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Summary LRM2601-Notes for examination Workbook 01 to 03
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- University Of South Africa (Unisa)
Notes on Workbook 01 to 03
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LRM2601 – EXAMINATION PREPARATIONWORKBOOK 01 (Chapter 1 from Textbook)
From Industrial Relations to Employment Relations
1) Summarise the four main elements of Dunlop's (1958) definition {4):
➢ Dunlop (1958) says that certain people act in specific contexts, guided by a body of rules. The
people in the system share certain ideas.
“certain actors (managers, workers, and specialised governmental agencies), certain contexts
(technological characteristics, the market, and the distribution of power in the society), an ideology
which binds the industrial relations system together, a body of rules created to govern the actors at the
workplace and work community”
2) Flanders and Hyman (1975) emphasize job regulation and control {2}:
➢ Job regulation means controlling actions and activities of jobs, for example how a job is done
and who may be employed in that job.
3) Bain and Clegg (1974) adopt a different approach to Flanders and Hyman {5}:
➢ Bain and Clegg (1974) state that the relationship may not necessarily be formal only, but may
also be informal, and the context can be either structured or unstructured.
4) Walker (1979), Kochan (1980) and Poole (1986) all insist that the focus of field should be broader.
Identify the ways in which they broadened the definition {3}:
➢ The traditional approach is broadened to include essentially all the interests involved in getting
a job done and all aspects of people at work, which includes doing the work and distributing the
rewards. The easiest way to achieve the goals of both is through cooperation. The emphasis
should not only be on conflict, but also on cooperation
5) Summarise the definition given by Deery, Plowman and Walsh (1997) {1}:
➢ They agree that the field of industrial relations should expand to take account of the wider
aspects of the employment relationship
6) What’s Balnave et.al (2007) approach to employment relations? {2}:
➢ Balnave explains “employment relations can provide the framework” to facilitate an integration
of aspects of HRM and IR and, although the boundaries of the concept are still debatable, they
argue that “it is generally regarded as a legitimate bridging term that reflects the overlapping
concerns of human resource management and industrial relations.
7) Explain how employment relations include both the study and practice of human resources and
labour relations management. Do you agree that these two concepts are two sides of the same coin?
Substantiate your answer? {5}:
➢ It is acknowledged internationally that human resource management and industrial relations
cannot be separated from each other. HRM and IR, has the employment relationship at its
foundations, their interplay and interconnectedness, is employment relations.
Employees and trade unions play an important role in the field of labour relations. Trade unions are
established by employees for employees. They are key societal institutions. Trade unions have
originated because individual employees lack the power to bargain for better pay or better working
conditions. These things are all part and parcel of the field that is known traditionally as industrial
relations. Note that work in an employment context forms the basis of this field and because work is
central to our existence.
• labour: physical or mental work
• industry: a branch of trade or manufacture
• industrial: of or relating to industry or industries
• employee: a person employed for wages or a salary, especially at non-executive level
• employment: the act of employing, or the state of being employed
, • relations: what one person or thing has to do with one another
Theoretical or ideological perspectives/frames of references
Pluralist 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 sectional groups, each
with its own interests, objectives and leadership (either formal or informal). The different groups in the
organisation are competitive in terms of leadership, authority and loyalty
“As an employee, I understand that any organisation has a number of core groups and, within each group, natural
leaders exist. I believe that management should not undermine these accepted leaders or groups but should rather
attempt to accommodate these organic group structures. Nevertheless, conflict can be expected between the
different groups and suitable mechanisms should be put in place to deal with these issues”
Unitarist perspective:
● Views the organisation as an integrated group of people having a unified authority structure with
common values, interests and purpose. Management has authority and is expected to provide
appropriate leadership. Conflict is unnecessary. Employees are loyal to the organisation and
management. Working in harmony, conflict is undesirable. Trade unions are unnecessary and
dysfunctional
“Mr Robbins is the owner of Waterside Cafe, an upmarket restaurant at the Victoria & Alfred Waterfront in Cape
Town. He views the restaurant and alt its employees as an integrated group of people with a unified authority
structure, having common values, interests and purposes. He often tells journalists from food review magazines:
"We are one big, happy family and conflict is unnecessary, as our employees are loyal to the restaurant
“As the executive director of this organisation, I strongly believe that we're all a team and that we should all work
together to make this organisation a success. Order, peace and harmony are essential in making this organisation
succeed and attempts by outsiders to disrupt the peace should not be tolerated."
Radical perspective:
● draws on intellectual traditions related to Marxist thinking and it therefore essentially reflects a class
conflict world view. Workers are oppressed for the sake of capital interests. Conflict is always rooted at
macro level and is socio-political and economic, since it reflects the inherent nature of the capitalist
society. Trade Unions are unavoidable response to capitalism. Trade Unions also form part of a political
process aimed at changing the nature of the socioeconomic and political systems of society.
"All workers are oppressed for the sake of capitalist interests and there is an ongoing struggle between the 'haves'
and the 'have-nots'. Conflict exists at the macro level and is socio-political and economic, since it reflects the
inherent nature of the capitalist society."
Societal corporatism:
• social market, state involvement. Employers/employees share common interest. Conflict is expected but
should be pre-empted to avoid disruptive economy. Trade unions are important stakeholders. Collective
bargaining is formalised and centralised between employer, trade union and the state. Strikes should
seldom be resorted to.
• An extension of pluralism and is sometimes also referred to as tripartite coordination or cooperation.
Incorporates aspects of pluralism and democratic principles through processes of social dialogue. Two
main active parties (employer representatives and the representatives of labour) are no longer viewed
as interacting on mainly a competitive basis (as is the case with pluralism). Interdependence is
acknowledged between all three parties. Conflict and common ground are thus blended, and a mutually
gainful, long-term view is favoured above short-term, win/lose modes of interaction.
"I believe that interdependence between the state, employers and employees exists and that social dialogue and
consensus-building should take place on a frequent basis to ensure that employment relations function
optimally. "
, State corporatism
• State intervention in economy. State is employer, employees are expected to show interest in common
goods. Conflict is unnatural and not tolerated. Trade unions’ power must be limited, to serve national
interest first. Collective bargaining is not promoted, strikes are not tolerated
Worker control:
• state intervention ensures worker ownership, controls production. All employees are owners, goals and
values are shared. Conflict is unnatural as employees are their own employers. Trade unions should not
exist, no employer/employee relationship is present. No need for collective bargaining or strikes as
wages/conditions of service is determined by employees
Postmodernist Perspectives
• Those who support postmodernist will challenge the idea that there can be any objective “truth” and
that it is not possible to “know” how and why the world (and therefore organisations, employment
relations, and so forth) operates in certain ways. A postmodernist view can help us to be open minded
enough not to accept any particular ideology or perspective, and hence to shy away from
“stereotyping”.
Feminism
• argued that in the pre-industrial era, men, women and children worked in tandem as households,
whereas in post-industrial society, work and the economic value and status of work and even trade
unionism took on male-dominated characteristics. Society at large, as well as organisations and the
capital accrued from wealth-making processes, came to be male dominated – with females subjected to
the power and control of males. Contains merit that issues related to gender equity are rife in the world
of work and in societies in general.
Core characteristics of industrial relations systems according to different frames of reference
Core elements Unitarism Pluralism Societal State Worker control
corporatism corporatism
Economic Regulated Market-driven Social market, State State
system market with state with state intervention in intervention
economy with aspiring to involvement economy. ensures worker
state favouring balance power and large ownership and
employer between unions welfare control of
interest. and employers. provision. production.
Goals and Employers and Employers and Employers and State is All employees
values of employees are employees employees employer, or are owners,
employers and committed to have conflicting share a employer is therefore goals
employees common goals goals and common dependent on and values are
of the values but interest in patronage of theoretically
organisation acknowledge maintaining a state, thus shared.
and share their inter- more employees are
similar values. dependence. egalitarian expected to
society. make their
interests
subordinate to
the common
good.
Perspective on Conflict is Conflict is Conflict is Conflict is Conflict is
conflict unnatural or the natural and expected but unnatural and unnatural and
result of functional but should be pre- not tolerated in unexpected
agitators or must be empted what are because
poor managed by because it is usually one- employees are
communication. structures and too disruptive to party state their own
procedures. the economy. systems. employers.
Trade unions Trade unions Trade unions Trade unions Trade unions’ Trade unions in
are un- are necessary are important power must be theory should
necessary, to channel stakeholders in limited to not exist since
promote conflict and society. serving the no employer-
distrust and represent national interest employee
conflict, and employees’ first. relationship is
thus should be interests. present.
, avoided.
Collective Decision- Collective Collective Collective No need for
bargaining making is an bargaining is a bargaining is a bargaining is collective
and strikes employer voluntary, formalised, not promoted bargaining or
prerogative, usually centralised and strikes are strikes because
collective decentralised process not tolerated. wages and
bargaining process. The between strong conditions of
interferes with right to strike employer and service are
market forces should be trade union determined by
and strikers exercised within organisations employees.
should be a framework of and the state.
dismissed. rules. Strikes should
seldom be
resorted to.
Employment Relations: Definition
“A complex and dynamic open system of formal, informal, individual and collective relationships and
interactions between a range of role-players and stakeholders, including the two most direct and actively
involved parties of employers and their representatives on the one side, and workers and their representatives
on the other side, but with the State, and its representatives and relevant institutions also being a key party.
Employment Relations: Dimensions
Individual dimension:
• Every individual has an employment relationship with the organisation as an employing entity. Each
worker interacts every day with the organisation. The worker has a specific relationship with the
organisation and with various individual managers at different levels, as well as with other workers as
individuals. These are individual, interpersonal or human relations.
“This entails that the individual has relationships with the organisation as his employer and has
relationships with colleagues on a personal level”
“Ingrid is a social worker in a non-profit organisation, which arranges tutoring classes for disadvantaged children.
Ingrid has a permanent employment relationship with her employer. Her employer expects certain things from
Ingrid, such as hard work and a positive outlook; and Ingrid expects remuneration and fair treatment from her
employer”
Collective dimension:
• Workers can organise themselves in groups that can enter into discussions as a group with management
or with groups of employers. This is generally referred to as the labour-management relationship or the
union-employer relationship. Labour usually organises workers in groups known as trade unions, which
act as the representatives of their individual worker members. As a group, a union has a specific
relationship with management, and in this regard, we talk about intergroup relations.
“Where workers can organise themselves into groups to improve their voice when discussing matters of
mutual interest with the employers or group of employers. This is known as union-employer
relationship.”
“The People’s Union and the management of ABC Mining Company are engaged in collective bargaining in
order to reach an agreement on the wage increase for the following year”
“One of Peter’s colleagues, Jack, suggests that the employees (lawyers and administrative staff) of the firm
should organise themselves in a group which can enter into discussions and negotiations with management ”
▪ These two dimensions come together, with a formal dimension and/or an informal dimension.
Formal dimension:
• The parties have specific rights and duties which are based on official agreements between them, which
may be individual or collective. Whether the (individual, formal) employment contract is written or
verbal, it is an agreement the parties have with each other. The formal dimension is characterised by
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