Industrial Relations as Relationship between the Employees and the Management - Coursework Example

Industrial relations Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Introduction Industrial relations are the way in which stakeholders in an organization relate to one another. It is majorly the relationship between the employees themselves and between the employees and the management of the organization (Ackers & Wilkinson 2003). Many organizations in the modern business have tried to cope up with competition in the market by designing various strategies they will improve their performance and competitiveness. One of these strategies is the application of industrial relations. This enables employees to cooperate and work together in harmony towards achieving the set goals and objectives of the organization. In this essay therefore, I will discuss the various approaches to industrial relations which are unitary, pluralism and radicalism. I will also discuss conflicts and cooperation from these industrial relations perspectives. The first approach to industrial relations is the unitary perspective. In this approach, the whole organization is viewed as one family who work together towards achieving a certain goal. The organizational management and the employees share the common objectives and interests and therefore they work together towards achieving the common objectives (Blyton et al 2008). Also unitary approach assumes the approach of paternalistic where the employees are required to be loyal to the organization and the management. This implies that trade unions are perceived as not necessary in this organization as the employees learn the character of being responsible and loyal to the organization. Unitary approach can be viewed in different perspectives which are the employees’ point of view and the employer’s point of view. From the employees point of view, they understand that the work is supposed to be dynamic and that the employees should be business oriented having variety of skills which they will accomplish their tasks (Ackers & Wilkinson 2003). A trade union is not necessary but if it is there, its role should be to enable good communication between the management and the employees. The emphasis is laid on good relationships among the employees themselves and between the employees and the management. This is achieved by having good terms of employment. The employees are involved in decision making and this motivates them to develop teamwork spirit and be creative in decision making. In this employees approach, the employees are satisfied that the management is concerned about their welfare and supports the development of skills. From the employer’s perspective, the unitary approach ensures that there are policies which always try to motivate and unify employees. The management should also develop clear communication strategies to communicate the policies to the employees (Budd 2004). Rewards should be used to motivate the employees and develop loyalty as well as commitment from the employees. Also the responsibility of the line managers is to do staffing in their respective departments and encourage teamwork. In terms of conflicts, they are perceived to arise from poor communication between the management and the employees leading to inadequate passage of information and also poor presentation of policies by the management to the employees. Finally, the personal objectives of the employees are discussed and they are found viable they are integrated into the needs of the organization. There is also the pluralistic perspective to industrial relations. In this perspective, the organization is seen to be made up various groups which have powers to conduct various activities. The groups can be the management and the trade unions. This perspective thinks that conflicts between the employees and the management are as a result of the inadequate sharing of financial resource that is the profit and that this conflict is always there (Budd 2004). However, when these conflicts arise it is the role of the management to take control and persuade the two groups to come into agreement. In this approach, trade unions are the major representatives of the employees and conduct the bargaining on their behalf. The conflicts between the employees and the management are solved by bargaining until the agreement is reached. With pluralistic approach, the managers are aware that there has to be conflicts and they should acknowledge that and accept conflicts to take place. In these groups, there are high chances of conflicts to occur than loyalty. In this effect therefore, there are various implications which include that the organization has a special department of industrial relations which advices the management on the staffing issues (Budd 2004). When conflicts occur, the organization can use external bodies to bargain and negotiate for resolutions between the two groups. This approach encourages the formation of trade unions and the unions representatives should be allowed to carry out their duties effectively. Finally, there should be a comprehensive agreement between the management and the trade unions and how the negotiation should take place. Finally, there is the industrial relations approach of radicalism. This approach takes into account the capital nature of the organization. Much interest is laid on the relationship between capital and labor and values industrial relations as a hindrance to this capital nature of the firm. This perspective regards inequalities of capital and power as the main effect of economic effect of capitalism (Kaufman 2004). Radicalism approach sees conflicts as mandatory and because of these conflicts, trade unions are encouraged to take part and negotiate on behalf of the employees to solve these conflicts. The main source of the conflicts is the economic exploitation where there is imbalance in the wealthy distribution. The economists and the employees’ battle to ensure a win and the other party losses and their struggles are based on the capital. However, these approaches have adopted the recent changes in industrial relations. The recent developments are the HRM, neo-institutionalism and labor process theory. HRM is the way employees are organized in an organization in terms of number and their skills (Kaufman 2004). For instance, the unitary approach to industrial relations has incorporated the theory of HRM by not only looking at the organization as one family but also considers the skills required to conduct various tasks. This enables the employees to execute their tasks with less stress leading to better achievement of results. On the other hand, pluralistic approach has incorporated the neo-institutionalism by considering the relationship between the organization and the external environment. In this regard, there are not only two groups in the organization as indicated by the pluralistic approach (Kaufman 2004). The groups have increased by including the groups from external which are the external stakeholders like the community. The pluralistic approach extends its relationship with groups like the customers and the suppliers as they are also interested in the organization and can help it grow. Conflicts may arise with suppliers or the customers and therefore the suppliers association and the customers associations can take part in the conflict negotiations thus improving the relationship with external customers leading to good reputation of the company hence the company can gain the competitive advantage. Furthermore, labor process theory has been incorporated into the radicalism approach to industrial relations. Labor process theory has led to various forms of management. This theory focuses on the work of the employees, the skills they require to do their jobs and the compensation for their human skills. The traditional radicalism approach exploited the employees by reducing their skills to unskilled because they wanted to cut down the wages (Blyton et al 2008). But in the modern adaptations, radicalism approach ahs managed to change their style of management by considering the skills and the type of work done by the employees and the compensation they are entitled to get. Therefore the radicalism theory has managed to integrate the human skills and their compensation into their policies minimizing the level of conflicts in the organization and the exploitation. In addition, the above three approaches to industrial relations have managed to reduce the level of conflicts in the organizations. For instance in the unitary approach, all the stakeholders of the organization work together as a single family and there is loyalty within the organization. This helps to reduce conflicts that could rises either between the employees and the management or among the employees themselves (Blyton et al 2008). Loyalty built in the organization increases cooperation among the employees improving the performance of the firm. The same case applies to both pluralistic and radicalism approaches where trade unions are used to solve conflicts and promote cooperation among the stakeholders. For instance, with pluralistic approach to industrial relations, the employees are represented by their trade unions which bargain the employment terms and working conditions on behalf of the employees. This promotes unity and reduces the rising conflicts which will otherwise affect the performance of the organization. Conclusion Industrial relations are the relationship between the employees and the management. There are three approaches to management which are the unitary approach, pluralistic approach and radicalism approach. Unitary approach sees the organization as one big family pursuing a certain objective while pluralistic sees the organization to be comprise of various groups and conflicts are common. The radicalism approach is where the organization concentrates on capital and labor. These approaches have also managed to incorporate the recent adaptations of HRM, neo-institutionalism and labor process theory. Through these approaches, the organizations have managed to reduce conflicts and increase cooperation among the organizational stakeholders. References Ackers, P & Wilkinson, A 2003, Understanding Work and Employment: Industrial Relations In Transition, Oxford, Oxford University Press. Blyton, P., Nicolas, F & Jack, H 2008, Sage Handbook of Industrial Relations, New York, Sage. Budd, J 2004, Employment with a Human Face: Balancing Efficiency, Equity, and Voice, London, Cornell University Press. Kaufman, B 2004, Theoretical Perspectives on Work and the Employment Relationship, London, Industrial Relations Research Association. Read More