Dear Swati,
Management of Employee Relations depends to a great extend on the situation and the organisational requirements. Even after the emergence of new HR concepts the former ideology of Personnel Management have not outdated. Therefore, when your requirement compells you to fire employee, you should fire and on the other hand, if you are in a market which is relatively inelastic in labour, you have to act accordingly. A kind of flexible approach is recommended in managing the employees relations. I use to recollect the basic theme of " SEEMA BADHA" (I donot know whether the spelling is right) a Bengali novel with the meaning " Limited Company" which spins around Personnel Manager of a company, the strategies, ideas and so on. In the novel a picture of how a dispute is fabricated just considering the 'situation' is shown. I have also had an experience of prolonging a negotiation with the workers just because the company's order book was almost empty! and at the same time going ahead with procession of conciliations to settle a dispute during a situation of overflowing order book!!!
Don't worry, be confident to meet any situation and draft your HR policies in a flexible manner without much problems to both the employer and employees.
Regards,
Madhu.T.K