CH 1

The approaches of Industrial Relations

Learning objectives

• Understand the different views of the employment relationship and the interaction in an IR System

• Explain the integral nature of the concept of conflict, cooperation and regulations

• Identify the importantce and difficulties of comparing industrial relations in different countries.

• Appreciate the character of labour process and labour market within capitalism and the interrelationship between macro and micro employment issues

• Industrial society is a complex and dynamic society (consist of group, societies and institution) they are interrelated, however have different attitudes and perceptions. They are also being influenced by external environment.

• We cannot ignore the working aspect of human being, as working hour dominate most of our time.

There are different types of organizations:1.Big organization, small organization, local or international. 2. They constitute of 3 main actors:• Shareholder- represented by management, association of

employers. Always to gain as much profit and productivity.• Employees- being represented by trade unions. To get good

salary and good working conditions• Government; being represented by specialize government

agencies concern with workers, enterprise and their relationship. Try create industrial harmony

Each of the actors above always conflicting between one another in order to achieve their objectives.

3. Besides the above 3 main actors, in the present context academicians have also considered another actor which can also influence the nature of IR i.e Stakeholders.

• Does industrial harmony between the three actors can be easily achieve particularly between employees and management?.

• To moderate their conflict, the interference of the government is crucial. Government influence the relationship by introducing rules and regulations and some code of industrial harmony. Within the Malaysia contact, some of the related rules are: industrial relation acts, trade union acts, employment act, code of Industrial harmony and etc. (pls. refer to Ministry of HR website).

Definition IR

• Industrial relations encompasses a set of phenomena, both inside and outside the workplace, concern with determining and regulating employment relationship

What is Industrial Relations?

• The making and administering of the institutions and rules of work regulation

• Socio-industrial conflict (in all its forms) and its resolution

• Explicit and implicit bargaining between employees and employers

A particular set of phenomena associated with regulating the human activity of employment

Industrial Relations

• Much of Industrial Relations at lower level of study place considerable emphasis on factual approach.

- Author concentrated their efforts in describing situations as they saw it

- they produce guide book rather than theories and explanations. Eg. Describing union structure, laws etc.

• In studying IR it is easier to study and to discuss through ‘frame of reference’.

Frame of reference; each person perceive and interpret events by mean of conceptual structure of generalizations or contexts postulate about what is essential, assumptions as what is valuable, attitude about what is possible and ideas about what will work effectively.

It constitutes the frame of reference of that person.

The nature of employment organization

Pluralistic

Co-operation

Conflict

Authoritarian

Paternalism

Unitary

Humanresource

management

Systems

Evolution

Revolution

Marxist

Control ofthe labourprocess

Input Conversion Output

Conflict(differences)

Institutionsand

processes

Regulation(rules)

Approaches to organisations

Approaches to industrial relations

Social action

Wider approaches to industrial relations

Approaches to industrial relations

Labour market Comparative

Unitary perspective

• Assumptions– Capitalist society– Integrated group of people within the work organization– Common values, interests and objectives

• Nature of conflict and its resolution– Irrational and aberrant ( straying from the path)– If there is/are conflict, they are Frictional and personal– Coercion (force) or paternalism (limiting freedom through regulation)

• Role of Trade Unions– Intrusion from outside– Historical anachronism (relating to a wrong period)– Management only forced to accept trade unions in economic

relations

Unitary view

Organization is:• A group that united • Having same objectives• Single authority/kepatuhan yang satu• common value, interest and objectives (nilai,

minat dan objektif yang sama)• Managers have the right to manage,

managers have prerogative to make decisions. Those who challange are not rational.

• The unitary perspective has a great deal of support in industry and government. Eg. Based on research the bulk of British mgrs. Maintain a preference for unitary in decision making. e,.g pronounce hostility to the power of trade unions, limited amount of personal commitment to collective presentation.

• So is in the government. For example in UK unitary perspective play important part in the UK IR Act 1971, one of the aim of the act was to reduce the incidence of what was termed ‘disruptive and disorderly behavior’ by the use of external legal control.

• Unitary also has considerable support in the academic sphere. A great deal of work in human relations school fall into this category- it emphasizes the important of social relations in industry. It stresses that conflict is the result of poor social relations, to overcome they suggest for ex. Better communication, they ignore differences in interest the source of conflict.

to

• According to Fox this view of organization had been abandon as incongruent with reality, but it should not be discard lightly. It provide subconscious foundation (the right to manage) for mgrs seeking to maintain clear distinction between those issues they prepare to negotiate and those they are prepared only to consult. Also appear to have provide the basis for HRM (comment interest, culture and values ideology within organization,

Pluralist perspective

• Assumptions– Post-Capitalist society, where a relatively widespread distribution of

power and authority within the society, a separation of ownership from mgt. a separation ,acceptance and institutionalization of political and industrial conflict

– Coalescence of sectional groups within work organisation– Differing values, interests and objectives– Competitive authority/loyalty structures (formal & informal)

• Nature of conflict and its resolution– Rational and inevitable– Structural and institutionalized– Compromise, negotiate and agreement

• Role of Trade Unions– Legitimate and accepted in both economic and managerial relations– Internal and integral to organization

Conflict result from industrial and organizational factors.

1. Different roles of mgt. and employees

• Mgrs responsible for efficiency, productivity and profitability

• Employees: more of personal term (better pay ,good working conditions and good job security.

2. Conflictual behavior result form:

• Specific situation (e.g the closure of some part of organization and change to new technology)

• general management principal (to cut cost, increase profit and productivity)

According to Fox mutual independent of sectional groups exist only “in the common interest in the survival as a whole.

Pluralist also assume sometime normative divergencies between the parties are not so fundamental or so wide to be unbridgeable. Where each group prepared to limit its claim and aspiration.

Resolution of the conflict is characterized by the need to establish accepted institution and procedures which achieve collaboration, through comprehensive, codified systems of negotiated regulations.

THE NATURE OF IR

Unitary: Human resource management

• Focus– Strategic & integrated managerial approach to the

management of people– HRM support for achieving business aims and objectives

• Mechanisms– Individualism (human relations, organisational psychology)– Integrating planning, monitoring and control of human

resources (not just employees)– Securing employee commitment or organisation’s aims &

objectives (performance based rewards, employee involvement)

Management or manipulation?

Unitary: Human resource management

• Among the characteristics of HRM (Armstrong)Employees need to be managed, efficient and seketat possible, as well as other sources in order to maximize value added.There should be a system, were to help in the form of communication - for example: team briefing, etc..Employee involvement techniques eg: QCCContinued emphasis on quality sample: TQMFlexible in working arrangements - cost-effective in the use of force.

Emphasis on temawork.  Strategy training: Employees are given training to adapt to their own internal teknoligi used, rather than employees who have no skill. This increase in the employer's employees suspension by separating them by occupation

• .

Unitary: Human resource management

• A variety of examples we can see how the management can use several methods to mengekploitasikan and lower levels of labor capacity. Between them;Labor, labor is skilled in a particular part of the work process ie only a certain line.Flexible company, some employees - for the long run. Temporary contract workers - follow the company's needs. By dividing the state into two categories of poor divide and rule process.Responsible autonomy: A method of scientific management, where employees are given some rights to control their own work, but it is in the field of view that management can achieve the objectives of the organization and can increase the effectiveness of the organization - more profit employers.Personal Control: in which the above are responsible for the work and activities of subordinates.Bureaucratic control: based on the policies, rules and laws in the workplace

Pluralist: Input-output model

CONFLICT RECONCILIATION REGULATION

Function:Identify Differencesof interest

Types:1. Micro-level organisation tensions2. Macro-level society values & issues

Forms of expression:1. Hidden individual2. Overt constitutional3. Industrial pressure

Conducted through:1. Processes

2. Institutions

3. Levels

Rules:1. Substantive or procedural2. Internal or external to the organisation3. Varying degrees of formality

Input Conversion Output

Marxist: Control of the labour process

B.M B.B.G BARANG PASARAN

CAPITALS

Mesin,

Alatan dan

Buruh

• B.M = Barang Mentah

• B.B.G = Barang Boleh Guna

Marxist ( Control of labour process)

Proses Kawalan Buruh ( Control of labour process) • Thomson mendefinasikan proses buruh ‘labour

process’ sebagai satu cara dimana bahan • mentah ditukar oleh buruh dengan menggunakan

alat-alatan atau mesin, pertama kepada • barang-barang untuk digunakan dan kemudian di

bawah sistem kapitalis ianya ditukar • kepada barangan yang boleh ditukar didalam

pasaran.

• Thomson - Asas Theory ini ialah:• 1. “Social Relation” yang wujud

antara pekerja – dimana ianya akan menghasilkan keupayaan (kekuatan) dan kapasiti ini diambil oleh kapitalis sebagai satu jalan (cara) untuk mengeluarkan barangan yang bernilai, dan tidak secara langsung buruh juga dianggap sebagai barangan (komoditi).

4 unsur wujud daripada teori ini:– Perhubungan Buruh - modal satu bentuk ekploitasi

- keuntungan biasanya lebih pada modal.– Logik timbun - tambah (acumulation) iaitu pemodal

akan cuba tingkatkan proses pengeluaran dan turunkan kos pengeluaran.

– Tertingkat pengeluaran, bertambah faktor kawalan sama ada secara am/khusus.

– Pemodal akan menggunakan berbagai kaedah sistematik untuk mendapat kerjasama dan budi bicara pekerja untuk meningkat pengeluaran keuntungan lebih pada pemodal.

Marxist: Control of the labour process

• Focus– The way ‘capital’ controls ‘labour’

• Mechanisms of management control– Scientific management or deskilling

– Segmentation of labour (core & periphery)

– Bureaucratic control (policies, procedures & rules)

– Responsible autonomy (self-control or adoption of management values as integral part of job?)

• Employee response– Resistance (restrictive practices)

– Collectivism (joint regulation)

System Approach

Originated by Dunlop, being subjected to

a variety of interpretation, uses and criticism. However they do not

invalidate the systems approach but they suggested accommodation and

Refinement. It is a broad based integrative model that sought to provide tools of analysis to interpret and gain understanding the widest possible range of IR facts and practices and to explain why particular rules are establish in particular IR systems and how and why they change in response to changes affecting the system.

This model sees IR as a subsystem of society distinct from but overlapping, the economic and political subsystem

System Approach

Four interrelated elements:

Actors- management, non-managerial employees and their representatives

And specialize government agencies concern with IR.

Context : influence and constraints on the decisions of the actors which

emanate from other parts of society, such as technology, market,

budgetary and the locus of power in the society..

Ideology; beliefs within the system which not only define the role of each

Actor or groups of actors but also define the view that they have of the role

of other actors in the system. If the view compatible-stable IR system and

other wise.

Rules; the regulatory framework, developed by a range of process and

presented in variety of forms which expresses the terms and nature of the

employment relationship.

System of industrial relations - 1

• Dunlop - Actors, working within contexts (environment), developing a body of rules, held together by an ideology

• System producing rules (IRS) and system governed by rules (production)

• Naturally stable and orderly?

• Emphasis on roles rather than people

• Importance of environmental influences

Market

Disorder

Input(conflict)

Environments

Environments Environments

Industrial relations system (2)

Power

Technology

PoliticalLegal

Other levels of theindustrial relations

‘system’Economicstructure

SocialCultural

Government and State Agencies

AttitudesValues

Interests

Roles

Organisationalhierarchy of

management

Organisationalhierarchy of

management

AttitudesValues

InterestsRoles

PowerChoicePower

Choice

Productive system

Control/order

Rule-making process

Internal rules

Industrial relations system (1)

Output(substantive rules)

PowerChoice

Roles

AttitudesValues

Interests

System of industrial relations - 2

WIDER APPROACH TO IR

Comparative approach

• Difference between:– Comparative (analysing different countries)– International (transnational institutions and phenomena)

• Importance of comparative approach– Inform public policy debate– Changing world economy– Development of ‘fair’ international employment standards

• Problems of comparison– Lack of common terminology and definitions– Differences between stated institutional framework and

reality of actual practice– Problems of transferability

Convergence

• Logic of industrialisation– All countries subject to same economic, technological and

market forces– All need concentrated, disciplined workforce with new and

changing skills– Similar government role in providing economic and social

infrastructure for industrialisation (competing for same international investment)

• Modified convergence– Countries at different stages of industrialisation– Alternative solutions to common problems– Regional based convergence

Divergence

• Distinctive value systems and cultural features

• Heterogeneity within national industrial relations systems (decentralisation & flexibility)

• Different strategic choices by Government, employers and unions at macro (society) and micro (organisation) levels on nature, content and process of employment relationship

• Political-economic framework of newer industrialised countries versus pluralistic framework of older industrialised countries