Redefining The Links:Social Networking,Industrial Relations And Human Resource Outsourcing

Industrial sociology has over time tried to understand and study the work environment in order to help workers,management and all involved to appreciate the contribution,the importance of the work society and how if not managed and handled carefully can erupt and bring about a whole lot of chaos and labour issues in the society in general.Literature on economic sociology has also argued that most if not all business transactions do not at all take place in a social vacuum but they are rather formed and shaped by the various social contexts and social relations in which they are embedded.Therefore influenced by this notion and interest,this research sought to find the links between social networking(SN),Industrial relations(IR)and human resource outsourcing(HRO).It further goes to try and understand how the contract worker tries to maneuver around these in his or her field of work.In order to achieve this,the concurrent mixed method approach was used This involved in-depth interviews and the administration of semi-structured questionnaires.A combination of stratified,snowball,random and purposive sampling technique was employed.The quantitative data was analyzed using the SPSS version 21 and the qualitative data was transcribed and analyzed using the content and thematic analysis technique.After obtaining data from a total of 59 respondents comprising of 2 and 7 human resource managers of the recruiting agencies and the client companies respectively plus 50 personnel who had successfully been placed in the client companies through the recruiting agencies.Human resource managers were found to be of mature age and had post-graduate level of education.Most personnel had tertiary education to their credit.The relationship between the recruiting agencies and the client companies showed that had prior working relations and also had mutual respect for each other.Recruiting agencies used recommendations from previous clients to access job opportunities in new potential client companies and vice versa.Some of the human resource managers reiterated that they sometimes rely on their various networks and links to help them poach high level employees for their organizations,the personnel also said it was stress-free and allows them to be strategically positioned for better placement in the client companies.The study adds that companies were more focused on managing the agencies whilst the agencies manage the personnel.The personnel confirmed that they felt not part of the client companies because there were differential treatments towards the benefits,packages received and supervision.There was no availability of unions for them to join hence making it diff-icult for them to bargain for their salaries among other issues in the organization.Additionally,there was the provision of grounds or forums or durbars which were organized by both the client companies and the recruiting agencies through which the personnel could voice out their grievances,displeasure and challenges.The study found that the personnel felt nervous,distracted,lacked some amount of attention and felt they were constantly being monitored because of the presence of a known social network or relation.The study also revealed the total reliance of the client companies on the recruiting agencies to do everything and anything Human resource(HR)with regards to the contract workers(such as recruitment,training,supervision and all that is involved in human resource management).The study identified that these intra and inter relationship or links sometimes caused some form of frictions and tensions among fellow workers.However,the study recommends the need for policy makers to under importance and the crucial role these links and three concepts(social networking,industrial relations and human resource outsourcing)both interplay and interact in the whole labour issues involved in the nation.Secondly,it was paramount for the organizational level to understand the main workings and challenges involved in the whole process with regards to the manifest and hidden functions of human resource outsourcing(HRO)especially the none spoken yet active role of social networking in organizations.Finally,there is the need for a longitudinal study to help provide additional insights into how to improve one's understanding about these links and further expanding the scope and area of the study(changes relating to social networking,industrial relations and human resource outsourcing practices).