EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS
Labour/Employment relations includes
• all aspects of collective and individual relationships between employers and
employees.
• The state is also involved as a third party to this relationship. The tripartite
relationship
• consists of a primary relationship between the employer and employee,
• and a secondary relationship between the state and the employer and employee.
Pluralist Perspective
This perspective views the employing organisation as a coalition of individuals and groups
with diverse objectives, values and interests.Individuals in an organisation combine into a
variety of distinct section groups, each with its own objectives, interests and leadership.
The different groups are competitive in terms of leadership, loyalty and authority.
Different power relations. Different personalities. (Conflict inevitable)
•This conflict puts the organisation in a permanent state of tension.
•It recognises the mutual dependence of groups.
•Conflict between management and labour is not so fundamental and unbridgeable that the
parties will fail to cooperate.
•The key lies in the regulation of the employment relationship and how to institutionalise
conflict in order to contain and control its impact.
Collective bargaining inevitable.
Unitarist perspective
This perspective views the organization as an integrated group of people having a unified
authority structure with common values, interests and purpose. (Linkage between
management and employees)
•Management has the legitimate authority and right to manage and is therefore expected
to provide appropriate leadership.
•Conflict is regarded as unnecessary as employees are expected to be loyal to management
and “their” organisation.
•The underlying assumption is that people working in an organisation are in basic harmony,
and conflict is undesirable and a result of miscommunication.
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, •Trade unions are regarded as unnecessary and dysfunctional.
•There is no need for an outside body to intrude on the employment relationship.
Radical perspective
•This perspective is related to Marxist thinking and reflects a class conflict world view.
•Workers are oppressed for the sake of capitalist interests and hence there is an emphasis
on the class struggle between the “haves” and the “have nots”.
•Radicals see the imbalance of power both within society and at the workplace as central.
Those who own the means of production have a power superiority over those who sell their
labour.
•Conflict is always rooted at a macro level and is sociopolitical and economic.
•Trade unions are viewed as an unavoidable response to capitalism.
Corporatism and concertation
Societal corporatism
•Extension of pluralism and sometimes referred to as tripartite coordination or cooperation.
•The two primary parties (management & labour) are no longer viewed as interacting on a
purely competitive basis.
•Interdependence between all three parties (including the State) is acknowledged, each of
whom values consensus building interaction rather than adversarial relations.
•Conflict and common ground are blended, and a mutually gainful, long-term view is
favoured above short-term, win/lose modes
of interaction.
State corporatism
• There is an emphasis shift from a tripartite coordination or cooperation to a situation
where the State moves into a paternalistic or authoritarian mode to demobilise and coopt
organised labour (trade unions) into government structures.
• This perspective is closer to unitarism because conflict between business and labour
is viewed as undesirable, and in a certain sense the legitimacy of the role of trade unions is
abandoned.
CONCERTATION ... means an institutional role of interest organizations (mainly economic) in
the formulation and implementation/regulation of state policy (Baskin 2000: 48).
The heart of conflict is built on the economic dimension of any employment relationship –
the exchange of labour for pay.
aX
Labour/Employment relations includes
• all aspects of collective and individual relationships between employers and
employees.
• The state is also involved as a third party to this relationship. The tripartite
relationship
• consists of a primary relationship between the employer and employee,
• and a secondary relationship between the state and the employer and employee.
Pluralist Perspective
This perspective views the employing organisation as a coalition of individuals and groups
with diverse objectives, values and interests.Individuals in an organisation combine into a
variety of distinct section groups, each with its own objectives, interests and leadership.
The different groups are competitive in terms of leadership, loyalty and authority.
Different power relations. Different personalities. (Conflict inevitable)
•This conflict puts the organisation in a permanent state of tension.
•It recognises the mutual dependence of groups.
•Conflict between management and labour is not so fundamental and unbridgeable that the
parties will fail to cooperate.
•The key lies in the regulation of the employment relationship and how to institutionalise
conflict in order to contain and control its impact.
Collective bargaining inevitable.
Unitarist perspective
This perspective views the organization as an integrated group of people having a unified
authority structure with common values, interests and purpose. (Linkage between
management and employees)
•Management has the legitimate authority and right to manage and is therefore expected
to provide appropriate leadership.
•Conflict is regarded as unnecessary as employees are expected to be loyal to management
and “their” organisation.
•The underlying assumption is that people working in an organisation are in basic harmony,
and conflict is undesirable and a result of miscommunication.
aX
, •Trade unions are regarded as unnecessary and dysfunctional.
•There is no need for an outside body to intrude on the employment relationship.
Radical perspective
•This perspective is related to Marxist thinking and reflects a class conflict world view.
•Workers are oppressed for the sake of capitalist interests and hence there is an emphasis
on the class struggle between the “haves” and the “have nots”.
•Radicals see the imbalance of power both within society and at the workplace as central.
Those who own the means of production have a power superiority over those who sell their
labour.
•Conflict is always rooted at a macro level and is sociopolitical and economic.
•Trade unions are viewed as an unavoidable response to capitalism.
Corporatism and concertation
Societal corporatism
•Extension of pluralism and sometimes referred to as tripartite coordination or cooperation.
•The two primary parties (management & labour) are no longer viewed as interacting on a
purely competitive basis.
•Interdependence between all three parties (including the State) is acknowledged, each of
whom values consensus building interaction rather than adversarial relations.
•Conflict and common ground are blended, and a mutually gainful, long-term view is
favoured above short-term, win/lose modes
of interaction.
State corporatism
• There is an emphasis shift from a tripartite coordination or cooperation to a situation
where the State moves into a paternalistic or authoritarian mode to demobilise and coopt
organised labour (trade unions) into government structures.
• This perspective is closer to unitarism because conflict between business and labour
is viewed as undesirable, and in a certain sense the legitimacy of the role of trade unions is
abandoned.
CONCERTATION ... means an institutional role of interest organizations (mainly economic) in
the formulation and implementation/regulation of state policy (Baskin 2000: 48).
The heart of conflict is built on the economic dimension of any employment relationship –
the exchange of labour for pay.
aX
