The employment relationship is an exchange relationship between labour Essay

The employment relationship is an exchange relationship between labour and capital that tends to be unequal - Essay Example The employees possess an abiding interest to ensure the success and the viability of the firm while guarding against the excessive demands placed upon them. The three recognized characteristics of employment relationships are indeterminacy, unequal and dynamic. Indeterminacy focuses on the logic that a labour contract involves the exchange of money for the capacity to deliver the service required by the purchaser and not material goods and services. This implies that those employers wishing to secure the value of the purchased labour must ensure willingness on the part of the employees (Edwards 2003, p. 14). They force the employees strain to achieve the required standards even if they are not willing. The second aspect on employment relationships is that they are unequal. This is because many workers have no choice other than engaging in paid work; their choice for potential employers is limited. On the other hand, the employers have considerable resources that give them power to re place the unwilling employees with other workers or adoption of a more reliable technology. Although the employee influence varies overtime and between contexts, the overall employment relationship is characterized by subjugation of the employee to the employer. Finally, the employment relationship can be dynamic whereby it can be driven by both conflict and cooperation at different degrees. Many managerial strategies are characterized by deployment and management of workers to maximize production and generate surplus (Edwards 2003, pp. 16-17). Some of these challenges are minimized through the adoption of employment contract. An employment contract is a largely a relational and less formal. Relational contract is... The employment relationship is characterized by power imbalance, which is why the concept cannot materialize without the employment contract. In the labor contract, the worker trades his or her ability to accomplish an assigned task, which should be translated into actual labour in the course of undertaking it. Expectations on performance standards are portrayed during the production stage. The indeterminacy nature of employment relationships makes the employees to be coerced in most situations other than undertaking self motivated tasks and responsibilities. The unequal nature of employment relationships leaves the employees with no choice but to engage in obligations for payment; not willingness. The deterioration in the power imbalance in employment relationships is portrayed by the existence of trade and employer unions purposely formed to solve the inevitable disputes. This suggests that formal contracts are the only remedy through which fairness can be ensured in such relations hips.