In any organization, a human resource management (HRM) department serves the interests of the workers. The human resource management department serves the interest of the workers internally. Other players externally serve to protect the rights and freedoms of workers. These include labor unions and the government through policies and laws. In the absence of the external players, the human resource management can in instances fail to effectively take care of the workers. Many organizations tend to take good care of the seniors management and forgets the support staff.

The main aim of the HRM is to maximize the productivity of the organization by optimizing the workers productivity.  However, this goes hand in hand with improving the working conditions of the workers. Human resource management must promote workers development, employee satisfaction and comply with employment laws. Human resource management addresses worker rights and worker safety by making and implementing policies   and regulations internally (Beer et al..,1984). The human resource management handles the acquisition, compensation, development and maintenance of workers. The human resource management department ensures that all laws and regulations pertaining to workers rights and freedoms are well served in the organization. The human resource management department handles issues of work place harassment and mistreatment. In particular, the department is solely responsible for protecting the workers’ rights internally.

In some instances, the human resource management department may tend to go astray. Given that, the department is not separate from the rest of the organizations, the organizations overall management can interfere with the department. In addition, the policies and regulations governing the workers are made and passed by the senior management. The workers do not always agree with some of these policies. Though the human resource management department enforces the policies, it does not independently make these policies.

When the policies are too harsh for the workers, the labor unions comes in. labor unions safeguard the right and freedoms of the employees thorough collective bargaining. They negotiate with HRM departments on behalf of the workers. Labor unions limit the powers of the human resource management department. Without the unions, the HRM department can quickly terminate the employees. Labor unions ensure that all steps and procedures are followed in both hiring and termination.

The government is responsible for making laws and procedures to ensure there is social protection and business responsibility. The government makes regulations to govern different aspects such as working hours, workplace safety & health, workers’ compensation, employee benefit security, unions & their members and employee protection among others (Ivancevich, 1992). The government monitors both the organizations and the labor unions to ensure the laws and regulations are being followed.

The role of HRM in the organization is to maximize the workers productivity. It works together with the rest of the management to develop policies governing the day to day functioning of the organization (Becker & Gerhart, 1996). However, it is the role of human resource management to ensure that the workers follow these policies. Human resource management circulates and enforces the policies.  For the labour unions, their main role is to look out for the interest of their members. It also collaborates with the management especially when lobbying for better laws and policies from the government.

The labor unions do not only focus on the organizations management rather they focus on the big picture. The labor unions provide a collective bargain power, which a single human resource management department cannot offer. Human resource management deals with workers issues internally while the labor unions focus on the external issues. The government passes acts and laws to govern the managements and the workers. The government ensures that the workers are protected as well as the management. Workers can never be allowed to behave irresponsibly towards the management (Daley, 2006). The government works to protect all the involved parties.

I agree with the statement “Workers in the modern workplaces of America are well protected and well supported”. The government has drafted and passed many laws and regulations to govern the human resource management departments as well as the labor unions. To control the labor unions, the government introduced the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA). The act ensures that the labor unions to file financial report and other reports pertaining to labor relations.

The act serves to deal with the relationship between the workers and the union. It establishes the standards of running the labor unions. All this is meant to protect the workers and not the union. With the levels of education and advancement in this country, workers are no longer ignorant of their rights in the work place (Daley, 2006). It is hard for the human resource management to just dismiss a worker without the worker filing a case. Workers have increasingly become informed through HRM trainings and labor unions seminars.

Labor unions provide a collective bargain power. There are labor unions in America, which facilitate the fight against poor wages among other things. In government corporations, the labor unions are influential in lobbying for the increased wages of the workers. The modern American employees have many avenues to raise any work related issues. Issues can be reported to the human resource management department, to the labor unions, or directly to the government through the courts. I tend to believe that, in this modern and developed country, any worker would not be justified to say that he/she is not well protected. The government to govern and protect the workers in different capacities has passed numerous laws.

Technology has revolutionized many things in the work places. With technology, it is easy to collect and share information. In most cases, issues like workplace harassment were hard to solve given that it was hard to prove what happened. However, with technology, it is easy to record any kind of harassment t may it be verbal or physical. Technology has also enabled anonymity in the reporting of issues pertaining to workers. A worker can send an email to the management without any victimization.

The human resource management internally looks out for the welfare of the workers. The labor unions as well as the government externally do the same. Labor unions tends to monitor the human resource management to ensure that the workers are well looked after. The government on the other hand monitors both the labor unions and the human resource management to ensure that laws and policies are enforced and followed. When the workers feel uncomfortable with the policies set by the management and enforced by the human resource management, they invite the labor unions to lobby for them.

Reference

Becker, B., & Gerhart, B. (1996). The impact of human resource management on organizational performance: Progress and prospects. Academy of management journal, 39(4), 779-801.

Beer et al (1984) Managing Human Assets. The Free Press: New York, NY.

Daley, D. M. (2006). Strategic human resource management. Public Personnel Management. Current concerns, future challenges, 5, 120-134.

Ivancevich, J. M. (1992). Human resource management. Boston: Irwin.

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