Management of Industrial Relations 1 Flashcards
Exam
What is Employment Relations?
The study of formal and informal rules which regulate the employment relationship and the social processes which create and enforce these rules.
It includes Industrial Relations and Human Resources
Why study employment relations?
- Work is a fundamental feature of life
- It provides a focus on ensuring equity and welfare to employees and balancing (where possible) economic efficiencies of entities.
What is the difference between ER, IR, and HR?
ER and IR are the same - IR has some negative connotations however.
HR relates to organisational leadership and policies in place to psychologically fulfilling the needs of employees.
What are the 4 theoretical approaches to employment relationships?
- Neoclassical
- Human Resource Management
- Marxism
- Employment relations
What is the Neoclassical theoretical approach?
- Interested in market transactions and neglects what happens in a firm
- Employees are free to negotiate their own contract with employers
- Assumes employers and employees are equal in terms of economic power, legal expertise, and protection
- It is termed the ‘egoist’ theory of ER
What is the HRM theoretical approach?
- Interested in psychological and organisational behaviour combined with an emphasis on ‘strategic fit’ between HR and business
- Dual focus of ‘unitarist’ theory of ER
- Conservative and pro-management
What is the Marxism theoretical approach?
- Focuses on class struggle and control
- Two features of ER under capitalism:
1. Machinery, tools etc are owned by one class
2. labour power must be purchased - Radical and anti-management
What is ‘theory’?
- ‘an attempt to account for a given phenomenon, that is, to show what, how and/or why is is’
- helps understand the world of employment relations
What are Lewins five levels of explanation?
- Description
- Taxonomy
- Model (a representation of relationships between events or phenomena to provide a clearer picture of the world)
- Law (a statement of ta relationship between two or more variables that inevitably produce the same outcome)
5 Causal theory
What is description?
- an account of an event or phenomenon from a particular standpoint
- can be very subjective depending on persons standpoint
What is taxonomy?
- a classification scheme that groups together events or phenomena on the basis of similar characteristics
- e.g. rules: informal and formal
What is causal explanation?
- a complete answer as to the ‘why’ question
- a complete causal explanation is rarely reached
What is a rule?
A principle or condition governing conduct and action
What are 3 types of ‘rule makers’
- Unilateral rule-making (created and enforced by a single person)
- Bilateral rule-making (created and enforced by two parties)
- Multilateral rule-making (created and enforced by three or more parties)
What is Dunlop’s ER model?
3 actors
- the State
- the Employees
- The Employers
What are the three sets of values in Fox’s taxonomy?
- unitarism
- pluralism
- radicalism
What is Unitarism?
The employment relationship is essentially harmonious with employers and employees sharing common interests and goals
What is Pluralism?
The employment relationship has the ever present potential for conflict because employers and employees sometimes have different interests, but can be accommodated by an appropriate network of procedural and substantive rules
What is Radicalism?
The employment relationship is subject to enduring conflict in which the employer control over the employees is illegitimate and can only end with major social change.
What is monopoly face?
uniting individual employees into groups that seek to raise wages and improve other conditions about rates expected in the pure market
What is Collective voice?
Assist in communicating to employers the concerns of employees.
What are the three main aspects of union structure?
- the shape of individual unions
- internal governance structures within these individual unions
- the external affiliations and alliances that they enter on a geographic or industry basis
What are some of the reasons for union decline?
- changing public perceptions
- changing composition of workplace
- role of management
- government policies
- union policies and structure
What are some non-union forms of employment representations?
- consultative: direct and indirect
- decision-making: direct and indirect
What are 3 types of non-union representation structures?
- occupational health and safety committees
- non-union collective agreement making
- individual contracting
What are 4 forms of management control strategies?
- personalised control
- technical control
- bureaucratic control
- commitment-based control
What are Porter’s 3 types of business strategies?
- innovation strategy
- quality-enhancement strategy
- cost-reduction strategy
What are 6 management styles?
Unitarist/non-collective styles (don't include unions): 1. sophisticated human relations 2. paternalist 3. traditional Collectivist styles (recognises trade unions): 4. bargained constitutional 5. modern paternalist 6. sophisticated consultative
What is the role of employer associations?
- promote the trade interests of their members
- determining the conditions on which members will employ labour
What is the ‘State’?
A variety of institutions that regulate employment relations in most liberal democratic countries.
What are Clause Offe’s 2 functions of the State?
- ensure the continued ‘accumulation’ of profit
2. ensure the overall ‘ legitimacy’ of the system
What are the 3 components of the State?
- Legislature
- Executive
- Judiciary
What is the legislature?
The law-making body consisting of representatives elected by the people at elections (the House of Representatives and the Senate)
What is the Executive?
The elected government officials and the public bureaucracy that advises, administers and implements policy (e.g PM at Federal level, the premier and cabinet at State level)
What is the Judiciary?
The court system, its judges and supporting infrastructure.
Why can an employment relationship be ended?
- individual decisions
- economic circumstances
- technological change
What is socialism?
a political and economic theory of social organisation which advocates that the means of production, distribution and exchange should be owned or regulated by the community as a whole.
