Employment Relation Revision

Review Questions Topic 2: The Nature of the Employment Relationship 1. Why is the employment relationship interdependent? In order to tap the creative and productive powers of workers, employers cannot treat them as any other market commodity. Employees can always bargain with their compliance, commitment and effort. Hence, to some extent, employers must seek a cooperative relationship with their workers in order to gain their consent to managerial directives. Employees, on the other hand, are also faced with the pressure of contradictions. Although resisting subordination and exploitation, workers also have an interest in the continuing viability of the organization that employs them and in their individual position within the organization. Herein lies the interdependent nature of the employment relationship. Whereas the employers hold the balance of power by virtue of their ownership of capital, ultimately it is the employees who perform the work tasks. As a result, the employment relationship cannot be viewed as a simple dialectic of (management) control and (worker) resistance. Rather, it involves a ‘fractured interplay of control, consensus and bargaining’. 2. What is managerial prerogative and how far should it extend? The term managerial prerogative refers to the right of managers or business owners to make unilateral decisions about all aspects of their business without interference from government, workers or unions. It should extend with legal prohibition on bargaining over issues such as hiring, promotion, job allocation, firing, demotion, introduction of new technology, occupational health and safety and management communication and consultation with employees. 3. What is the difference between overt and covert forms of industrial conflict? Give some examples of each. Overt (open) manifestations tend to be collective and organized and hence observable to all. Convert (concealed) forms are more likely to be individual and unorganized and are therefore