Applied Business, RES680 Research Methods, 3/12/2018 Assessment 5: Research Proposal Marking (weighting 50%) Student Name: Project Title: Marking Criteria A B C D E Mark Understandable title Mark Tile...

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Running Header: Employee Dissatisfaction at Talley Group Limited: Detailed Review of Reasons for Conflict and Employee Actions, and Proposals for Effective Employee Management – Assessment 5 – Research Proposal
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Employee Dissatisfaction at Talley Group Limited: Detailed Review of Reasons for Conflict and Employee Actions, and Proposals for Effective Employee Management – Assessment 5 – Research Proposal
Employee Dissatisfaction at Talley Group Limited: Detailed Review of Reasons for Conflict and Employee Actions, and Proposals for Effective Employee Management – Assessment 5 – Research Proposal
Table of Contents
Introduction    3
Aims & Operationalisation    5
Literature Review    6
Employee Relations Process    6
Employee Relations Framework    11
Employee Relations – Enhancement Methods    14
Methodology    16
Research Philosophy    16
Research Methods, Data Collection, & Data Analysis    16
Limitations and Assumptions    18
Ethical Considerations    18
Research Plan    18
Bibliography    20
Introduction
Talley's Group Limited (“Talley's NZ”) represents a privately-owned entity based in New Zealand that is an agribusiness company which offers seafood, dairy, and vegetable products (Talley's Group NZ, 2019). Talley's NZ was established in the year 1936 from its modest beginnings at Motueka as the manufacturer for seafood, and from that place the family business of Talley can be noted to have grown to that of highly critical of the agribusiness companies at New Zealand (Talley's Group NZ, 2019). The company's site at Port Motueka represents head office of the group, its seafood division as well as its dairy division (Talley's Group NZ, 2019). The company’s vegetable division operations were started during the year 1978 from Motueka and later on relocated at Blenheim & Ashburton (Talley's Group NZ, 2019). The company’s meat division, that is, AFFCO Holdings, is owned (with majority holdings) by Talley's NZ (Talley's Group NZ, 2019).
Over the years, the overall working environment has been made unfavourable for the employees by the company’s management. Some of the key issues, challenges, and sources of dissatisfaction in this context include the following –
· In the year 2012, Talley’s NZ locked in 776 of its union workers away from its plants at New Zealand over a period spanning 84 days (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017). The negotiations for collective form of agreement later on
oke down and to further worsen the situation the company used the
eakdown of the negotiation to fire them from their jobs (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017).
· Talley’s NZ needed to actually back down post massive form of strike actions undertaken by union and the same forced the company back to a bargaining / negotiation table (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017). The same did not lead to any favourable outcomes for the employee and the company intentionally stalled the proceedings and failed to take any action (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017).
· During June 2015, Talley’s NZ shut its gates for 170 of its workers in one of its meat operations (AFFCO) plants (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017). The concerned union workers actually refused in signing any individual contracts that could have resulted in lowering of the wages as well as reduced the overall conditions, and yet Talley’s NZ locked these workers out (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017). The company was found guilty for these actions by court and was ordered with fine of NZ Dollar 144,000 on account of repeated
eaches pertaining to the union access rights (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017).
· The company continued in locking the workers out despite the country’s Employment Court finding the company to have undertaken illegal action in this regard. Talley’s NZ took additional amount of three months for letting the workers back to the work (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017). For the period from locking out and till the workers were reinstated back, the company did not pay any salary or any other benefits due (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017).
· During 2009, the Frozen Foods unit of Talley's NZ was fined NZ Dollar 110,000 on account of 11 of its workers in the Blenheim plant having suffered poisoning of ca
on monoxide arising from the forklift fumes (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017). This fine was in addition to the NZ Dollar 3000 that was required to be paid as reparation for each one of these workers to address the emotional harm. The outcome of judicial process convicted the company on charges for failure in taking all essential steps for making sure safety of its employees, which resulted in them exposed towards hazards of the ca
on monoxide fumes (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017).
· Overall, Talley's NZ has faced controversy on account of the approaches undertaken with respect to industrial relations as well as workplace safety, and also blatantly lo
ied with government to have cu
s over trade unions as well as the relaxation of the legislation concerning occupational safety (Talley's Group NZ, 2019; AMIEU NEWCASTLE & NORTHERN, 2017).
Aims & Operationalisation
The employees at Talley Group Limited are dissatisfied at workplace and rightly so given the company’s disregard for employee rights and their safety / well-being. The same has led to strikes as well as lockouts, and ensuing repercussions which severely affected the employees and also had certain financial impacts on the company.
This study aims in understanding and critically evaluating the reasons for the employee dissatisfaction at workplace and the company’s disregard for employee rights and their safety / well-being, and then to propose suitable recommendations to the management for effectively addressing this situation.
Research Questions: On the basis of the aim, the research questions include the following –
· What are the reasons for dissatisfaction amongst the employees at Talley Group Limited?
· What are the key elements and the outcomes of the company actions, that is, lockouts, disregard of union rights, and employee safety / well-being? and
· What actions can be taken by management to address this situation and better manage the employee expectations and well-being?
Literature Review
Employee Relations Process
The processes entailing employee relations comprises of various methodologies, approaches, as well as the procedures that are adopted amongst the employers for dealing with the employees in either a collective manner by way of the trade unions, or in an individual manner (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017). As has been discussed in the various studies, many of the varied processes shall be related to industrial relations as well as encompass dealings amongst the management as well as trade unions comprising collective form of agreements, collective form of bargaining, resolution of disputes, and issues management concerning employment relationship as well as relevant working environment (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017). The various studies in this context have undertaken detailed review with respect to policies as well as strategies concerning employee relations as well as the climate of the employee relations (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017). It concerns the varied set of processes comprising recognition of the union, collective form of bargaining, negotiations as well as overall state concerning the employment relations (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017).
The overall approaches concerning employee relations can be classified as follows – [i] adversarial, that is, overall organization makes the decision on what it shall want to undertake, as well as employees shall then be expected to be suitably fit in (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017). In essence, employees solely exercise the power through the refusal for cooperating (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017), [ii] traditional, that is, the effective form of daily working relationships, yet the management proposes as well as concerned workforce shall reacts by way of elected representatives (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017), [iii] partnership, that is, concerned organization entail the employees with respect to drawing up as well as the execution concerning organization policies and yet retaining the overall rights for management (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017), and [iv] power sharing, that is, employees shall be involved with respect to both daily operational as well as strategic form of decision making (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017).
The areas that are covered by way of policies concerning employee relations includes the following – [i] recognition of trade union, that is, whether the trade unions need to be recognized or else derecognized that the union / unions concerning the organization shall prefer in dealing with, as well as whether or else not the same shall be desirable for recognizing solely one union towards the collective form of bargaining and / or else the employee representational ends (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017), [ii] collective bargaining, that is, the overall extent towards which the same shall be effectively centralized or else the decentralized as well as the overall scope concerning areas for being covered through collective form of bargaining (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017), [iii] procedures for employee relations, that is, the overall nature as well as scope concerning the procedures pertaining to redundancies, handling of grievance as well as discipline (Collings et al., 2018; Brewster & Hegewisch, 2017; Rees & Smith, 2017), [iv] participation as well as involvement, that is, the overall extent towards which the concerned organization shall be prepared for giving the employees for voicing...