Module 1 - introduction to ER Flashcards
What is employment relations?
The employment relationship may be defined as the relationship between employer and employee over the terms and conditions of employment and work which, when settled, become both a binding agreement in law and an informal understand between people
What is Industrial relations?
Industrial relations is used to indicate those areas of the employment relationship in which mangers deal with the representatives of employees rather than managing employees directly as individuals.
Industrial Relations involve;
o Negotiating new agreements
o Negotiating to resolve industrial disputes and grievances
o Interpreting and applying awards and agreements
o Conducting research
o Preparing proposals for meetings
o Preparing and resenting cases before industrial tribunals
o Training people in necessary industrial relations skills and knowledge.
What is Human Resource Management (HRM)?
Human resource management focuses on more individual approaches rather than collective approaches. HRM involves job design, staffing, compensation, training, performance management, hiring, firing.
What are the general characteristics of the employment relationship?
Legal Contract: a worker entering a contract of employment offers a promise to work in the future. They sell their work like a commodity or item for sale. Marx calls this labour power.
Economic Exchange: Wage effort bargain refers to the amount of effort an employee puts into work for the wage received. Conflict might occur when managers try to maximize the employees’ efforts while keeping the wage costs down.
Employment as a power relationship Once someone becomes an employee, they are then subjected to the issues of who makes the important decisions in the organization and who is affected by those decisions.
External influences on the employment relationship: trade unions, regulation by government and employer associations.
What are the employer responsibilities?
o To pay the wages or salaries agreed
o To provide a safe working environment
o To reimburse any expenses incurred in doing the work
What are the employee responsibilities?
o To obey reasonable, lawful and safe instructions
o To work in a competent manner
o To take reasonable care
o To hand over inventions to the employer
o To not harm the employer’s business interests
What are the theories of ER?
Unitarism
Pluralism
radicalism
Explain the unitarism approach
According to the unitarist approach, unions are unnecessary because of the common interests of employer and workers. From a unitarist perspective, they view workplaces as integrated, harmonious places where workers come together with managers for a common purpose. In other words, it’s a unity, a united place. Under this perspective, there should be no need for unions.
In this approach, employees only need managers because employees need a strong leadership and will follow them and are commited to them therefore a union is not required to fight for their rights (works in theory but what happens when the managers are doing what is best for the company ie profit making and not the workers?
Explain the pluralism approach
‘Plural’ … many groups approach.
As opposed to a unitarist perspective, a pluralist accepts that there will be conflict. In this regard it recognises that within any firm there will be a variety of groups with diverse interests and goals.
In this perspective, conflict is acknowledged by all parties and so rules need to be established to aid the resolution of conflicts. Because of these rules, they need to be interpreted and we know the players in the game won’t play fair and so a 3 party needs to be brought in e.g. FWC.
Explain the radicalism approach
People with this approach take the radical view that rules, managerial rules and laws are biased in favour of wealth and so labour can never win.
