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Introduction
An employment relation is an association between two parties where one party provides labor on behalf of another. This relationship should be differentiated from industrial relations, which mainly involve employees having labor unions who use conflicts as a bargaining tool for their rights to be met by the employing organization or person. An employment relationship heavily relies on both values and honesty of the parties. The agreement struck between the two parties is likely to be everchanging. Thus, it is impossible for all factors to be stated conclusively in the contract. Different people and social groups hold diverse ideas and opinions on how the employees and employers should behave in this relationship. The value a party holds greatly influences the relationship which makes it an impotant topic in industrial relations. Using the values held, scholars and philosophers have formed a taxonomy into which values can be studied and understood. It is essential for anyone studying employment or even industrial relations to understand how values influence the study of employment relations. Moreover, grouping the study into unitarism, pluralism, and radicalism can make the study less complicated, although some criticize the classification.
Unitarism
Generally, values are the ideologies, beliefs, concepts, and attitudes held by a particular individual or individuals on a particular topic. Employment relations can be categorized into three broad categories based on values. The first is unitarism, where values are held that both the employer and the employee have a common set of targets, desires, and interests. In unitarism, the relationship is usually harmonious with the management setting up goals that must be met by loyal employees committed to achieving these standards. This category of value has no conflict, and when skirmishes occur, the blame is directed towards poor management, intrusion by unions, or a misunderstanding on the part of employees. Human resource management is based on unitarist values as it aims to prevent workplace conflict.
Having unitarism values influence employment relations in the below-mentioned ways. First, it fosters and encourages teamwork in the workplace because both parties have common goals. The harmony created in this kind of work environment motivates both parties, thus contributing to the greater good of the organization. The organization’s goals are everyone’s; thefore in this case, unnecessary politics is substituted by professionalism and diplomacy. However, having a unitarist perspective in the workplace could further bring undesired outcomes. Since employees in this frame hold that they should always be loyal to the employing organization, they may end up being misused and living unproductive lives outside the workplace. Constant mistreatment by the management could also result in uncontrollable future conflicts.
Some examples of influences of unitarist values include the management giving incentives to employees who cooperate with the organization’s values. The neo-human perspective of work tries to Taylor jobs in such a way that when employees achieve companies’ goals, they also achieve their ambitions. Human relations theory focuses on people working in groups where the group’s goal is meeting the organization’s goals. The human resources management theory is the most post popular example of this theory in practice. The department is a special branch set to ensure the organization’s goals are streamed with those of employees.
Pluralism
Among the three categories based on values, pluralism is the most popular if media attention and public policy are used as a gauge. People who hold the pluralism values believe that each party should pursue its interests and ambitions while at the same time legitimizing those that the other party holds. In this relationship, the role of other parties, such as unions and governments, is accepted because they are viewed as potential mitigators of conflicts. This ideology prescribes constant research on potential causes of conflicts and how to solve them because conflict is viewed as unavoidable.
Pluralistic scholars and philosophers believe that the interests between the employer and employee can not be the same. However, this school of thought emphasizes that those differences can be resolved using various parties such as the management, employees, unions, and the state. The influence of pluralistic values demonstrates itself in pollical retort and public policy. Trade unions are essential when classifying and studying pluralistic values as they play the biggest role in preventing conflict and fighting for the rights of the employees. At the state level, governmental level pluralistic policies are demonstrated through labor organizations elected to serve that role.
Radicalism
The last set of values held on employment relationships is that of radicalism. When the theoretical framework of radicalism is looked at deeply, managers in an organization can be noticed not to hold that set of values. As the name suggests, the radicals believe that employees and employers have conflicts of interest that cannot be resolved without changing the current social structures. The general philosophy in radicalism is that the factors of production are held by a few individuals who end up manipulating the rest of the population through employment. It is thus the role of the employees, unions, and the state to ensure that they continuously ensure this divide is reduced.
The study of radicalism relations is closely interrelated with that of pluralistic relationships in employment. The difference comes from the fact that radicalism doesn’t believe job regulations help solve the conflict between the parties. Trade unions based on this set of values are expected to fight for changes in social and economic structures. From a managerial perspective, the organization should not only acquire labor as cheap as possible but also try to derive as much utility as possible from that payment. On the flip side, employees need to ensure they put in the least possible effort in the workplace while deriving the most pay based on their input. This study of labor processes is a Marxist belief and has recently been popularized by Braverman and Friedman.
Conclusion
Employment relations are easier to understand and criticize when a taxonomy is used for the study. Employment relations is a wide topic, and even though values help people understand the theory, the scope of the topic has more concerns than just values. Values influence the study of employment relations in that the ideological perspective held by a person or a group can help them be categorized into a group with distinct characteristics. The group labeled as unitarism values harmony more than the maximization of selfish needs by focusing on achievement for the greater good of all parties. The group classified as pluralistic, on the other hand, will value the achievement of personal goals while realizing others have interests too. Finally, the radicalistic believe that conflict of interest must be there and employees should fight to change how society operates if they want their needs met.
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