Negotiating Employee Contracts Case Study Review Negotiations and Conflict Resolution

Abstract

This paper is a review of a case study in human resource management with a slant towards the legal aspect of contract of employment and renegotiation of contracts. As none of the authors is a lawyer, the paper is reviewed from the managerial rather than from the legal point of view. Cindy is the lady employee in question who worked for a company for many years and never thought that a time would come when her employer would transfer her to a far off and forlorn place in the midst of nowhere. Her relocation puts her off and she thought she had been unfairly treated by her employer. In the analysis of the issues at stake in the scenario, the authors came to the conclusion that both Cindy and her employers had merit in their case should they go to court for adjudication and pronouncement of a verdict. Cindy on her part did not follow due process at the onset to ask questions about her job. It seemed also that her employers on their part did not do full disclosure about the nature of the job and the need to relocate staff when necessary. The authors decided to use the exploratory approach methodology in this case study review as there was not much information in the scenario to go by. The case study method has been found to be a suitable method of research that enables a phenomenon to be examined closely at a micro level so that knowledge from a small sample can be extended to cover generalizations of all similar cases, using the deductive and inductive approaches. Therefore the authors made some assumptions and used the deductive and inductive approach to arrive at logical conclusions. This article is therefore a narrative article and a commentary that does not include any primary research material. Readers are free to come to their own conclusions on the merit of the case as the main objective of the authors of this article is to generate knowledge for academic discourse. Human Resource practitioners and theoreticians will hopefully find the article stimulating food for thought and pertinent to their work.