The employment relationship: Key elements, alternative frames of reference, and implications for HRM

• Main Authors: BUDD, John W., BHAVE, Devasheesh P.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Institutional Knowledge at Singapore Management University 2019
• Subjects: Employers; labor contracts; personnel management; Human Resources Management; Organizational Behavior and Theory
• Online Access: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5952; https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/context/lkcsb_research/article/6951/viewcontent/Budd_Bhave_employment_relship__rev__2nd_ed.pdf
• Institution: Singapore Management University

The employment relationship is the connection between employees and employers through which people sell their labor. This might consist of an immigrant day laborer paid by the bushel to pick fruit in the hot sun, a tech industry freelancer completing episodic gigs without ever meeting a boss, a salaried manager who has been working in an air-conditioned office for the same company for 40 years, or innumerable other situations. Irrespective of situation, all employees and employers have fundamental interests they pursue through the employment relationship, all forms of this relationship are mediated by labor markets and states, and each instance of this relationship is governed by some form of a contract ranging from explicit union contracts and civil service rules to implicit expectations and understandings. These common building blocks of the employment relationship—employees, employers, states, markets, and contracts—are the first topic of this chapter.