Employment Relations
Employment Relations Lecture 1 Definition of employment relations- ‘the study of the formal and informal rules which regulate the employment relationship and the social processes which create and enforce these rules’ •
ER similar to ‘industrial relations’, but ER (or workplace relations) now preferred because IR incorrectly seen to be just about the sensational, collectivist conflictual aspects of employment (ie unions, strikes etc)
•
Business groups and conservative politicians have denigrated IR as old fashioned, adversarial
•
Also ‘industrial’ implies secondary manufacturing industry and unionised, blue collar workers
Why does employment relations matter? •
Important for workers: How much pay? What conditions? What work rules? How much say do employees get in matters of importance to them? How are the rules determined?
•
Affects organisations and their management strategies, performance: legal compliance, ‘employee voice’, productivity effects, conflict
•
Key area of public policy, affecting social equity and national economic performance
•
Critical for governments’ success
Approaches/ perspectives of employment relations: UNITARY, PLURALIST, RADICAL. Ideological perspective • We all have an individual ideological perspective • Like a lens: enables us to see certain phenomena, screen others • Influences what we regard as significant, what is a problem, likely solutions etc • Can be derived from family, work experience, wider beliefs, ideologies • Important to be aware of our own perspective, and those of ER actors and writers -3 ideological perspectives – unitarist – pluralist – radical – some reference to a fourth ‘egoist’ *examine each approach according to their ideological perspective and analytical tools.
Refer to other word doc. Marxism/socialism Problems with capitalism identified by Marx 1. Modern work is alienating 2. Modern work is insecure 3. Workers get paid little while capitalists get rich by exploitation 4. Capitalism is unstable Economic systems generate ideology: capitalist values Marx wanted communism: no private property, steep income tax, centralised control of economy, free public education, human development A fourth perspective: liberalism (egoist) • Liberalism is arguably the ideology of modern, industrialised, Western civilisation (Heywood 2007) • Critical to understanding employment relationship in industrial society • Emerged in 17th Century Europe as a radical ideology of liberation against existing social, economic and political constraints • Early liberalism opposed to: – Hierarchical feudalism where position in life determined by birth. – Legal rights and obligations varying according to class etc – Political tyranny of absolute government – Economies based on regulation
ER similar to ‘industrial relations’, but ER (or workplace relations) now preferred because IR incorrectly seen to be just about the sensational, collectivist conflictual aspects of employment (ie unions, strikes etc)
•
Business groups and conservative politicians have denigrated IR as old fashioned, adversarial
•
Also ‘industrial’ implies secondary manufacturing industry and unionised, blue collar workers
Why does employment relations matter? •
Important for workers: How much pay? What conditions? What work rules? How much say do employees get in matters of importance to them? How are the rules determined?
•
Affects organisations and their management strategies, performance: legal compliance, ‘employee voice’, productivity effects, conflict
•
Key area of public policy, affecting social equity and national economic performance
•
Critical for governments’ success
Approaches/ perspectives of employment relations: UNITARY, PLURALIST, RADICAL. Ideological perspective • We all have an individual ideological perspective • Like a lens: enables us to see certain phenomena, screen others • Influences what we regard as significant, what is a problem, likely solutions etc • Can be derived from family, work experience, wider beliefs, ideologies • Important to be aware of our own perspective, and those of ER actors and writers -3 ideological perspectives – unitarist – pluralist – radical – some reference to a fourth ‘egoist’ *examine each approach according to their ideological perspective and analytical tools.
Refer to other word doc. Marxism/socialism Problems with capitalism identified by Marx 1. Modern work is alienating 2. Modern work is insecure 3. Workers get paid little while capitalists get rich by exploitation 4. Capitalism is unstable Economic systems generate ideology: capitalist values Marx wanted communism: no private property, steep income tax, centralised control of economy, free public education, human development A fourth perspective: liberalism (egoist) • Liberalism is arguably the ideology of modern, industrialised, Western civilisation (Heywood 2007) • Critical to understanding employment relationship in industrial society • Emerged in 17th Century Europe as a radical ideology of liberation against existing social, economic and political constraints • Early liberalism opposed to: – Hierarchical feudalism where position in life determined by birth. – Legal rights and obligations varying according to class etc – Political tyranny of absolute government – Economies based on regulation
