or less effort into job)

2. Alter outcomes (e.g., ask for a pay rise)
3. Cognitively distort outcomes or inputs (e.g., “actually, I work harder than
anyone else so I deserve a higher ratio”)
4. Leaving the organisation
5. Changing others’ inputs/outcomes (e.g., telling a co-worker not to work so
hard, it isn’t worth it)
6. Changing the comparison other(s)

Research shows that procedural justice interacts with distributive justice to

predict outcomes (see pages 190-191 in the subject guide). Folger and
Cropanzano’s (1998) two-component model says that employees are less
likely to react negatively to perceived inequity (distributive injustice) when
procedural justice is perceived to be high.

Extra marks for students who make the point that interactional justice can also
play a role here. Skarlicki and Folger (1997) found that unfair outcomes were
likely to lead to maximum employee retaliation against the organisation when
employees also perceived low procedural and interactional justice. They also
found that high levels of interactional justice made employees more tolerant of
both unfair procedures and unfair outcomes.

Question 5

a) Why are cost, reliability, validity and fairness important

considerations when a company is recruiting and selecting? (10 marks)


The material relevant to answering this question is featured on pp. 27-28 in
the subject guide.

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Cost is important because few organisations are wealthy enough to operate
without a budget for recruitment and selection activities. Some selection
methods are particularly expensive in terms of both money and time (e.g.,
assessment centres) and should therefore only be used for high-level
positions that have a strong impact on organisational success and require
skills and knowledge that are relatively scarce in the labour market.

Validity is important because if a selection technique does not accurately

predict future job performance, it is not helping the organisation to hire
suitable employees who will aid organisational effectiveness.

Reliability is related to validity – if a technique is not reliable, it cannot be

valid. Reliability concerns how consistently a particular technique measures
what it is supposed to measure.

Fairness is important due to the various biases involved in the recruitment and
selection process, which may screen out talented candidates and prevent the
organisation from benefiting from their talents (and also leave employer open
to discrimination charges).

Better answers will feature clear definitions of these elements and provide
examples of each.

b) Critically evaluate the effectiveness of online recruitment as a method

of recruitment. (15 marks) 


The material relevant to answering this question is featured on pp. 32-33 in

the subject guide.

Advantages:

• It’s quicker
• Easier administration, especially for large numbers. Acknowledgments and
initial screening can be performed by algorithms rather than staff members
• Cost reduction (because of above)
• Seen by greater numbers of potential applicants, including those who may
be looking at job adverts online out of curiosity but who would not be
actively seeking out opportunities
• Related to above, enables internal vacancies to be advertised regardless
of geography and time zone
• Signals to applicants that the employer is up to date – what would you
think of a company that doesn’t recruit online?
• Advert can be tailored to specific vacancy and adjusted quickly if not
effective; easier to track how many people see and respond to it

Disadvantages:

• Limits applicants to those with access to computers – less of an issue

nowadays but may still be a factor in different labour markets in different

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 parts of the world (so may be less effective for casual, manual labour for
instance)
• Might attract too many applicants, which may require more staff resources
to deal with if many are qualified and pass the initial automated screening
• Related to the above, likely to attract too many unqualified applicants,
which can be a problem if automated screening is not effective and staff
time is required to sift through and eliminate unsuitable candidates
• May be inadvertently discriminatory – if job does not require computing
skills, why should applying to the job require computing skills?
• May give employer an impersonal feel, particularly if application process is
lengthy and rejection email arrives immediately after submission
• Technical problems can give applicants a poor impression of the
employer, or prevent them from applying at all
• Search engine management is necessary to ensure employer’s job
adverts are on first page of results when potential applicants search for
relevant terms, otherwise no one will see available opportunities

Stronger answers will develop the broader argument that all recruitment
methods have shortcomings and the choice of method(s) should depend on
the nature of the role and the organisational context.

Question 6
a) Why is training and development important for organisations? (10
marks) 


Any of the following seven reasons are acceptable (pp. 49-50 in subject
guide). The fewer reasons that are discussed, the more in-depth that
discussion is expected to be:

Increasing importance of product and service quality

• To try to differentiate their product from that of their competitors, many
companies are increasingly focusing on quality of product and service.
Striving for quality generates considerable training needs.
o For example, shopfloor employees need to be trained in techniques
such as statistical process control, ‘zero defect’ and ‘right first time’
techniques.
o If employees are to become responsible for their own quality, they
need the skills necessary to be able to correct faults, and to be
trained in problem solving techniques such as cause-and-effect
analysis.
• ‘Attitudinal’ training is also important. Employee commitment to quality and
to the ethos of continuous improvement requires extensive training in
corporate values and corporate culture, in order to instil within the
workforce the importance of customer care, service and product quality.

Flexibility

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• The environment within which companies are operating is becoming
increasingly turbulent. If organisations need to adapt to their changing
environments, their employees need to be adaptable too.
• There is thus an increasing emphasis on ‘emergent skills’ that might not be
necessary at the current point in time, but may well be essential in the
future. In such a situation, recruiting employees who are ‘trainable’, and
will be willing and able to learn new skills as the organisation requires, also
becomes important.
• If the existing workforce is not willing to learn new skills, it may be that the
first step would be to train them to accept change and to change their
attitude to training.
• Also, a workforce will be more effective where employees do not just
perform a single job task, but where they are able to move between
different job tasks. This requires training to make employees ‘multi-skilled’.

New technology
• With the growth in advanced technologies, there is a demand for labour
that possesses the requisite knowledge and skill to use the technology
effectively.

Downsizing and de-layering in lean organisations

• Cost-cutting initiatives sometimes include stripping out middle-
management layers. For the remaining managers and supervisors, their
‘span of control’ has increased - they are responsible for a wider range of
functions and a larger number of staff.
• As spans of control increase, managers and supervisors are no longer
able to exercise direct control over their subordinates and must delegate
more to and trust their staff.
• They therefore need to be trained in the interpersonal and coaching skills
necessary to be able to adopt this style of management.

Employee commitment
• There is an increasing realisation that the provision of training, employee
development and long-term education is central in terms of the generation
of employee commitment (Holden, 2001). Studies (Wiley 2010) have
shown that training and development play a part in influencing the
engagement of workers in organisations.
• There is an increasing acknowledgement that new graduates will be
unwilling to work for companies that do not provide them with opportunities
to learn new skills or opportunities for systematic management
development (Tulgan 2009).
• Employees may view the willingness of the organisation to train them and
to invest in their development as setting up an obligation that needs to be
reciprocated. The employee may then work harder or be prepared to stay
in the organisation.

‘Spillover effect’

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• Better performance or more skilled working practices may be transferred
from the person who was trained to their co-workers, through collaboration
and daily interaction. The organisation therefore benefits by more than the
money spent on one training course. Sometimes managers take a deliberate
decision to send only one worker on the course to learn new skills and expects
that worker to train the others (“cascade training”). This is cheaper, but relies
upon the one worker to fully understand the training and pass it on effectively.

Skills and labour shortages

• In times when unemployment is low, companies cannot expect to find
skilled workers amongst the shrinking pool of unemployed. So if
companies need specific skills, it becomes necessary to develop them in-
house.
• However the reverse is not true, that organisations do not need to train
when there are large numbers of unemployed. Most labour markets suffer
from skills shortages and so although there may be many people seeking
work, they may not have the skills and knowledge required by an
employer.

b) What barriers exist to learning and how can they be overcome?

Discuss with reference to people, resources and organisational barriers.
(15 marks)

Relevant material on barriers can be found on pages 56-57.

People-oriented barriers:

• They can lack motivation to learn

• They can be unable to learn (they lack the skills or knowledge)
• They can react poorly if the learning is given in a way that does not suit
their learning style
• They may be better learning in a group than individually
• They may not be available at the time the training is being run (i.e., part-
time staff who only work in the evenings)
• The training method is not appropriate for the subject
• The manager forgot to plan in training time for the new system
• The learning may not be relevant to the job

Resource-oriented barriers:

• There is insufficient budget to fund the learning

• There is no suitable place to learn, e.g., the training area may be noisy (if it
exists at all)
• There is no suitable trainer
• Additional machinery or software for training may be too expensive

Organisation-oriented barriers:

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• The culture of the organisation does not support learning
• The culture of the organisation does not encourage change
• The learning is not integrated into the company strategy
• The performance management system does not support learning
• Learning is not rewarded or recognised

Ways to overcome barriers (pp. 57-58 in subject guide):

People learn best when they have a reason to learn and/or a sense of
purpose; when the learning is relevant to their interests and they are choosing
to learn; when they are actively involved in doing something (Kolb’s learning
cycle) and can learn at their own pace (adhering to cognitive theory); when
they can make mistakes with no consequences and learn from their mistakes
(adhering to the theory of experiential learning); and when they receive
feedback and are rewarded for the ‘correct’ performance (adhering to the
principle of reinforcement theory).

Ensuring that training adheres to the principles of relevant learning theories

may help to overcome some of the people-oriented barriers. Learning theories
not mentioned above but included in the subject guide are stimulus-
reinforcement theory and self-efficacy.

Question 7

The material and required reading for this question are outlined in Chapter 11
of the subject guide.

a) In relation to the position of women in the labour market, distinguish

between ‘vertical’ and ‘horizontal’ segregation. (10 marks) 


Vertical segregation: tendency of women to cluster into certain occupational

categories (i.e., at lower levels of the occupational hierarchy – the glass
ceiling issue). This phenomenon is demonstrated by official statistics that
show a small percentage of managers and directors being women. 


Horizontal segregation: tendency of women to cluster into poorly paid

occupations, and occupations that offer little opportunity for career
advancement and/or involve little training and development. Notable
examples include hotels and catering/retail.

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b) Compare and contrast person-centred and situation-centred
explanations of women’s disadvantage in the labour market. (15 marks)

Person-centred explanations: 


The argument here is that women are somehow ‘different’ from men in
several respects and, as such, they may well be less suited to managerial or
leadership positions. The social-psychological premise of this argument is that
men and women are differently socialised, and this results in fundamental
differences in behaviour. Some arguments from this perspective include:

• Hakim (1996) points out that women’s disadvantaged position
in

organisations stems from the fact that they consciously make different life
choice from men (e.g. they work part time, in order
to be able to balance
their work and family life; they are under- represented in managerial
grades as they choose not to have to deal with the stress and anxiety that
high-powered management roles bring). Better answers will include
criticisms of this approach. 

• There is evidence to suggest that female management style differs from
male management style (e.g., women tend to be more team oriented than
men, they operate in a more consensual and participative manner, take a
greater interest in the development of subordinates, etc., while men are
more comfortable with direct supervisory styles and in environments within
which there are clear lines of authority and control). As men have had the
primary responsibility for the shaping of organisations, so the male
management approach has come to predominate and to be viewed as
‘superior’.
• There is some evidence that women attribute success and failure to
themselves in different ways than men do. For example, in the event of a
successful work outcome, men will attribute that success to themselves,
stating that the success was a result of their own personal efforts. Women,
by contrast, will attribute the success to the team they are working within,
or they will attribute it to luck. Similarly, when problems emerge, women
are more likely to blame themselves rather than blame other people or
unforeseen events.

Situation centred explanations:

The focus here is on practices that could have potentially discriminatory

effects. Possible answers include the following:

• Training and development programmes. These are often held after hours
or at weekends. In situations where women carry the burden for domestic
responsibility or for child care, it may be difficult for them to attend. 

• Informal networks. The argument here is that women lack access to ‘old
boy networks’ within which a great deal of business is conducted and
decisions made. 


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• Mentoring. There is evidence to suggest that women find it more difficult to
find a suitable mentor due to the lack of senior female managers to
perform the role. 

• Devolution of the HR function. Certain HR activities, including grievance
handling, have been devolved to line managers, but in relation to equal
opportunities issues, questions have been raised as to whether line
managers possess the expertise and have undergone the training
necessary to handle such issues sensitively. 

• Performance appraisal and merit pay systems. The evidence suggests
that women receive poorer performance appraisal ratings than men do
(Bevan and Thompson, 1992), perhaps because women are less inclined
to attribute success to themselves in performance appraisal situations.
The result is that, as well as receiving lower merit pay awards, women
could also find themselves overlooked in terms of promotion opportunities.
• Notions of organisational commitment. It may be that women become
viewed as less committed if they take time off as a result of domestic
responsibilities, or if the main mechanism by which ‘commitment’ can be
demonstrated is by working late or unsocial hours. The concept of
‘presenteeism’ can also be discussed here. 

• Lack of family-friendly practices to support female employment. 


Question 8

The material and required reading for this question are outlined in Chapter 9
of the subject guide.

a) What dimensions can be used to distinguish between the different

types of employee involvement and participation? (10 marks) 


Degree of involvement and participation: How much influence do employees

have over final organisational and workplace decisions? Employers can 1)
inform, 2) consult
and 3) negotiate with their employees.

Level of involvement and participation: Where in the organisation do

employees exert their influence? It can take place at the 1) group or team
level, sometimes called shop-floor level, 2) departmental level or 3) corporate
level.

Form of involvement and participation: It can be: 1) direct, employees dealing

directly with management, or 2) indirect, employees dealing with management
through a third-party representative such as a trade union or works council. 


Range of involvement and participation: What issues are dealt with by the
process? It can cover: 1) strategic business decisions that affect the whole
company, 2) decisions that affect the organisation of work and employment
(i.e. people aspects of employment), 3) decisions that affect pay or terms and
conditions of employment, or 4) decisions on individual and personal issues
(e.g. discipline and grievance). 


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b) Discuss the benefits and problems that employee involvement brings
to organisations. (15 marks) 


Benefits

Positive impact on organisational performance (p. 178 in subject guide)

• Positive relationships between problem solving, team briefing and
teamworking techniques and organisational outcomes such as profit,
wastage rates, average return on assets and average return on equity
(see Richardson and Thomson, 1999).
• Workplace Employee Relations Survey found that the presence of
problem-solving groups was positively related to a company’s financial
performance and labour productivity, and negatively related to the level of
voluntary resignation rates.
• European Foundation for the Improvement of Living Working Conditions
found that participation schemes have a strong impact on economic
performance. The more forms of participation used, the greater the effects;
the greater the scope of the participation (in terms of work and employees
covered by it), the greater the effects.

Positive impact on employee attitudes and behaviours is conditional:

• The use of an isolated employee involvement technique is unlikely to have
a major impact on employees; the use of a range of techniques in a
coherent fashion might do.
• It depends on the technique. Cotton found that self-directed work teams
had a strong positive impact on employee commitment, but quality circles
and representative participation had a much weaker effect.
• Some employees may not wish to be involved in active participation in
decision making activities in the workplace.
• Employee responses to participation schemes may depend on their
perception of management (harsh or supportive toward employees).

Problems

Problems in general (pp. 174-175 in subject guide):

• Discrepancy between what organisations say they are going to do (their
‘espoused policy’) and what they actually do in practice (their ‘operational
policy’).
• Organisations may adopt a range of techniques that do not necessarily fit
well with one another.
• Line managers face problems in implementing involvement and
participation. Some techniques (e.g., team briefings) require considerable
effort on the part of line managers, and busy managers may not want to
bother. Other techniques (e.g., quality circles) may challenge managerial
authority by giving employees influence over important operational
decisions.
• Trade unions may resist some employee involvement and participation
mechanisms. Involvement and participation mechanisms can be used to

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 undermine union presence (but it can also be used to complement or even
reinforce it).

Problems with downward communication in particular (p. 175 in subject

guide):
• Loss of momentum after initial enthusiasm;
• Too little information – employees want to know more;
• Too much information – employees get overloaded, ‘turned-off’ and
become unable to distinguish the important from the unimportant
information;
• Employee mistrust, particularly if communication is used as the basis to
rationalise the implementation of harsher employment measures (e.g.
redundancies);
• Lack of training of presenters and of recipients of information – recipients
may well need some training to understand technical information on, say,
company finances;
• Lack of line management commitment or time, over-formality – there is
evidence to suggest that the best way to communicate is through informal
rather than formal employee–management contacts.

Problems with quality circles in particular (p. 176 in subject guide):

• Middle-management attitudes: one of the greatest barriers to quality
circles is middle-management resistance, with such techniques being seen
as threat to their managerial authority.
• Loss of momentum: quality circles appear to commence vigorously but
then run out of steam. It may be that there are only so many ways in which
given task and production processes can be improved.
• Non-application: often disillusionment sets in when recommendations
emanating from quality circles are not implemented.
• Training: quality members are sometimes not given the necessary skills
and knowledge to work effectively in quality circles.

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