What is industrial relations? Definition important—setting the scope of study

Part one The nature and context of industrial relations

Overview

What is industrial relations?

• Definition important—setting the scope of study.

• Many attempts at definition:

• from job regulation to social relations at work.

• Challenges to the discipline:

• rise of non-unionism
• growth of human resource management (HRM)
• revival of labour economics.

• A broad definition:

• ‘industrial relations is about the behaviours and interaction of people at work’.

What is industrial relations? (cont.)

• Industrial relations (IR) assumes the employment relationship is conflictual:

• power relations at work.

• Traditionally, it focused on ‘collective’ aspects of employment.

• It has expanded to incorporate ‘individual’ aspects.

• IR is interdisciplinary by nature.

Distinguishing different approaches to the study of employment relations

• There are three distinct ideological perspectives to origins and nature of industrial relations, each leading to a distinct approach/analytical tool to explain industrial relations:

• a pluralist perspective, leading to ‘neo-institutional’ approaches
• a unitarist perspective, which informs human resource management (HRM)
• a radical perspective, which enables a ‘labour process’ approach.

A pluralist perspective: neo-institutionalism Pluralism

• First, what is the pluralist perspective?

• Conflict is inevitable: competing interests between the parties.
• Power is diffused among the main bargaining groups within the employment relationship: no-one dominates.
• Trade unions are viewed as providing a mechanism that legitimates employees’ rights to bargain within the workplace.
• The state is regarded as an impartial entity, whose primary function is to protect the ‘public interest’.

What are the criticisms of pluralism?

• What are the criticisms of pluralism?

• Theory of pluralism is unclear.
• Power is not evenly diffused:
• it is is typically weighted towards management in the workplace.
• Emphasis upon rational approach to conflict management:
• a form of managerialist thinking that obscures.
• The emphasis on rules and regulations neglects process.

Neo-institutionalism is an extension of pluralist thinking about the role of ‘rule-making’ in the employment relationship.

• Neo-institutionalism is an extension of pluralist thinking about the role of ‘rule-making’ in the employment relationship.

• It sees that the employment relationship is governed by two types of rules:

• formal/informal rules
• substantive/procedural rules.

• These rules are made in a broader context: as a result of the forces and imperatives of capitalist social relations, in society and in the workplace.

Other features of the neo-institutionalist approach:

• Other features of the neo-institutionalist approach:

• the open-endedness of the employment relationship
• understands the present in terms of the past
• seeks to describe and understand the ‘real’ world
• is not concerned with developing grand theory—develops theory through induction.

What is the unitarist perspective?

• What is the unitarist perspective?

• Assumption of a common purpose and shared goals, with no fundamental conflict of interest between labour and capital.
• Conflict is an aberration, the result of:
• poor communications
• poor management.
• Unions are seen as an unwelcome intrusion:
• complete loyalty of employees.
• Role for strong management.

Approaches within unitarism:

• Approaches within unitarism:

• scientific management (Taylorism/scientific management):
• work study/‘one best way’
• establishment of work rules.
• human relations (Mayo/the Hawthorne experiments):
• emphasis on work groups and social relations at work
• less importance given to economic incentives.

Approaches within unitarism (cont.):

• Approaches within unitarism (cont.):

• neo-human relations (McGregor/Likert/Herzberg):
• importance of individual needs of workers
• creating satisfaction from the nature of job.
• human resource management:
• emphasis on the management of commitment
• integration of employees into organisational strategy.

What are the criticisms of unitarism?

• What are the criticisms of unitarism?

• A narrow approach that neglects causes of conflict.
• Fails to explain the prevalence of conflict within organisations.
• Does not account for uneven distribution of power among employees and employers in the decision-making process.

HRM is the modern form that a unitarist approach to IR typically takes, that is:

• HRM is the modern form that a unitarist approach to IR typically takes, that is:

• the management of the employment relationship primarily from the perspective of the employer.

• This can be seen in the main focuses of HRM:

• plan human-resource requirements
• recruit and select employees
• train and manage employee performance
• reward employees
• dismiss or retire employees.

HRM as a scholarly concept is relatively imprecise.

• HRM as a scholarly concept is relatively imprecise.

• What is its scope?

• Is it a study of employer labour-management practices, or
• is it concerned with the optimal allocation of labour to achieve management’s goals?

The two main schools within the HRM approach are:

• The two main schools within the HRM approach are:

• ‘soft’ HRM—‘developmental humanism’
• ‘hard’ HRM—instrumental integration of employees into firm objectives.

• ‘Best practice’ approach vs ‘contingency’ approach.

‘Soft’ HRM:

• ‘Soft’ HRM:

• focuses on individual employees and the management strategies needed to increase employee satisfaction, organisational commitment, motivation and work performance
• employees have universal needs, best identified and met using techniques drawn from psychology and organisational behaviour
• the techniques of management, aimed at achieving these goals, are considered to be ‘best practice’, the ‘best’ ways to develop employees towards organisational goals.

‘Hard’ HRM:

• ‘Hard’ HRM:

• focuses on the better integration of HR strategies into business strategy
• employees are seen as a commodity to be better allocated, in order to assist the achievement of business strategies
• decisions about the adoption of specific HRM policy becomes increasingly about cost–benefit analysis.

• Management’s aims are to achieve ‘best fit’ between HR strategy and business strategy.

Criticisms of HRM approaches:

• Criticisms of HRM approaches:

• both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ HRM lack empirical evidence confirming prescriptions.
• ‘soft’ HRM has fundamental contradictions:
• individual performance and development, and team-based cooperation
• implementing organisational flexibility can undermine the stability, trust and long-term development needed to achieve organisational goals
• HR’s championing of organisational culture can conflict with the desire for flexibility.

A radical perspective: The labour process Radicalism

• What are the common features of radical perspectives?

• Fundamental and inherent conflicting interests between management and workers.
• Uneven distribution of power between bargaining groups, within the workplace and society.
• The role of trade unions—to challenge managerial control.
• The state protects the interests of capitalists.

A radical perspective: The labour process (cont.) Radicalism (cont.)

• What are the criticisms of a radical perspective?

• Preoccupied with conflict:
• obscures any cooperation or shared goals between management and workers.
• Class struggle not part of modern capitalism.
• Capital is not homogenous:
• competition among capitalists.
• Under-estimates the independence of the state.

A radical perspective: The labour process (cont.) Class struggle and control in the labour process

• Marx argued that capital social relations are based on a fundamental divide between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat.

• Labour possesses labour power—the potential effort that each employee offers.

• Potential labour does not always equal actual labour.

• Management’s task is to convert this labour power into actual work and effort, in order to make a profit.

A radical perspective: The labour process (cont.) Class struggle and control in the labour process (cont.)

• This gives rise to the central theme within the labour-process approach: How does management maximise the conversion of ‘potential’ labour into ‘actual’ labour?

• Labour is not always compliant in this process, resulting in conflict between management and labour.
• As this relationship is open-ended, management seeks to establish methods for ensuring control, to maximise ‘actual’ labour effort.

A radical perspective: The labour process (cont.) Class struggle and control in the labour process (cont.)

• The labour-process argument: How does management maximise the conversion of labour power into actual labour?

• Braverman (1974) argued that management seeks control and improved performance through deskilling labour.
• Friedman (1977) argued that management could use either:
• direct control or
• ‘responsible autonomy’ based approaches.

Final observations

• Chapter has highlighted three perspectives to the employment relationship:

• unitarist
• pluralist
• Marxist.

• Each of these approaches are competitors in seeking to explain the nature of the employment relationship:

• each approach is based on different value judgments.
• each approach emphasises different aspects of the employment relationship.

• This text adopts a pluralism/neo-institutionalist approach.

Summary

• The ‘commonsense’ approach to industrial relations highlights conflict between trade unions and employers:

• Need to move beyond this limited view.
• Theory provides a guide to understanding the relationship between the parties in the employment relationship.

• Three types of theories are introduced in this chapter:

• pluralist/neo-institutionalist
• unitarist/HRM
• radical/labour-process theory.