Employee Relations-员工关系

1.Introduction  引言
 

In the contemporary economy, employee relations are growing to be more complicated and it is extremely important to carefully analyze the recent trends in the labor market in order to fully realize and objectively assess the current situation in this market. In fact, nowadays the labour and traditional views on this process start to change, not in the last turn due to the increasing role of knowledge and information.
随着当代经济增长，员工关系更为复杂，认真分析最近的趋势，充分认识和客观地评价劳动力市场的现状极其重要。事实上，如今在这一过程中，由于知识和信息越来越重要，劳动和传统的观点开始改变。
 

In this respect, it is particularly important to thoroughly analyze the position of women in the labor market and the extent to which their role has changed in the modern economy and employee relations. It is not a secret that traditionally women were in a deprived position compared to men and this is it is necessary to find out whether this problem is still relevant as well as to attempt to trace the basic causes of the existing difference between men and women in the labour market.
在这方面，特别重要的是要深入分析女性在劳动力市场的地位和在现代经济和员工的关系在何种程度上他们的角色已经改变。它不是一个秘密，传统上妇女相比于男都在被剥夺的位置性，要找出这个问题是否是相关的以及试图跟踪男性和女性在劳动力市场存在的差异的基本原因。
 

In such a way, it will be possibly to eventually define the basic components that constitute the gap between men and women employees in the modern economy.

在这样一种情况下，它将有可能最终确定男性和女性员工在现代经济中的差距。
 

2.The current women’s position in the labour market  目前的妇女在劳动力市场上的地位
 

Speaking about the current situation in the labour market, it should be pointed out that it has really changed compared to the situation that could be observed a few decades ago. First of all, the labour market demands and its structure are changing and what is more the gender difference has a trend to gradually decrease that, though, does not necessarily mean that they have already disappeared. In fact, nowadays the growth of new industries stimulated by the rapid development of new technologies, especially in the sphere of IT, creates the situation when the labour market demand on physical semi-qualified or non-qualified labour force gradually decreases.
谈到劳动力市场的现状，应该指出的是，可以观察到与几十年前相比，它真的改变了的情况。首先，劳动力市场需求和结构改变了，更重要的是性别差异有逐渐减少的趋势，但是，并不意味着他们已经消失了。事实上，如今新技术的快速发展促进新兴产业的成长，特别是在IT领域，导致了当劳动力市场需求的合格或不合格的情况下劳动力逐渐减少。#p#分页标题#e#
 

As a result, the role of information and knowledge is growing and in the future this trend may become dominant. Naturally, in such a situation, some economic theories concerning labour need to be improved or precised. In this respect, it is worthy of note the human capital theory which traditionally defines human capital as “a way of defining and categorizing peoples’ skills and abilities as used in employment and as they otherwise contribute to the economy” (Walby and Olsen 102).

Briefly speaking, it is possible to say that, according to this theory, labour is one of the highest value the employees possess and, to a certain extent, labour is a cornerstone of employee relations. This is why it is very important for an employee to be competitive in the labour market that can be archived only through the high level of his/her skills and abilities he/she can offer to the market, or literally to employees.

In fact, it is hardly possible to underestimate the role of human capital in employees relations since human capital is a stock of assets one owns, which allows one to receive a flow of income, which is like interests earned. On the other hand, it is necessary to emphasize that human capital is substitutable though it does not mean that it will replace land, labour or capital totally, but “it can be substituted for them to various degrees and be included as a separate variable in a production function” (Allen 233).

In such a way, nowadays, actually as always, the relations of employees are defined by their skills and abilities which actually form human capital. On the other hand, there is another component of human capital that substantially differs modern employees relations from those of the past and this component is knowledge. Objectively speaking, knowledge can hardly be referred to human capital as a kind of standard skills or abilities of an employee. Knowledge is really unique and it is substantially different from the physical labour that used to dominate in the past and, to a significant extent, contributed to the domination of men in the labour market, while knowledge creates opportunities for women to gain better position in the labour market and really benefit from employee relations. actually, knowledge reveal certain limitations of the human capital theory exactly because of the uniqueness of knowledge which cannot be really standardized and classified by this theory.

Basically, the uniqueness of knowledge and its difference from the physical labour may be explained by several factors which can potentially put men and women in more equal positions in employee relations and labour market.

Firstly, knowledge is expandable and self-generating. Practically it means that as doctors get more experience their knowledge base will increase, as well as their endowment of human capital (Kelvin 134). It is also important to emphasize that nowadays “the economics of scarcity is replaced by the economics of self-generation” (Kelvin 137) not in the last turn due to knowledge which is self-generating, i.e., to put it in simple words, knowledge can produce knew knowledge. Secondly, knowledge is transportable and shareable and, consequently, knowledge can be easily moved and shared. Even though knowledge’s transfer does not prevent its use by the original holder, “the transfer of knowledge may reduce its scarcity-value to its original possessor” (Allen 304).#p#分页标题#e#

 

Thus, at first glance, according to the theory of human capital, knowledge, becoming one of the defining factors in the modern labour market, should provide equal opportunities for both men and women to benefit from their human capital and establish equal employee relations. In fact, this exactly what the harkim theory implies. To put it more precisely, according to this theory the balance is essential in employee relations since it will contribute to the improvement of the position of employees through equal pay for the same labour, for instance, and, consequently, it will lead to higher productivity and efficiency of work. However, the reality is quite different from this ideal assumption and actually reveals certain to idealism in the harkim theory that undermines, to a certain extent, its plausibility and reliability.

Basically, the current situation in the labour market and employee relations is still characterized by a substantial gap between men and women that may be clearly observed in the pay and productivity gap (see Table 1). In this respect, it should be pointed out that, according to the recent research (Walby and Olsen) in the UK, statistical data analysis found that the pay and productivity gap practically in all issues discussed was in favour of men that reveals the fact that the position of women is worse than that of men. To put it more precisely, the gender gap has been used as the most appropriate proxy available for the productivity gap per hour. The gap between women’s and men’s education is associated with 6% of the gap. Occupational segregation is associated with 13% of the gap, including comparing a situation of no occupational segregation with the current level of segregation. However, what is the most remarkable is just being female associated with 29% of the gap.

Furthermore, the difference in the length of women’s full-time work experience (10,9 years), and that of men (18,2years), is associated with 26% of the gap. The greater interruptions to the employment due to the family care by women as compared with men were associated with 15% of the gap. The extent to which women are more likely than men to work part-time, 4,4 years, rather than 0,3 years, is associated with 12% of the gap.

 

3.Basic causes of differences in the position of men and women in the labour market and employee relations  在劳动力市场和员工关系的男性和女性的地位差异的基本原因
 

Obviously, the substantial gap in the position of men and women must have some causes which actually engender the inequality of employee relations between men and women and it is very important to find out these causes and thoroughly analyze them. Otherwise, it will be practically impossible to trace the trends that will define the future development of the labour market and employee relations, neither it will be possible to find possible solutions to minimize or even totally eliminate this gap.#p#分页标题#e#

 

a.Skills deficit

Specialists (Allen) emphasize that one of the major reasons for the significant gap between men and women in the labour market, which affects their level of payment and productivity, is the skills deficit. However, this problem is not as simple as it might seem to be at first glance because it is not just a lack of certain skill which women do not possess but it is the problem of the systematic deprivation of women of a possibility to acquire essential skills and develop respective abilities to be really competitive compared with men.

First of all, it is necessary to underline that the root of this problem is not in the employees or employers but rather in the system of education at large, traditional cultural values and stereotypes, socially dogmatized behaviour, and others. Practically, it means that one of the major problems that results in the lack of skills of women employees is poor education of women, though it does not mean that they receive no education or their education is poor at large scale but still they have less opportunities than men, especially when they choose the future profession. For instance, women on average “have fewer educational qualifications than men” (Walby and Olsen 155).

As a result, women cannot simply enter traditionally male qualifications because of the lack of education. However, it should be said that nowadays young women have eliminated this problem but they cannot fully closed this gap because there are women at an average age. Not surprisingly that at the present moment the average women is less qualified than an average man.

Some researches (Allen) revealed the fact that in order to raise the average employed woman to the educational level of the average man, she would need the equivalent of 0,3 years of education. However, it is necessary to underline that this problem does not affect all women. In fact, the gender gap in educational qualifications is concentrated among those women who are over 40, and those who are employed part-time or not at all, while for younger women the gap is getting closer as it has been just mentioned above. As a result, the significant part of the skills deficit is caused by this gendered qualifications gap among the specific group of women named above.

 

Remarkably, many women, especially those working part-time or who do not work at all are willing to continue their education. To put it more precisely, two-thirds of part-time women workers (66%) or those not working (63%) were willing to undergo additional training or education. On the other hand, many of them (63% not working and 53% part-time) would find it difficult to pay for themselves, while among those prepared to undergo additional training or education, 79% said that they would be more likely to start training if it was free (Walby and Olsen 174).

Naturally, it is also necessary to take into consideration socio-cultural norms and traditions that also affect dramatically the skills deficit of women. However, in the respect to these problems the similar trend may be traced as concerning educational qualifications. To put it more precisely, women of the younger generation are less susceptible to the impact of socio-cultural norms that used to define the life of women over 40.#p#分页标题#e#

Nonetheless, it should be said that the problem of the skills deficit is real and it still persists. This is why the skills deficit influences the general statistics and widens the gap between men and women in their competitive struggle in the labour market and deteriorates their employee relations. however, the recent trends are rather positive and leave the room for the real possibility to change the situation for better and make the position of women equal to that of men due to the equal access to educational qualifications and positive socio-cultural changes based on principles of the gender (and actually not only gender) tolerance and equality.