Employee Relations and Industrial Conflict Free Essay Example

‘How industrial relations are conducted within a particular organisation is determined by the frame of reference through which its top managers perceive the formal relationship with individuals and/or their representatives. Alan Fox (1966) suggested that managers may adopt one of two basic views: the unitary and the pluralist perspectives. The Unitary perspective Armstrong (1999) says that the philosophy of HRM with its emphasis on commitment and mutuality is based on the unitary perspective.

To talk of unitary frame of reference is to refer to a way of thinking, a mind set of assumptions, attitudes, values and practises relating to management and organisational membership.

This perspective is based on the assumption that in order to achieve success, members of any given organisation, despite their different roles, must share the same goals, objectives and values. The unitary perspective finds expression through the implementation of mission statements and measures success through the actual achievement of set objectives.

Workers are considered to be loyal, and the prerogative of management is accepted as parental, and in everyone’s best interests.

Management should be the one focus or loyalty. “Any business must mould a true team and weld individuals’ efforts into a common effort. Each member of the enterprise contributes something different, but they must all contribute towards a common goal. Their efforts must all pull in the same direction, without friction, without necessary duplication or effort. ” (Drucker) The involvement of unions may undermine management authority and divide loyalties.

Trade unions may be seen as a useful channel of communication, but are no longer strictly necessary, and is seen as counterproductive in offering support to potentially disruptive elements.

Therefore organisations that assume this perspective tend to dissuade involvement of unions within their organisations but empathise heavily on team building in management training, so as to prevent conflict. A unitary frame of reference is not just about unions and industrial relations, it is a term which reflects the projections and maintenance of a ‘togetherness’ or understandings and essential values accepted by members of organisations.

Thus it is typically a managerial frame of reference which does not easily reconcile itself with organisations or societal positions, which are distinctly more political and pluralistic frames of reference. The Pluralistic perspective When employees become involved in solving work-related problems and making decisions, they become involved in what they are doing and committed to the achievement of successful outcomes (Likert, 1961).

The pluralistic perspective is that of an organisation that is more diverse with clear differences of values and interpretations existing between interest groups. In this organisation, the prosperity for competition and conflict between individuals and groups at many levels is more endemic than harmony and consensus. Constant competition and conflict may lead to extreme matters where the situation may spiral out of control and may need an external influence such as a union to help remedy the situation.

Management has to create a workable structure for collaboration, taking into account the objectives of all the various interest groups or stakeholders in the organisation. A mutual survival strategy, involving the control of conflict through compromise, can be made acceptable in varying degrees to all concerned. In the mid 1960’s the recommended procedures to channel conflict and reduce its harmful potential included: In 1964, the report of the Royal Commission on Trades Unions and Employers Associations (Donovan Report) was carried out.

In 1968 – the majority report of the Donovan investigation concluded that: Management and labour can resolve differences in an orderly way by collective bargaining. Through legitimatised bargaining arrangements between employers and unions, workers can better share in the profits of business. Thus trade unions as the representatives of workers have a key role in income distribution. This strategy utilises the functions of unions to help assist with the operations of the business, unlike the unitary perspective, pluralism depends more upon industrial relations.

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