Ideological, Theoretical Perspectives Flashcards
What is the pluralist perspective?
It views the organisation as a coalition of groups and individuals with diverse objectives, values, and interests. Competing groups might form a coalition to work together for a shared purpose.
The different groups in the organisation are competitive in terms of leadership, authority and loyalty.
It focuses on conflict because of the differing roles of managerial employees and worker groups.
Management is responsible for the efficiency, productivity and profitability of the organisation. The concerns of the individual worker include personal aspects such as higher pay, better working conditions, job security, and more meaningful work.
Competitive conflict between management and labour is seen as rational and inevitable due to different goals.
If groups have equal power, some form of compromise will be reached between them.
Willingness to compromise is in turn dependent on the existence of common interest.
The pluralist approach legitimises the use of power by one party as a means of exerting pressure on the other party (each party may use its power to negotiate and influence outcomes, employers may use managerial authority, while employees may use collective bargaining or strikes). Power is applied in a regulated and constructive way.
It encourages the formation of Trade Unions and employers’ organisations.
The pluralist perspective concentrates on how to regulate and institutionalise conflict to contain and control its impact on the parties and their relationships.
What is the unitarist perspective?
It views the organisation as an integrated group of people having a unified authority structure (all employees follow the same set of rules, and management holds clear authority over the organization) with common values, interests, and objectives.
It promotes the idea that the organisation is a cohesive whole in which all should work together for the common good.
It focuses on co-operation.
No real conflict of interests exists between employers and their employees. Conflict is explained as a product of bad communication, lack of understanding or the actions of agitators (e.g., trade unions). Employees are expected to be loyal to management.
No power play exists between the parties.
Trade unions and employers’ organisations are unnecessary. From a unitarist point of view, trade unions are often viewed as troublemakers who cause unnecessary conflict between employers and their employees.
What is the radical perspective?
This approach is also known as the Marxist or class (group) conflict perspective. It views workers as being oppressed for the sake of capitalist interests.
The cause of class conflict originates from the inequality in the distribution of, and access to, economic power (mainly between those who own capital and those who supply their labour).
The nature of society’s social and political institutions stems from this inequality and reinforces the position of the dominant establishment group (e.g., unequal access to education, the media and employment in government).
The organisation reflects the wider society (i.e., it appears to consist of a number of competing groups, but the production is privately owned, and profit is the key influence on the company policy).
Industrial conflict is endemic (widespread). All conflict is believed to stem from the division in society (between owners and labourers or ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’).
Trade unions are part of the class struggle. They are therefore required to bring about fundamental changes in the nature of the economic, political, and social systems. They enhance the industrial power of the working class and focus its political activities.
What is societal corporatism?
It is an extension of pluralism and is also referred to as tripartite co-ordination or co-operation.
The two primary parties or role players (business and labour) are no longer viewed as interacting on a purely competitive basis. Interdependence between all three parties is acknowledged.
Conflict and common ground are blended, and a mutually gainful long-term view is favoured over above short term, win-lose modes of interaction.
What is state corporatism?
This is where the state imposes its will on the labour movement.
It emphasises shifts from tripartite coordination and cooperation to a situation where the state moves into a paternalistic or authoritarian mode to demobilise and co-opt organised labour into government structures.
This perspective is closer to unitarist than to pluralist because conflict between
business and labour is viewed as undesirable, and in a certain
sense the legitimacy of the role of trade unions is abandoned.
