final thoughts

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HR discussions

Benefits:

Explain the differences in how linking benefits to individual, group, or organization performance would work and why you would or would not recommend this strategy to an organization. What kinds of benefits would you link to each and why?

Benefits, whether linked to individual, group, or organization performance helps improve performance in the organizations. Benefits will help in increasing efficiency and meeting the organizational goals and objectives (Martocchio, 2013). Linking benefits to individual, group or organizational performance involves setting goals at the respective level and rewarding the degree to which the goals have been met.

I would recommend this strategy because it encourages goals setting and attainments. When benefits are linked to individual performance, the organization is able to harness individual potential. When they are linked to group performance, they are able to encourage team work and harness the maximum potential of the teams. When linked to organization performance, it encourages cooperation in the whole organization with the aim of achieving the overall organizational goals. This strategy can therefore help organizations to manage individual, group and organizational performance in a more strategic and effective way (Martocchio, 2013).

The benefit that I would link to individual performance includes the likelihood for promotion. The benefit that I would link to group performance would be a holiday pay for the best group. Finally, the benefit that I would link to organization performance is stock bonuses or profit sharing to the employee after achieving a set objective.

Global Unions: How does the U.S. industrial and labor relations system (unions) compare with systems in other countries, such as those in Western Europe? Give specific examples.

Trade unions in Europe are defined by their high degree of coherence and unity and enormous diversity. All major confederations in Europe have been brought together by European Trade Union Confederation (Cotton, 2011). However, there are exceptions that include various specific professional and managerial staff organizations belonging to the European Executive and Managerial Staff Confederation and other organizations outside the mainstream trade union and affiliated to European Independent Trade Unions Confederation. The European Trade Union Confederation has a total of 60 million affiliated memberships (Cotton, 2011). Trade unionism structure in the United States is relatively straightforward. There is one main national confederation known as American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations. This federation consists of a very large number of occupational and industrial unions. Very few unions lie outside this umbrella.

The unionization rate of Western Europe is very high at 80-90%. The United States has the lowest rate. The United States also lacks a big history on the class-based divisions compared to Western Europe. The labor movement of Europe is also broader than that of the US by 60% (Cotton, 2011). Other notable differences between the two include formal worker decision making and participation. Workers compensations and works council are mandated by law in Western Europe. Collective bargaining agreements are therefore oriented towards regional issues or industry wide instead of on local issues like in the United States.

Benefits to you:

What benefits do YOU value? How do they affect how you feel about your workplace? 

I value benefits that foster the harmony between demands of my work and the demands of my personal life. My employer offers us paid holidays for Independence Day, Memorial Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day and New Year’s. These benefits make me love my work because I feel the the employer values my personal life. This makes me feel obligated to report to work on the normal days. It also motivates me to work harder and to value the demands of my work just like the employer values the demands of my personal life.

Do you think the benefits you value most might change over time? Why?

I think the benefits I value most will change over time. Being a young professional, the demands for my personal life includes spending more time with my family. As time goes, I will value benefits that protect me and my family from any possibility of a severe economic hardship due to loss of life, disability, illness or unemployment. The benefits that I will value at this point will be medical insurance, life assurance, and retirement benefits.

References

Cotton, E., & Croucher, R. (2011). Global unions, global business: global union federations and international business. Libri Publishing.

Martocchio, J. (2013). Employee benefits. McGraw-Hill Higher Education.