What Is The Theory Of Pluralism?

Task 1 1. 1 The first differences between unitary, pluralistic and radical frame of reference is their view about conflict arises between employees and employers. Unitary theory rejects the basic antagonism between both because this theory insists all the parties might work together for common goal and shared purpose, so there is no conflict on self-interest. However, pluralistic theory mention conflict is the natural and inevitable issue between employees and employers due to the inherent competing interest.

In the view of pluralistic theory, the presence of conflict is because the imbalance and division between interest of capital and labour. Secondly, the power of authority also attaches importance by these theories. For unitary theory, the management team is the only party who hold the authority where the employees do not have any right in decision making and make a statement. In contrast, pluralistic theory says that the power apportions equally between all the interested parties. Radical theory persists the management is the one who holds the higher power because it is the head of decision making.

Besides that, the perspectives about trade union between the theories are different too. Trade union is view as intruders in unitary theory because it will complicate the running of management. Pluralistic theory encourages the form of trade union as it believes trade union is the legitimate right of workers to get their benefits and incentives. Radical theory allows the form of trade union but the function of it has been restricted as expressing and mobilizing the conscious only. The trade union exists when the employees response to the capitalism of the organization.

(Bla Bla, 2017) The feature of unitary theory might bring too much priority to the management and the employees only can receipt what their company offer to them. This theory also treats the conflict negatively. The impact of this theory to employee relations in organisations is it will be difficult for the management to generate a policy which balances the welfare, interest, and goal of both employers and employees. Other than unitary theory, pluralistic theory will cause lack of efficiency in collective bargaining process because this theory is pay more attention to the employees.

The government will play a subsidiary role rather than a dominant role during the negotiation between employers and employees. Last but not least, the impact of radical theory should be the management is the dominant party in the relationship due to the capitalism. The employees are the weaker party because they exchange their effort for the reward.

1. 2 The development of trade unions in Singapore can be vary from time to time. The most significant trade unions in Singapore around 1970s is NTUC which establishes for bargaining the welfare of its members.

Omnibus unions and house unions also rapidly develop around 1980s. After the 1982 Amendment to the Trade Union Act, the role of trade unions has been defined as an association of worker which promotes good industrial relations between workers and employers, develop the working condition and raise productivity for the benefit of workmen, employers and the economy of Singapore. (MOM, 2017) This role remains until today. Relevant legislations and acts have been enacted and amended along the time to fit with the current environment and economic situation.

In addition, the labour movement of Singapore is inseparable with People’s Action Party (PAP). Hence, the nature of industrial relations in Singapore nowadays is intimate with trade unions because they are the one who negotiates with democratic socialist PAP and communicates with the party which is hard to deal with. Trade unionism has faced three main issues. The millennials in Singapore prefer to be a freelancer through finding freelance work on online apps and platforms. The aspirations of employees in Singapore also raise to a higher demand according to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.

The new business models such as online courses and virtual currency which running through internet is hard for trade unions to contact and protect the relevant parties. The impacts of these issues on the employee relations are shorter employment periods and more frequent job changes. This may lead to the employees face a problem in finding a new job with better benefits. Besides that, the employees are more likely to join associations which offer networking and learning opportunities. Hence, the employees might suffer a loss when the employers use trick to decrease their welfares and benefits.

1.3 The main players in employee relations is employees, employers and government. For employees, their main role is to secure better employment policy and get a better status for themselves. The employers are responsible for creating and sustaining employee motivation. Other than that, employers must ensure the commitment from employees to achieve higher levels of efficiency. There is not at all, the government should develop various laws and regulations which must follow strictly in the workplace. The relevant matters included child labour laws, minimum wage act and the amendments in the health and safety act.

There are many issue which will bring different impacts to the employee relations. They are political, economic, social and technology. From the view of political element, there are a lot of regulations and acts which protect the employees from the exploitation of employers such as Employment Act (Cap 91), Employment Claims Act and Employment (Part-time Employees) Regulations 1996. Trade Disputes Act (Cap 331) and Trade Unions Act (Cap 333) also have been enacted to guide the right of employers from the over oppression of employees.

Hence, the following political elements have help to balance the relationships and powers between employee relations. For economic element, the stage of business cycle in the country will bring a great impact to the employee relations. If the country is in a recession, the high unemployment rate will make the status of employees worst and vice versa. The population’s education and lifestyle choices which are one of the social elements also have affected the employee relations. Most of the Singapore citizens receive higher education and yearn for high quality lifestyle.

Hence, the employer would face a difficulty in decided the hire and salary of high capacity employees. Lastly, the use of technology nowadays has caused the employers looking for high functional and knowledgeable talents whom can operate and deal well with computer and relevant applications. Task 2 2. 1 There are four types of conflict. First from all is intrapersonal conflict. This is a conflict arises when a person has trouble selecting from among goals. Second conflict is interpersonal conflict which are a conflict between individuals.

For instance, supervisors may face this conflict when they deal with their manager, employee, or customer. The third conflict is structural conflict which arises from the company structure such as conflict arises between line and staff personnel, and production and marketing departments. The last conflict is strategic conflict. Most of the conflicts stated until now is arising unintentionally when people and groups try to work together. However, sometimes management or an individual intentionally will bring about conflict to achieve an objective.

The first step an organisation should take to solve the conflict situation is understanding the situation leading to the conflict because there are different conditions that lead to the rise of conflicts. After that, the management should know the effect of the conflict where it might be either positive or negative to the organisation. There are different stages of conflict process. The management need to identify its stage after weigh the effect of the conflict. After understanding all these, the management can start to deal with the conflict.

One can assess the different ways of dealing with the conflict and choose the best way according to the situation. 2. 2 The first appropriate examples which can use to explain the key feature of employees’ relation is the relationship between female and male employees. The conflicting condition may arise when the male employees are raising their voice against female employees. They might complain continuously about the ineffective allocation of activities. This may cause the negative relationship being created between female and male employees working in organisation.

Both the employees will not prefer to carry out their activities within given period and overall productivity will be decreased. Furthermore, it can have direct impact on customers of company as they cannot be served in an efficient manner. Another condition would be dissatisfied with the organisation. Employees might show their dissatisfaction against organisation if management will not take appropriate steps in relation with analysed conflicting condition like ineffective allocation of work. This situation will have negative relationship between both employers and employees.

However, undertaking suitable action with this regard will improve the relationship between employees and organisation. For solving the problem, arbitrator plays a significant role and right resolution can be found easily by keeping in view requirement of both the parties.

2. 3 The effectiveness of the procedure which adopted by the organisation is measured in collective disputes type of conflicting situation. Employees and manager should have a discussion within the organisation. The male employees express their opinions in where and why they feel the allocation of work is not effective to the managers.

The managers can response by telling the male employees about the reasons behind those decision. This conflict will be solved when the male employees is agreed to the reasons given by managers. If not, this issue will bring to the executive director or HR manager. Seven-working days will give to executive director or HR manager in making their decision. In the example, ineffectiveness of the dispute handling procedure can take place. Collective disputes which generated at the end will present by the employees to the dispute handling team.

The entire committee is comprised with effective people, effective capability and effective solutions. According to this, the procedure take by the organisation in the example situation is proved to be effective.

Task 3 3. 1 The negotiation will help to improve the understanding between the employers and the employees. Collective bargaining provides a platform to the both in expressing their opinions and thoughts. A better and deep insight into the problems and aspiration of both parties can be promptly voice out. This will develops better understanding between both parties.

Besides that, the negotiation promotes industrial democracy. The participant of the negotiation process included both employers and employees and develop an understanding about the problems. Such participation breeds the democratic process in the organisation. There is not at all, it is adjustable to the changing conditions. This is because the dynamic workplace nowadays will cause the changing in employment conditions. This requires changes in organisational processes to match with the changed conditions. The negotiation part in collective bargaining seen to be a better mean to bring changes more companionably.

Lastly, it helps in reaching an effective conclusion. This is because the employees have carried out healthy and formal discussion with top management. It is possible to find an appropriate solution to the problem and it also helps in settlement of disputes that is being faced by organisation.

3. 2 One of the elements that will contribute to successful negotiation outcomes is the objectivity. We need to know what we really want before the negotiation started. We should work out those purposes through vigorous attempt. Besides that, the next element is information.

Any relevant and come in handy information must be prepared at the early stage of negotiation before the negotiation starts to talk about specific deal or alternatives. Thirdly, concession also is a useful element must pay attention to succeed a negotiation. Negotiation is a process of bargaining by which agreement is reached between two or more parties. Agreement will not reach immediately due to the contrast contrastive objective of both parties. Concession might take in this situation where the profitability of the outcome will be decided.

Last but not least, we should decide which strategy we will use in the negotiation. We also can try to see the negotiation from the opponent side and work out which strategy would bring a successful negotiation outcome. There are several negotiation strategies which will bring different impact to the employees relations. Ones is compromising. This means the parties in conflict only will get part of what they want rather than in a whole. Both parties might experience a degree of loss but at the level which they are willing to live with.

Managers does not take part in determining the middle ground with respect to specific issue being faced by the employers present in workplace. For instance, managers who adopts collective bargaining type of strategy when facing the collective dispute type of situation will lead to decline in overall efficiency level. Other than that, the management can use forcing when ignoring or avoiding are useless to the conditions. This means a person or group with power decides what the outcome will be. The main objective is to accomplish the personal goal at the expense of another.

In this type of strategy, manager gives importance to personal goals rather than focusing on organization one. The result will be employees choose to not take part in the major affairs of the firm. The valuable talents also might be difficult to retain by the organisation. Hence, the managers suppose to find a win-win situation for all the parties to prevent such situation happens to the organisation.

Task 4 4. 1 Industrial democracy means the employees will share the responsibilities and authority and making the decision in the workplace. European Union (EU) has influent the industrial democracy in United Kingdom (UK).

One of the influences is the legislations which develop by the EU will encourage the competent employees to participate in decision making part. If the entity refuses to follow the legislations, the entity might face strike or lockout by its employees. Besides that, the partner based relationship is being improved in the industrial democracy of UK due to the influence of EU. The union will work together with the management to achieve the common goal. All the job standard and overall working environment of workplace should be set by the union to protect its member from any type of harm.

This will benefit the organisations which follow its guidelines. Other than that, EU has educated the advantages of involving employees in the decision making process to the management. As a result, positive impact on employees’ performance will be improved such as their contribution to the organization might increase in a significant data. Works councils which included all the representatives from all departments also have been set up to discuss long term objectives of the business and to suggest strategies for improving the prospects of the business.

If the organisations do not want to create the works council, Worker Shareholders and Worker Partners would be an alternative way for the management. Some compensations from share holding such as share options and saving schemes are example of compensations which will be attractive to the employees. These plans have gained a positive result in the UK because the employees will place themselves in other shoes due to they have a stake in the organisations.