The business surroundings are dynamic and keep changing after some time. The companies have to analyze their strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and risks consistently. The strengths and weaknesses of the organization are examined in the internal environment. The risks and opportunities of the company are analyzed in the external context. The firms must formulate strategies and processes to overcome the negative consequences of the elements that influence their operations. The strategy assists the organization to gain a competitive edge in the market. The practical strategies rely on the various processes which include strategy creation, incorporation, and examination. The employee involvement facilitates the establishment of the strategy using the horizontal or vertical approach. Many issues influence the efficiency of the employees and the company's finances. The non-financial activities such as employee motivation affect the daily operations of a company.
Case Analysis
This paper will analyze the industrial relations of GMFC Corporation. GMFC Company encounters the challenges of labor and industrial actions that decrease their performance and efficiency in carrying out the daily operations. The companies face problems in implementing strategies due to diverse opinions from the employees which results in conflicting interests. The employees of GMFC want the company to take action on various issues, but the company is not ready due to the high expenses involved in the implementation process. The management is not taking into account the issues raised by the employees in spite of their adverse effects on the company. The labor unions are responsible for advocating for the rights and interests of the employees.
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The case of GMFC Corporation exposes two main issues that they are facing. The labor union and the corporation’s managers have not yet agreed on the new contractual terms that should be implemented by GMFC. The old agreement between the labor union and GMFC expired last week. The two issues have led to the stagnation of operations in the company. The managers of GMFC are not ready to meet the demands of the employees due to the two unsolved issues.
The challenges affecting GMFC Company are as a result of the unsolved issues that are important in their development. The labor union wants the employees to get a pay rise of ten cents in an hour which is higher than that of the company. The GMFC managers demand that the employees should make contributions towards their medical expenses. The issue has been affecting the company for ten years which has prevented the implementation of the new agreement which could have replaced the old contract. The GMFC management claims that the company is ready to give a pay of five in an hour to the employees. The labor union is against the claims of the company on the payment and contributions on the medical expenses. The disagreement between the labor union and GMFC can cause a strike because it voted for by the 384 locals. The production managers are advocating for lockouts to avoid the expenses of the material loss. The facts of the case are influencing the establishment of the new agreement and caused the expiry of the old one. The corporation and the labor union have different claims due to the conflicting interests. The new contract cannot be implemented unless the company agrees to increase the payment by ten cents and drops their claims on employee contribution towards their health expenses.
Strategies, Processes, and Timetables
The different organizational sections should perform their functions independently for operations to run smoothly. Every department has to be integrated functionally to make sure that the employees collaborate to realize their departmental goals. The strategy will develop teamwork and understanding among the employees who will facilitate the achievement of the company's goals. The approach will prevent the production management from advocating for a lockout in case the heating process is closed without notice (Kruse, 2012) . It will satisfy the desire of marketing manager on continuous production to meet the shipment orders. The first step that the GMFC managers would take is to define the goals of the department (Noe et al., 2014). The production managers will get to understand their roles in the department and the overall objectives of the company. Secondly, the senior executives should group the managers according to their areas of specialization. This will enhance teamwork through the exchange of ideas among the production managers. The managers will formulate ways of preventing material loss if the heating process might be closed (Noe et al., 2014).
| Action Required | Action by | Time required/Deadline |
| Defining the specific roles of the production managers, goals of the department and organization | Senior management | One week/ 1 st August |
| Grouping the managers into their areas of specialization to encourage teamwork | Senior management | Two weeks/14 th August |
The marketing manager wants that the production to be consistent to fulfill the orders of the shipment. It would be useful when there is proper communication between the heads of the production and marketing department. The company must incorporate an integrated system of communication which will facilitate the departmental leaders to access essential data which influences their operations. The company should integrate the communication setups and allow the exchange of data between the marketing and production department. The management should make sure the departments use upwards and downward approaches to communication. The employees will have an opportunity of communicating the company’s mission, goal and strategies. The marketing and production department will implement the four steps of the communication process when sharing information.
The first step of the communication process is encoding the message. It involves the translation of opinion into an idea. The person responsible for encrypting the message is the sender. The sender should take into account the language they will use in the message, the contents and the reactions of the receiver on the information conveyed (Aylott, 2014) . The marketing and the production managers are the translators of the ideas into messages in this case. The marketing managers could translate the purpose of meeting the shipment needs by increasing production into a message. In this case, the non-verbal mode of communication will be used including emails, letters and emergency notifications (Aylott, 2014) . The manager can hold meetings in case they want to settle their conflict of interests. The sender can make plans to send the message to the receiver.
The second step of the communication process is to plan, organize and send the message. The sender must expect on the ways they should send the message. The conveyor is responsible for choosing a communication medium to pass the message to the receiver. The senders must take into account the urgency of the message which will assist in selecting the appropriate medium (Aylott, 2014) . The sender can also consider the significance, the number of receivers and the scope of the message. In case the marketing or production managers want immediate feedback, they can use oral methods including phone calls. If the message contains detailed information including figures, the managers can use emails and letters. Memos can be used to give notifications to the departments. After choosing the medium, the sender can organize the information for clarity. It is essential for the receiver to understand the message to provide feedback (Aylott, 2014) . The sender can convey the message after planning and organizing.
The third stage of the communication process is the decoding of the message. The receiver is responsible for decoding the information that has been sent. At times the signals may not be received in case the wrong means of communication are used (Aylott, 2014) . In our case, the decoder could be the marketing or productions managers. The messages could be distorted which influences the reactions of the receiver. The sender should choose an appropriate medium for conveying the message. The receiver decodes the signal by attaching the meaning to the information or figures. Decoding a signal cannot be accurate because it depends on personal skills. The challenge is that people have own different experiences which influence their interpretation. The receiver can misinterpret the message which can lead to wrong feedback (Aylott, 2014) . The feedback from the managers can lead to industrial actions in the company.
The final stage of the communication process is providing feedback. This is the reaction of the receiver towards the message. The input can be a clear interpretation of the message (Aylott, 2014) . The leaders of the labor unions have not provided feedback on their plans in having a strike. The organization has not reacted on the issues of the employees because the union has not provided input on their method of carrying out an attack.
The communication process will establish the exchange of information in the marketing and production departments. The marketing department will meet the needs of their customers. The production department would not advocate for a lockout because the marketing department might give them ideas on ways of overcoming the material loss.
| Action Required | Action by | Time required/Deadline |
| Translating the ideas into messages | Marketing or Productions Manager | Three days/ 15 th August |
| Planning, organizing and sending the message | Marketing or Productions Manager | One week/22 nd August |
| Interpreting the information and symbols | Marketing or Productions Managers | Two days / 24 th August |
| Providing feedback | Marketing or Productions Manager | Two days/26 th August |
The human resource managers encounter challenges is solving issues related to industrial relations. The concerns of the employees and the company have to be taken into account when making the decisions. It becomes difficult to reach to an agreeable resolution in cases of increasing salaries, non-financial allowances, insurances premiums and employees demands. The other factors that influence the conflicts of interests are the preferences of labor unions and organizations’ managers. GMFC should consider the old and new agreement with the labor unions to meet the demands of their employees. The company cannot carry out their daily operations without the assistance of the employees. The best method of meeting the interests of the three parties is carrying out a valid collective bargaining contract. It will assist in reducing the tension and strikes in the organization. The senior management and the labor movement can use the compromise method when the win-win technique is impractical (Tomal and Schilling, 2013) . In our case, the company can accept an increase in the payments to ten cents per hour although the company will bear financial consequences.
The collective bargaining contract has five stages that should guide the parties in making decisions. The first stage is making preparations on the goals, choosing the negotiation team and demands of the party. The objective of the parties is to make sure that their issues have been taken into account and the necessary changes should be made (Tomal and Schilling, 2013) . The negotiation team should have members with background knowledge of the company and experience of an efficient negotiator. The negotiators must understand the working conditions and the challenges affecting the employees (Tomal and Schilling, 2013) . The parties should review the main components of the previous agreement. The senior management should make preparations and predict the labor union demands which will make them ready for compromises (Tomal and Schilling, 2013) .
Source: Tomal and Schilling (2013)
The second phase involves a deciding on the deadlines of the negotiation process. The senior management and the labor union will formulate rules for the negotiation which lay a foundation of the activities to be carried out (Tomal and Schilling, 2013) . The third step focuses on the presentation of proposals for the two parties. The proposal contains opening comments and options for resolving the conflicting interests. A successful proposal is open to any decision that will be made (Tomal and Schilling, 2013) . The first debate is completed, and the parties are given time to consider the requests that can be honored and the ones that could be disregarded. Subsequent meetings are held to discuss the issues that are important over the others. After the negotiation team comes into an agreement, the new contract is written (Tomal and Schilling, 2013) . The deal can take months before the team agrees on a decision. The members of the labor union are given a chance to accept or reject the new contract. In case the labor union members do not agree with the contract, the collective bargaining procedure will be repeated (Tomal and Schilling, 2013) .
| Action Required | Action by | Time required/Deadline |
| Preparing the goals, choosing the negotiation team and predicting the union demands | Senior and middle management | One week/ 3 rd September |
| Setting the deadlines for the negotiation and formulating ground rules | Senior and middle management | One week/10 th September |
| Presentation of the proposals from both parties | Senior management and labor union | One week/ 17 th September |
| Discussing the proposal and holding subsequent meetings | Senior management and labor union | Three months/17 th November |
| Accepting or Rejecting the proposal | Labor union | One week/24 th November |
An alternative solution to the situation in GMFC can be communicating their company plans, goals and mission to the employees. The senior management should involve the employees in making decisions. The employees will understand the current situation of the company and its goals. They will be aware of the strategies the company will use in meeting their goals (Bridger, 2015).
Challenges of Strategy Implementation and Contingency Plan
The organization can encounter difficulties when defining the functions of the specific departments. The employees can react by calling for strikes which will hinder the successful incorporation of the strategy in the company. The second strategy can fail to be implemented when the departments call for lockouts due to wrong interpretation of the information. The third strategy can fail when the company fails to increase the employees’ salaries which can result in strikes.
A contingency plan is essential in case the actual plan fails. In our case study, the contingency plan is to encourage the employees to agree to the ideas of the management or labor movement. The effectiveness of the contingency plan can be established through the change of behaviors among the employees when they accept the opinions of GMFC management or labor unions.
In conclusion, the issues of industrial relations affect the performance of a company. The organizations should formulate strategies that will satisfy their employees. The companies encounter challenges situations that are likely to force them to compromise. They should implement policies that will lead to a win-win situation. In case the plans fail, they can change the perception of the employees towards the current situation.
References
Aylott, E. (2014). Employee Relations .
Bridger, E. (2015). Employee engagement (1st Ed.). London, United Kingdom: Kogan Page.
Kruse, K. (2012). Employee engagement 2.0: How to motivate your team for high performance: a "real-world" guide for busy managers . S.I.: Kevin Kruse.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B. A., & Wright, P. M. (2016). Fundamentals of human resource management
Tomal, D. R., & Schilling, C. A. (2013). Managing human resources and collective bargaining .
