Industrial Relations

There are 3 perspectives on understanding the nature of workplace rules. They usually are referred to as ‘frames of reference’. The first debate on frames of references was made by Fox (1966), when he described and showed the differences between unitary and pluralist approaches.
Unitary approach is the system based on employers and his employees’ identity of interest. There is only one source of authority and one focus of loyalty. This is the reason that in unitary approach work is based on team work. Everybody within the team should do equally well as another member of the team and because of one leader, there is no rivalry between the members. Everybody accepts their roles and delivers what they are expected to deliver without any conflicts or mischiefs. Conflict is not welcome and is referred to as pathological. The leaders are responsible for creating the loyalty and morale and success need to be maintained through personal relationships. Unitary approach however is seen as old-fashioned way to managing the workforce. Even though it was widely believed that unitary approach had unrealistic ideas, it was still believed by many managers that it should be harmony of interest in the workforce. This view shows how the industry should look like and is best described as professional football team, where managers, trainers and board members are the leaders and footballers are engaged in team work to make team successful. In other words, team shares a close bond like a family and team’s glue is leader’s friendship with the rest of the team. This approach is not accurate and impossible to analyse, because analysis can be done on the matters that are observed and recorded not just thoughts how it should be.
Pluralists approach believes that conflict and differences of opinions do happen and looking at the ways of managing it. Because of their own bases of authority, conflict and rivalry are inevitable. It is stated that plural society contains a lot of related but