Approaches to industrial relations - industrial relations - Manu Melwin Joy

Approaches to Industrial Relations Industrial Relations

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Manu Melwin JoyAssistant Professor

Ilahia School of Management Studies

Kerala, India.Phone – 9744551114

Mail – [email protected]

Approaches to Industrial Relations

Unitary Perspective

• The unitary perspective is based

on the assumption that the

organization is an integrated

group of people with single

authority/ loyalty structure and a

set of common values, interests

and objectives shared by all

members of the organization.

Unitary Perspective

• Management’s prerogative

is regarded as legitimate,

rational and accepted and

any opposition to it is seen

as irrational.

Unitary Perspective

• The organization is

not regarded as a

them and us situation

– as Farnham and

Pimlott put it.

Unitary Perspective

• There is no conflict

between the interests of

those supplying capital to

the enterprise and their

managerial

representatives, and those

contributing their labor.

Unitary Perspective

• The underlying

assumption of this view is

that the organizational

system is in basic

harmony, and conflict is

unnecessary and

exceptional.

Unitary Perspective

• This has two implications.– Conflict is perceived an

irrational activity.

– Trade unions are regarded as

intrusions into the organizations

from outside which compete

with management for the

loyalty of employees.

Unitary Perspective

• Managements clings to

this view because.:– It legitimizes its authority role by

projecting the interests of

management and employees as

being the same and by

emphasizing managements role of

governing in the best interest of

organization as a whole.

Unitary Perspective


this view because.:– It reassures managers by

confirming that conflict,

where it exists, is largely the

fault of the government

rather than management.

Unitary Perspective


this view because.:– It may be projected to the

outside world as a means of

persuading them that

management’s decisions and

actions are right and the best in

the circumstances and that any

challenge to them is subversive.

Pluralistic Perspective

• Fox believed that this view of

the organization probably

represents the received

orthodoxy in many western

societies and is often

associated with a view of

society as being post

capitalist.


• This perspective is based on

the assumption that the

organization is composed of

individuals who coalesce into

a variety of distinct sectional

groups, each with its own

interests, objectives and

leadership.


• The organization is perceived as

being multi structured and

competitive in terms of

groupings, leadership, authority

and loyalty and this gives rise to

complex tensions and competing

claims which have to be managed

in the interests of maintaining a

viable collaborative structure.


• The underlying assumption of this

approach is that the organization

is in a permanent state of

dynamic tension resulting from

the inherent conflict of interests

between the various sectional

groups and requires to managed

through a variety of roles,

institutions and processes.

Radical Marxist Perspective

• The radical perspective,

which is also referred to

as the Marxist

perspective, concentrates

on the nature of the

society surrounding the

organization.


• It assumes and emphasizes that

the organization exists within a

capitalist society where product

system is privately owned and

profit is the key influence on

company policy and control over

production is enforced

downwards by the owner’s

managerial agents.


• The Marxist general

theory of society

argues that:

– Class conflict is the source

of societal change –

without such conflict,

society would stagnate.



theory of society argues

that:

– Class conflict arises primarily

from the disparity in the

distribution of and access to

economic power within the

society.


• The Marxist general theory

of society argues that:

– The nature of the society’s

social and political institutions

is derived from this economic

disparity and reinforces the

position of the dominant

establishment group.



theory of society argues

that:

– Social and political conflict in

whatever from is merely an

expression of the underlying

economic conflict within the

society.

A comparative picture of three approaches

A comparative picture of three approaches

Education

Approaches to industrial relations - industrial relations - Manu Melwin Joy