Marxist Industrial Relations Essay Research Paper Work

Marxist Industrial Relations Essay, Research Paper

Work dominates the lives of most men and women; the management of employees is a central feature of organisational life. We must strive to understand the nature of the working relationship between managers and its employees in order to fully appreciate Industrial Relations. We perceive Industrial Relations on specific issues and situations when approached and analysed, looking at how people behave and are expected to behave and how their behaviour can be influenced. In this way Industrial Relations has become established and its focus is the regulation of the employment relationship, looking at the collective aspects between the workforce and management and the combined problems of social welfare and social order. In this way Industrial Relations can be defined as ‘a set of phenomena, operating both within and outside the workplace, concerned with determining and regulating the employment relationship´. Industrial Relations are recognised in various extremes but in order to gain a better understanding they have been simplified into three perspectives, these are Pluralism, Unitarism and Marxism. The pluralistic approach looks at conflict as well as co-operation, assuming a society with different values, interests and objectives. The unitary perspective ranges from authoritarian to paternalistic considering an integrated group of people whilst the Marxist perspective adopts an evolutionary or revolutionary approach to social change, assuming imbalance and inequalities in society. Before we can place a value on this perspective of weaknesses and contradictions and the ascendancy of socialism over capitalism, we must first study the other viewpoints to arrange a significant conclusion. Since its significance in the 1980´s, the unitary perspective has been an essential ideology in most organisations, placing an emphasis on harmony and working together as a team with a common objective. If conflict arises, it is seen as frictional, caused by irrational behaviour resulting from personality clashes within the organisation. This is seen as a direct result of management failure and its poorly communicated plans and decisions. The idea is that decisions by managers are made for the good of all people in the organisation but the employees fail to understand this. Unitarism represents a management ideology because the management style contains notions of leadership rather than of power. The organisation is based on a managerial prerogative that is regarded as legitimate, rational and generally accepted. Within this perspective, the management approach to resolving conflict is based on authority and paternalism, coupled with thoughts and threats and including the use of law, this coercion is regarded as a legitimate use of power; helping to control decisions and changes. Dismissal, training and development and improving communications can also remove conflict. Many corporate and human relation strategies have emerged through unitarism, helping improve interpersonal relations and communications within the organisation. The principles Just In Time (JIT) and Total Quality Management (TQM) have also been developed through unitarism. JIT refers to making an organisation more efficient by cutting warehouse costs etc., having stock delivered just before it is needed. TQM relates to increasing revenue by making quality improvements in production and manufacturing. Unitarist managers feel that trade unions are no longer necessary to protect employees´ interests because of the advent of human resource management. The organisation is seen as being capable of looking after its own, no longer being a ‘them and us´ situation but a feeling of togetherness, thus managers are now reluctant to acknowledge any role for trade unions in authority and decision making. As a result, trade unions and collective bargaining have been resisted rather than being welcomed by managers.

Pluralism looks at diverging interests within organisations; being complex, diverse and competitive. From this point of view, the organisation is seen as multi-structured with various interest groups creating a widespread distribution of authority and power, taking away ownership from the manager. As opposed to the unitary approach, trade unions are tolerated as they do have some legitimacy, because conflict is perceived as rational and inevitable. Managers understand that the organisation is diverse, determined with differing roles of managerial and employee groups causing conflict by specific situations and management principles. Managers seek to improve efficiency, productivity and profitability, co-ordinating employees to achieve this, while employees seek to better their pay, working conditions, job security etc. This principle believes that change and efficiency will be promoted within the organisation, as employees will owe loyalty to authority and being accepted by employers. Management generally seek to maintain maximum authority as employees try to establish safeguards against arbitrary management decisions and actions. It is accepted that trade unions play a positive role so there is a need for shared decision making, through negotiations and collective bargaining. As both groups have a common interest to survive in the organisation, they are prepared to compromise by limiting their claims and aspirations to negotiable levels. Although not as dominant,