Deck 3: The Study of Employment Relations: Values

Question 1

Describe the main features of pluralism.

Answer 1

An enterprise contains people with a variety of interests and power is diffused among the main bargaining groups
The employment relationship is open-ended and indeterminate, creating the potential for conflict
The state is an impartial guardian of the public interest; it protects the weak and restrains the strong
The aim of management should be to reconcile conflicting opinions and ensure the conflict is contained enough to protect the enterprise
Unions are legitimate representatives of employees, with the right to challenge management but the duty to seek workable compromises
Conflict is inevitable and is the legitimate result of competing interests present in the workplace.

Question 2

List three ways pluralism has changed since the 1970s.

Answer 2

Few modern pluralists assert an equal balance of power between employers and employees.
Changing economic circumstances and instability of many employment relations institutions over the last two decades have amply demonstrated the weakness of any theoretical approach that assumes stability and equilibrium.
Some contemporary pluralists have accommodated many of the radical critiques while retaining a largely pluralist perspective, while others have taken a quite different 'neo-pluralist' position.

Question 3

Pluralists see industrial conflict as:

A) a fundamental and inherent conflict of interest between workers and employers, derived from the unequal distribution of income and wealth.
B) an understandable and reasonable outcome of the structural conflicts of interest inherent in the employment relationship.
C) something which should be avoided at all cost as it reduces productivity.
D) not inherent in the workplace, but the result of faulty communication between managers and employees.

Answer 3

B

Question 4

Why is employment relations not generally acknowledged as a separate field of study by those subscribing to a radical view?

Question 5

According to the radical perspective, the role of the state is:

A) to protect the interests of employers, who own the means of production.
B) to protect the weak and restrain the power of the strong.
C) to restrain the power of trade unions.
D) irrelevant in the conduct of the employment relationship.

Question 6

'Unitarism is an unsatisfactory approach to the study of employment relations because of its failure to recognise the inherent potential for conflict in the workplace'. Discuss with comparison to either pluralism or radicalism.

Question 7

What impacts did the growth of the labour process theory have on the study of employment relations?

Question 8

Identify examples of unitarist values from the history of management thought.

Question 9

Fox's taxonomy includes:

A) Unitarism
B) Pluralism
C) Radicalism
D) All of the options given here are correct

Question 10

List three criticisms of the early pluralist theories of employment relations.

Question 11

Why should different ideological positions be considered in employment relations?

Question 12

The general philosophy of unitarism is best encapsulated by which of the following options?

A) Every workplace is united by the desire to increase market share
B) Every workplace contains people with a variety of interests
C) The employment relationship is essentially harmonious, with employees and employers sharing common interests embodied in organisational goals
D) All of the options given here are correct

Question 13

Compare and contrast the views of pluralists and radicals on conflicts of interests between workers and employers.

Question 14

Why are values important in understanding employment relations?

Question 15

What is the difference between a pluralist view of conflict in the employment relationship and a unitarist view of conflict?

Question 16

Describe the main features of unitarism.

Question 17

Unitarism is the basis of which approach to employment relations?

A) Labour process
B) Pluralism
C) Both human resource management and labour process
D) Human resource management

Question 18

The influence of pluralist values on the practice of employment relations can be seen in which of the following?

A) Political statements, policies and laws; the language used by employers and their representatives; the actions of both employers and their representatives
B) Political statements, policies and laws; the language used by employers and their representatives and trade unions; the actions of both employers and trade unions at the enterprise level
C) A focus on new and emerging management institutions and on methods of work and highly developed theory
D) None of the options given here is correct

Question 19

Describe the main features of radicalism.

Question 20

Why have radical writers paid considerable attention to the role of trade unions?

Question 21

While values are important, in what other ways can we explain employment relations?

Question 22

Though employers that espouse pluralist values are rare, they do occur. Provide examples of how employers could demonstrate pluralist values.

Question 23

In Australia and other Anglo-Saxon countries, radical values of the employment relationship are most often held by:

A) employees and the leaders of their representative organisations, trade unions.
B) employers and the leaders of their representative organisations.
C) government and the legislators who draw up legislation relative to the interaction of employees with unions and employers.
D) the Fair Work Commission, Australia's national workplace relations tribunal that enforces the legislation.