Employee Relations AC219

1
Employee Relations AC219

• Perspectives on the Employment Relationship
• Unitarist and Pluralist Approaches

2
Structure

• Reminder The Employment Relationship
• What are organizations?
• Different perspectives on the employment
  relationship
• Unitarism, Pluralism, Marxism

3
What are Organizations? What is Employment
Relationship?

• Generally happy and harmonious places, people
  work towards common goal, work is seen as
  fulfilling
• Generally sites of come conflict, people have
  different interests and goals depending on group
  membership, class or professional status, work is
  necessary
• Generally sites of exploitation, where interests
  of capital owners are served, work is alienating

4
Unitarism and Pluralism

• Complex terms with long histories
• Offer very different perspectives on
  organizations and employment relationships
• Often seen as opposite ends of a continuum
• In practice many shades within each approach
• Different positions within unitarism can be
  located on a continuum

5
Unitarism

• Work organizations are an integrated and
  harmonious whole existing for a common purpose
  (Farnham and Pimlott 1991)
• Absence of conflict between capital and labour
  members of the same team
• Conflict is pathological
• Organisation single source of authority, unitary
  in structure and purpose
• Employees loyal to the organization
• Emphasises organizational culture, organizational
  values, norms and common interests

6
Unitarism

• Assumed to be perspective most commonly held by
  many managers
• See reflected in focus on managerial
  prerogative
• Managers right to manage emphasises managers
  acting in the interests of all in the
  organisation because they know best
• See Purcells work on corporate management styles
  differences within unitarism (traditional,
  paternalist, sophisticated paternalism) and
• Guest and Hoques (1994) classification of
  non-union companies good, bad, ugly and lucky

7
Unitarism

• Public policy issues
• State to support and reinforce managerial
  prerogative
• Removal of rights/power base to trade unions
  through legislation
• Restore property and decision-making rights to
  managers
• Removal of support for collective bargaining to
  widen basis of support for managerial
  decision-making
• More active role for legislation to curb and in
  extreme cases outlaw strikes and other industrial
  action

8
Unitarism and New Right

• In 1980s unitarism associated closely with New
  Right
• Commitment to free markets and removal of
  obstacles to the operation of free markets
  market imperfections
• Trade unions, collective bargaining - major
  market imperfections
• Restrictive legislation to restore power of
  employers and managers
• Managers to be allowed to manage their
  enterprises as they see fit

9
Unitarism

• But
• Why should managers values be accepted
  unquestioningly?
• Why should we assume values of organisation
  those of individuals and groups? Values of
  unitarism are superficially appealing but much
  more difficult to turn into practice
• How sensible is an approach which assumes an
  unquestioning acceptance of managerial
  prerogative?
• Problems with more active role of law in ER
• We know that conflict does exist in
  organizations, how do unitarists explain this?

10
Pluralism

• For many (particularly academics) pluralism
  represents more appropriate and accurate
  description of organizations and employment
  relationships
• Fox (1966) organization defined as
• a democratic state composed of sectional groups
  with divergent interests over which the
  government tries to maintain some kind of dynamic
  equilibrium

11
Pluralism

• Organizations characterised by competing
  interests
• Conflict inevitable and legitimate and structured
  into employment relationship
• For pluralists conflict is manageable and
  resolvable
• Focus on resolution of conflict order,
  stability rather than how generated
• Tends to assume balance of power between parties
  with different interests
• Legitimacy of trade unions as representing
  employee interests and countervailing power to
  management

12
Pluralism

• Major influence on Public policy in employment
  relations
• Legalisation of trade unions and rights to ensure
  that independent unions can operate to defend and
  further employee interests
• Encouragement and legal support for collective
  bargaining
• New Deal in US in 1930s
• Donovan Commission in Britain in 1960s and
  influence of Oxford School

13
Pluralism

• Traditionally, pluralism linked to economic
  interests employees, employers
• Interests more complex and identity linked to
  age, gender, race, ethnicity, religion, sexuality
• Increasing wish to extend pluralism beyond the
  workplace (work of Ackers 2002)
• Stakeholder model a classic example of pluralism
  different interest require means to resolve
  interest differences

14
Pluralism

• But
• Balance of power rarely exists in employee
  relations
• Assumes some common ideology and an acceptance of
  Marquis of Queensbury rules willingness to
  trust institutions and a moral duty to
  compromise
• Assumes all conflict is manageable and resolvable
• Assumes that parties are rational
• Assumes a consensus on truth and the values of
  outcomes

15
And Finally? Foxs Journey

• Alan Fox leading pluralist IR academic in 1960s
  member of Oxford School
• Research report for Donovan Commission (1966)
• By early 1970s major questioning of pluralist
  position
• Questioned legitimacy and sustainability of
  outcomes where agreed in context of major power
  imbalances
• Argued that trust and commitment to agreements
  only possible under a radically different
  economic system
• Moves closer to radical and Marxist position