Book Item 74382

EMPLOYMENT
RELATIONS
00_Bingham_Prelims.indd 1 2/24/2016 10:41:34 AM

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EMPLOYMENT
RELATIONS
Fairness
& Tr u s t
in the
Wo r k p l a ce
Cecilie
Bingham

SAGE Publications Ltd  Cecilie Bingham 2016
1 Oliver’s Yard
55 City Road First published 2016
London EC1Y 1SP
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2 EMPLOYEE RELATIONS: SETTING
THE SCENE
Learning Outcomes
By the end of this chapter you should be able to:
●● provide an overview of the employment relationship

●● be critically analytical about the concepts of unitarism and pluralism
●● be aware of changes that have contributed to the rise in individualism and decline
in collectivism
●● be cognisant of the implications of HRM for the employment relationship
●● identify the sources of power and critically assess the impact of power realities
in the employment relationship
●● evaluate the links between power and differing managerial styles.
EMPLOYEE RELATIONS – WHAT IS IT?

The study of employee relations is the study of interactions, behaviours and outcomes
based in and around the workplace. It involves those in work, those who employ them,
and those who have an impact on their workplace relationships such as legislators and
politicians: it is concerned with studying the regulation of the determinants and out-
comes of the employment relationship, and sometimes with the breakdown of such
regulation. Because workplaces do not exist alone, the economies in which they are
based, together with the cultures, philosophies, styles and norms of those working
within them, and the desires, wishes and expectations of those reliant on them, all have
a bearing on what goes on in the workplace, as indeed does the type of work, the tech-
nology used and the levels of competition.
But the relationship between employees (i.e. those who are paid in exchange for
work) and employers (i.e. those who pay others in exchange for their labour) is not
always straightforward because each has a different set of needs and requirements.
Furthermore, not everyone in an organisation is a direct employee: some may be unpaid
volunteers or interns, while yet others may be self-employed or working for contractors
or sub-contractors. How they work, why they work and their attitudes to one another
are crucial. For example, if someone is treated well they are more likely to perform well
and stay with an organisation than if they perceive their treatment to be unjust or unfair
in some way. As Brewley and Forth say:
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20 Employment Relations
If the balance of power is in favour of the employee, there is a lower likelihood that
they will be subject to adverse treatment, since the costs to the employer of treating
employees in a way which reduces their productivity or causes them to seek alter-
native employment is greater. Conversely, where the balance of power favours the
employer, there may be less incentive for them to protect their employees against
adverse treatment. (2010: ix)
The inherent imbalance of power is such that employees often find it necessary to act
collectively, sometimes using external parties to represent their views; such parties may
be trade unions, religious groups, pressure groups and so on, and in turn the employers
may also use the agency of others, such as Employers’ Associations, to represent them.
It is evident from this brief description that the nature of the employment rela-
tionship is complex, involving different influences and ideologies. Furthermore the
relationship, which can be both formal and informal, is changeable, often exploitative,
and at times contradictory with the potential for cooperation and conflict ever present.
In essence then, this is what the study of employee relations encompasses; it seeks to
make sense of the formal and informal relationships found at work. It concerns the
ways in which people interact both with one another and with the jobs they under-
take; specifically, it concerns individuals who voluntarily subordinate themselves to the
demands of the organisation by exchanging their time, effort and possibly experience
and knowledge, for monetary and non-monetary rewards within a regulated environ-
ment (Bingham, 2007: 214).
The Participants
Each employment relationship establishes a set of reciprocal rights and obligations
between the primary parties, that is, an employee and an employer, within the rela-
tionship. This relationship is ‘the main vehicle through which workers gain access to
the rights and benefits associated with employment in the areas of labour law and
social security. It is the key point of reference for determining the nature and extent of
employers’ rights and obligations towards their workers’ (ILO, 2006: 3). Such rights are
underpinned by an informal infrastructure of cultural and ethical values linked to fair-
ness and the subsequent trust, or lack of it, between parties (Hyman and Brough, 1975:
229–53; Fox, 1974, 1985). Individual employees have a specific relationship with others
in the workplace and with the work itself. This relationship is not static; it has a past and
a future both of which affect how the relationship develops – the longer an employee is
with an organisation the more they become socialised to the norms and culture of that
organisation, and this affects their perceptions of their treatment and their subsequent
workplace behaviours.
The primary parties are not the only participants to have influence on the relation-
ship, others too are involved; these are secondary parties, namely union representatives
and management. These individuals can be primary parties in their own right but
they have an additional role to respectively represent the views of the workforce, or
of the employers.

Employee Relations: Setting the Scene 21
A further feature of the employment relationship is

the influence of third parties; these are often ‘agents of NEWS FLASH 2.1
the State’ and will include the legislature, law enforc-
Civil Service Union (PCS)
ers and the courts. Other external third parties that
strike
may become involved in the relationship may do so
in a lobbying capacity (e.g. Stonewall or the RNIB), Following a ballot in favour of strike
while yet others such as Acas and the Citizens Advice action members of the Civil Service
Union (PCS) are striking on 13
Bureaux may act as advisors, mediators, conciliators or August. The strike is designed to
arbiters. pressurise management to change
working conditions in job centres so
that union members might do their
Union Representatives jobs more efficiently.
One of the ways in which employees have tradition- The talks with management have
ally ensured that their employers have both listened been going on for over a year but
to and responded to their concerns has been to have yielded nothing.
combine together in groups and to allow representa- PCS is demanding:
tives to speak for them. The beauty of this system
was that it gave individual employees both power ●● Urgent recruitment of new staff to
and, on occasions, anonymity. The very process of ease the pressure on staff ena-
bling proper customer service.
belonging to a group that could speak up for every-
●● An integration of work processes
one increased the range of influence that individuals to improve customer service and
could wield over their working conditions and wages, provide the variety of work and
and yet it ensured anonymity if it were desired. This skills for members.
is the philosophy behind trade unions. The Webbs ●● Greater access to flexi-time, par-
(Sidney and Beatrice, who chronicled union activity ticularly at the end of the day.
●● An end to the privatisation work
at the beginning of the twentieth century) described and no outsourcing of online work.
trade unions as ‘a continuous association of wage- ●● A fundamental change to the
earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving management culture replacing
the conditions of their working lives’ (1920: 1). the current oppressive manage-
In theory, employee representatives are a means ment approach with one that
supports, values and respects
of combating imbalances of power and unfairness
its staff.
at work; concerns can be raised, wages bargained
over, conditions debated and overtime haggled about Source: PCS, 2012
without, importantly, the process becoming too
overtly personal. The very act of combining together
and negotiating for changes in their working lives improved the chances that individual
employees had of bettering their conditions – this act of combining increased their
power base and ipso facto their voice influence and impact in the workplace.
From the point of view of the employer, dealing with representatives is often speed-
ier than dealing with strings of individuals and, indeed, obtaining union agreement
for changes often legitimises those managerial actions required to make the changes
as well as the changes themselves. The downside is, of course, the ever present and
implicit threat of conflict that might escalate into industrial action – such as an over-
time ban or a strike. (Such action, however, tends to be a last resort – you don’t get

paid for striking. Sometimes of course the threat of strike action is as important as
striking itself and may be used to influence negotiations.)
Case Snippet 2.1 Strike called off at

Docklands Light Railway
KeolisAmey Docklands operates and maintains the Docklands Light Railway (DLR) in
London. It negotiates and employs a number of transport workers represented by the
RMT union.
On 27 January 2015 the RMT union, whose members had been balloted about taking strike
action and were expected to strike on the 28th of the month (concerning a dispute about
a number of issues, including the outsourcing of DLR employees, without their consent, to
M. J. Quinn Integrated Services), issued a statement to its members announcing that all
strike action for the following day was called off because the dispute had been resolved
following talks with the management of KeolisAmey Docklands. The announcement to
members said: ‘This success is a testimony to all DLR members, as your magnificent ballot
result and the subsequent threat of strike action gave your RMT negotiating team a strong
starting position in these talks, leading to the resolution of this dispute. This victory is a
great example of what a strong, unified RMT membership can achieve.’
Sources: RMT, 2015; BBC, 2015
Most union behaviour is reactive rather than proactive responding to the environment
in which their members find themselves. Unions simultaneously behave, and are per-
ceived to behave, as if they are in a state of constant opposition and yet, perhaps even
because of this, much of their time and energy is actually spent in coming to mutually
agreed arrangements with employers. In other words they are involved with making
agreements with employers while occupying a position of adversity with them.
The number of people in unions is dependant not just on whether they want a ‘voice’
within the workplace but upon a range of factors, such as the type of industry they are
working in, the political climate of the day, whether or not a union is regularly talked to
by their employer, and also the sex, age and education of the employee.
Union membership patterns fluctuate; this can be seen if we look at what has hap-
pened in the UK since the Second World War. In the 20 years between 1948 and 1968
the membership of unions grew at a slower rate than the workforce itself. Then in the
10 years between 1969 and 1979 there was a surge in membership, particularly among
women, non-manual, service and public sector employees. However, in the years when
Mrs Thatcher was Prime Minister the numbers fell: sectors where unionisation was
traditionally high, such as shipbuilding and mining, decreased in size, unemployment
was high, legislation was restrictive and, as the unions were perceived to be losing power,
fewer people wanted to join their ranks.
Unions don’t only act at a local level, they also operate at national and international
levels, they lobby governments in order to advocate for changes in legislation and working
conditions and, depending on the country in which they are operating, may take part in
policy formulation – as with the ‘Accords’ in Australia.

Management
Within the context of the employee relationship ‘management’ refers to the activities of
managers acting as agents for the employer, but ‘management’ can also be used as a gen-
eral term describing the body of people undertaking these activities. Pool (1980) says
that management activity is the result of interaction between a number of constraints
such as economic conditions, government policy and legislation, and of choices such as
the ways in which activity is undertaken, promoted and communicated. Choices of
course may be based on the interests of the organisation, or the interests of individual
managers or on ethical/moral values. These three are not mutually exclusive, although
in certain circumstances they may be. The role of managers has, over the years, become
subject to ‘financialisation’ (Sisson, 2010: 250), resulting in managerial choices that
have resulted in increased pressure to provide short-term results satisfying shareholders
and the market – often with unintended consequences, distorting managerial activi-
ties and leading to inconsistent decision making and lack of trust from the workforce.
Financialisation is not the only recent influence on managerial choices – increased
amounts of legislation affecting employment also constrains, impacts and affects the
ways in which managements operate. Not all organisations choose to operate within
the law; the TUC’s analysis of figures, from the 2014 Labour Force Survey, shows that
on average 6.4 per cent of employees across the UK are losing out on their legal entitle-
ment to paid holidays, partly because of ‘bad employers’ breaking the law (TUC, 2015).
Ethical decision making is complicated, sometimes presenting managers with diffi-
cult dilemmas: do they act in the interest of the organisation or in the interests of those
whom they manage? To a certain extent managers are the squeezed middle: this extract
from Deny illustrates the point very clearly:
There are a number of times when you know as manager that a particular individual
has been identified to be laid off … and every day, and it may go on for several weeks,
you have to come to work and acknowledge the person, deal with them, work with
them, knowing that at a given point in time they are going to be out of a job literally.
And yet, you can’t prepare them, because your job as a manager is to try to get the
pieces done, work with the company, and maintain the morale. It’s a moral difficulty
because I always feel that if I know that a particular individual is going to have some-
thing like that happen, that I should tell him ... however I also understand ... that in
the business we do need his services for three more months.(1989: 858)
McConville too highlights this dilemma for middle managers, explaining how, par-
ticularly now that many personnel functions are undertaken by line managers and not
HR/ER specialists, this group find themselves acting as the buffer zone between organ-
isational demands and employee performance:
Middle line managers are fulfilling a vital purpose – like shock absorbers in any
complex mechanism or the flex in elaborate structures – in balancing tensions and
mediating potential conflict. The added burden of devolved HRM functions both
highlight and exaggerate a problem that was previously dissipated by the presence of
specialist practitioners. (2006: 651)

Employer Associations
NEWS FLASH 2.2 The main functions of an employers’ association is
Apprenticeship levy for UK to support and represent its members. It does this
businesses in a number of ways: first, it offers advice on trade,
professional and employment matters; second, it
The UK government is committed
to supporting 3 million quality acts as a pressure group, lobbying governments
apprenticeships over the next five and making representation on behalf of its mem-
years – to help strengthen the bers; third, it takes part in national negotiations
economy, deliver the skills that setting terms and conditions; and fourth, it may
employers need and give millions advise about (and possibly become involved in)
more people financial security.
industrial disputes. In terms of employee relations,
Employers across the country will those associations concerned purely with trade
today (21.08.2015) be asked for matters are not relevant here. Employers’ associa-
their views on the introduction of
an apprenticeship levy – set to be
tions may be based internationally, nationally or
introduced in 2017 – designed to tied to a local region and membership composi-
increase training investment. tion and participation will, in part, be dictated by
Levy systems operate in over 50
the culture and size of company concerned. In the
countries, including Netherlands US, for example, the culture is such that compa-
and South Korea. nies prefer to operate alone without the benefit
From 1 September 2015, all bids for
of an association. In Europe, with its history of
government contracts worth £10m social partnership, employers’ associations are
or over must demonstrate com- more prevalent (Behrens and Traxler, 2004). The
mitment to apprenticeships. Other Federation of International Employers (FedEE
steps planned include a requirement Global), as its name suggests, operates globally
to take a company’s apprenticeship
with offices in Asia and Europe. Developing
offer into account when awarding
large government contracts and from the Federation of European Employers
publishing new ‘industry standards’ (which was set up with a grant from the EU),
so that apprentices have the skills it claims to be the world’s leading employers’
that companies need. organisation for multinational employers offer-
New industry standards covering ing legal and general HR advice as well as acting
a range of professions including as a lobbying body. Sometimes associations come
nuclear engineers, fashion assis- together under an umbrella body; the European
tants, live event technicians, personal Association of Craft, Small and Medium-
trainers and welders will outline the
skills apprentices in these roles are
sized Enterprises (UEAPME), for example,
expected to have to meet the needs incorporates around 80 member organisations
of employers. from 34 countries, consisting of national cross-
sectorial small and medium-sized enterprise
Source: DBIS, 2015 (SME) federations, and is the employers’ organisa-
tion representing the interests of European crafts,
trades and SMEs at EU level. Nationally there are
a number of associations that operate both on domestic and international fronts;
in the UK, for example, the Chemical Industries Association (CIA) provides legal
advice to members, participates in national negotiations, represents the views of

the industry at national and international levels and, when required, lobbies the
government. Sometimes of course there are employers’ organisations created spe-
cifically to cater for the interests of those in a particular location; for example, the
Lancashire Textile Manufacturers’ Association concentrates on regional matters
but is a member of the UK Fashion and Textiles Association which represents
their interests at national level.
External Influences
The number of people unemployed in any area will have an impact on the ability of
employers to recruit and retain labour. So where there is high unemployment there will
be a large pool of potential employees for an employer to choose from, and conversely,
where there is lower unemployment, employers may find it more difficult to recruit. The
general economy, the political complexion of the government concerned, and the state
of the market in which an organisation is operating will all have an impact on employ-
ment patterns either indirectly or directly; for example, at an international level, article
four of the European Convention on Human Rights prohibits forced labour, aiming to
ensure that workers are not illegally coerced into employment, whereas at national and
local levels education policies influence the attainment of skills, and therefore have an
impact on the suitability of job seekers for employment.
Wars and natural disasters also impact and skew employment; for instance, the foot
and mouth outbreak in Britain in 2001 had a devastating impact on the Turkish sheep-
skin coat industry, resulting in job losses in both Turkey and the UK. The Japanese
tsunami had an impact on the infrastructure of Japan that was felt more widely across
the globe, particularly in terms of car manufacture. (See Todeschini, 2011, for an inter-
esting discussion on the impact of the tsunami on Japanese management.) A more
positive example can be seen in Haiti, when in January 2011, a year after the devastat-
ing earthquake worsened the country’s 70 per cent high unemployment rate (causing
the number of people without work in the capital Port-au-Prince and its outskirts to
quadruple), the South Korean company SAE-A signed a deal to give Haiti $78m of
sewing machine equipment, undertaking to train and employ 20,000 jobless Haitians.
Simultaneously, the American government spent millions of dollars constructing an
industrial park, power plant and housing for 5,000 Haitian workers. Both the disastrous
earthquake and the subsequent foreign help had an impact on employment levels and
impacted the employment relationships.
Employment across the globe has been affected by the recent banking crisis and
recession (2007 onwards). Some countries have fared better than others. Australia with
its well-regulated banks (and as a supplier of raw materials to China) was one of the few
nations to escape recession, and its employees largely remained unaffected. The UK, on
the other hand, with its steady decline in manufacturing, coupled with an increase in
service sector jobs has, post-2007, found it more difficult to maintain a level of growth;
while Germany, with its emphasis on manufacturing, initially fared better, although its
links with other countries within the Euro Zone (particularly Greece, Spain and Italy,
where debts and austerity measures prevailed) resulted in a detrimental impact on its

economy. In order to aid exports and stimulate growth the Chinese government felt
compelled to devalue its currency three times in August 2015, bringing subsequent falls
in the international stock markets. Such global turbulence results in a knock-on effect
on employment levels and workplace behaviours. The global economic environment
therefore has a direct impact on employment (see Table 2.1) and hence on employee
conditions and on workplace relationships.
Table 2.1 Labour market statistics showing employment rates (percentage)
April April April Jan

2009 2010 2011 2012
Men Women All Men Women All Men Women All Men Women All
15–64 15–64 15–64 15–64 15–64 15–64 15–64 15–64 15–64 15–64 15–64 15–64
Norway 78.9 74.6 76.8 77.4 73.5 75.5 76.9 73.3 75.1 77.9 73.6 75.8
Netherlands 82.6 72.3 77.0 80.0 69.2 74.6 79.4 69.8 74.7 80.3 70.2 75.3
New Zealand 79.3 67.3 73.2 78.2 66.7 72.3 78.1 67.3 72.6 78.5 67.5 72.9
Germany 75.2 65.2 70.2 76.0 66.1 71.0 77.2 67.6 72.5 77.4 67.6 72.6
UK 74.7 64.9 69.8 74.5 64.6 69.5 74.6 64.5 69.5 74.6 64.4 69.5
US 72.2 49.0 67.9 71.1 62.5 66.8 71.1 62.0 66.5 72.1 62.1 67.0
France 68.4 60.0 64.1 68.0 59.8 63.8 68.2 59.7 63.9 67.8 59.9 63.8
Japan 80.1 59.6 69.9 79.9 59.8 69.9 80.7 61.0 71.0 80.2 60.4 70.4
Chile 69.7 41.9 55.8 71.9 46.1 58.9 73.8 49.3 61.5 73.8 49.8 61.7
Turkey 63.7 23.7 43.6 66.8 26 46.2 68.9 27.6 48.1 68.8 28.3 48.5
Spain 66.8 52.9 59.9 64.8 52.2 58.6 63.7 52.9 58.3 61.3 51.1 56.2
Greece 73.7 49 61.4 71.2 48.5 59.9 66.7 45.5 56.1 62.6 43.1 52.9
Italy 68.7 46.5 57.6 67.7 46.2 56.9 67.6 46.5 57.0 66.8 47.0 56.9
Mexico 77.6 42.9 59.4 78.5 43.7 60.2 77.8 43.3 59.8 78.1 44.3 60.4
Source: OECD, 2015 http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=STLABOUR# (accessed 04.06.2013)
Exercise 2.1
●● What does Table 2.1 tell you about the levels of employment for men in the
Netherlands compared to the men in Spain?
●● Are women in Mexico as likely as women in Turkey and Germany to be employed?
●● What do you think accounts for these differences?
●● Looking at the employment figures for each separate country, how much bar-
gaining power do you think female employees are able to exert? Why did you
reach your conclusions?
But the economic environment is not the sole influence on the employment relation-
ship, cultural elements too play their part; for example, in some countries it is more
difficult for women to find paid employment than in others. In the UK for instance,

during the early part of the twentieth century women teachers had to give up their
teaching jobs once they married, although this changed during the Second World
War when male teachers were redeployed in the armed services; while as late as 1969
women employed by Cadbury were only eligible for managerial positions if they were
unmarried. Similarly in Chile in the 1990s, an economic boom created what Chilean
feminists called a ‘World War II phenomenon’ whereby mining managers at the large
copper mine, Chuquicamata, were forced due to a shortage of men to hire qualified
women as engineers, mechanics and miners (Vincent, 1993). Indeed societal norms
and values often result in gender segregation within occupations. Within the European
Union (EU) women tend to be underrepresented in the higher-status professions and
in jobs involving risk, while they are overrepresented in the public sector, education and
the caring professions (European Agency for Health and Safety and Work, 2003). In
Vietnam it is not unusual to see women working as general labourers on construction
sites – rare in the UK.
Of course if an employer requires someone with specialist skills, such as an expe-
rienced computer technician, the general pool of unemployed will have little impact
on the pool of people from whom they are recruiting. Different skill sets will, by their
very nature, have their own unemployment/employment rates. Where a vacant post
requires someone with specific, perhaps rare, skills this puts the employing organ-
isation in a weaker position because it will have to offer terms and conditions of
Educational trends
Labour markets
Balance of power
Technological
Legislation developments
Workplace Political climate

relations
Organisational
culture
Economic climate
Social and Fashion – including ethical

demographic trends and moral perceptions
Managerial styles
Figure 2.1 Influences on the nature of workplace relations

employment that are sufficiently good in order to attract applicants. This may have an
impact on wages, and it may therefore also have an impact on the existing employees
within the company who might feel aggrieved if a person new to the organisation
receives better pay, more holiday and improved benefits. A potential employee with
the relevant skills has more bargaining power when applying for a job where few have
his skills. Demand for talent tends, in general, to push wages up and may result, on
occasion, in reduced competitiveness.The various influences on the nature of work-
place relations are depicted in Figure 2.1.
Exercise 2.2
Keith Sisson, in his paper Weathering the Storm: The Maturing of British Industrial
Relations, makes the point that ‘the employment relationship is a multi-level phe-
nomenon’ (2007: 23). Explain what you think he means by this.
CHANGES IN THE UK EMPLOYMENT MARKET

Since 1979 there have been a number of changes within the UK employment market.
There has been a sharp decline in those sectors such as coalmining and shipbuilding
where unionisation was high. Manufacturing has decreased, and the service sector
grown. Large nationalised industries have disappeared and there has been a growth
in SMEs. Within the workplace job demarcation has diminished and team work and
matrix working increased. The rise of technology has changed the ways in which
many organisations operate – some moving to longer operating hours, often with
an associated increase in demand for workplace flexibility, with employees required
to frequently update and utilise new skills. Such changes in the nature of work have
led to decreases in job security and increases in insecurity/redundancy. More people
are working part-time than previously. These changes have had an impact on both
employers and employees, in particular on their expectations and needs within the
workplace. The impact of these changes has resulted in a drop in the number of peo-
ple working in organisations that apply terms and conditions negotiated with trade
unions. In 1973 there were around 13 million trade union members in the UK; this
figure has halved.
During this period there was a corresponding rise in individualism. This is a style of
management that deploys policies based around the belief in the value of the individual
and his or her right to fulfilment, development and advancement at work (Purcell and
Gray, 1986: 213; Purcell, 1987). Here there is an emphasis on enabling and managing
performance whereby the employer communicates directly with the employee, designs
individual contracts and offers financial incentives based on levels of performance and
regular training in order to gain an acceptance of personalised performance targets and
individual flexibility; such individuality, it is claimed, encourages high levels of commit-
ment to the organisation and sustained productivity.

Individuals are assumed to have interests that are in line with those of the organisa-
tion, hence there is no need for them to combine and act together and no requirement
for union representation. This has an obvious appeal to managers (Kessler and Purcell,
1995: 31) and is a move away from the more adversarial system of collectivism, in which
managers communicate with the workforce via union representatives, where pay is set in
terms of the job to be done rather than in terms of the individual actually doing it, and
where committees and groups negotiate and consult on the terms and conditions for
the employees. This approach, defined as ‘the recognition by management of the collec-
tive interests of groups of employees in the decision making process’ (Purcell and Gray,
1986: 213), is useful for employees who find that joining with others increases their
levels of power vis-à-vis the employer, protects the interests of the group and improves
terms and conditions in ways that might not have been possible had they been acting
alone. The German system of works councils falls into this category.
The two systems, collectivism and individualism, are not, however, mutually exclu-
sive; management often categorise certain employees as members of a specific group
and treat them collectively but with individual differences, for example all sales assis-
tants may receive the same basic rates of pay within a retail organisation yet there
may be individual bonus payments, commission and targets for individuals within
that group. Similarly sometimes where employees are subject to individual levels of
pay linked to performance targets the boundaries for their terms and conditions may
have been proscribed following negotiation with representatives. In some organisa-
tions, for example those in the banking sector, unions are recognised for bargaining
purposes for those employees placed at the lower ends of the salary scales but not for
those at the higher ends.
HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (HRM)

Alongside the rise in individualism there has been an increase in HRM. HRM is
not just a substitute name for personnel management but refers to an approach to
managing an organisation (not just the personnel function) that aligns the resources –
human and otherwise – with the business strategy. It is seen as an holistic way of using
an organisation’s resources to cost-effectively respond to changes in the economic and
technical environments. The doctrines of quality management and flexibility are key
to the operational effectiveness deployed by HRM strategists. Because everything is
geared towards effective use of resources, one of the managerial aims is to ensure that
the workforce is not just compliant with organisational demands but also committed
to achieving them; part of this will entail using performance management techniques
to align employee performance with organisational goals coupled with a management
strategy utilising psychological rewards, such as participating in decision making, to
encourage employee motivation, engagement, commitment and loyalty. In terms of
its relationship with employee relations, HRM is often used as an umbrella term
for a set of management practices within the employment relationship, including an
increased emphasis on high commitment and greater employee task discretion. Its

emphasis on deploying the skills of each employee in the most effective way is indi-
vidual rather than collective and unitary rather than pluralist (see below), although
in circumstances where the pervading culture is pluralist, such as in Germany, HRM
techniques are still deployed.
One of the consequences of the adoption of HRM policies is that many traditional
personnel functions have been devolved to line managers, allowing HR managers to
concentrate on the strategic aspects of the business. Francis and Keegan comment that
‘employees are increasingly losing day to day contact with HR specialists and relying on
line managers who have neither the time nor the training to give HR work the priority
it needs’ (2006: 243).
John Storey (1992) defined two different forms of HRM: hard, driven by strategic
objectives where labour is perceived as just another resource to be treated in a deperson-
alised way; and soft, where labour is regarded as a valued asset and a source of innovation
and competitive advantage and individuals within the organisation are nurtured, well
looked after and developed.
Whether the organisation delivers hard or soft HRM, whether or not the line man-
agers are trained in people management and whether the intended delivery of the
strategy is the actual strategy that is implemented, all impact on the parties to the
employment relationship.
There are problems in analysis if the workforce is regarded as if it is an homoge-
nous group: employees within an organisation have different interests, requirements
and perceptions and therefore respond differently to the HRM practices they experi-
ence (Kinnie et al., 2005), so a workplace strategy that assumes one set of policies will
be consistently delivered and received in identical ways that suit everyone is unrealistic.
Wright and Nishii (2004) point out that intended policies are not always congruent
with actual practices and that such practices may be experienced and acted on differ-
ently by employees in the same organisation. Employee commitment – a key pillar of
the HRM way of managing – may not actually be as high as intended if employees do
not perceive their interests to be the same as those put forward by the organisation that
they work for; furthermore there may be inconsistencies within an organisation if indi-
vidualistic targets are advocated simultaneously with those associated with team work.
POWER IMBALANCES
To achieve goals within the workplace, the work itself and the processes for achiev-
ing and coordinating output must be organised; this, of course, results in divisions of
accountability, responsibility and of labour. Such arrangements, of necessity, affect and
impact upon the employment relationship. In order to achieve results an employer will
direct the workforce who, in return for wages, consents to obey direction, thus entering
into a relationship of subordination (Kahn-Freund, 1972).
This inequality is exacerbated by unequal access to resources. The splitting-up of
tasks and responsibility means that some individuals will have more control – and oth-
ers less – either formally or informally, over others: ‘The primary purpose of control is to

coordinate different organisations activities in order to achieve the goals for the whole
organisation’ (Dundon and Rollinson, 2011: 29). The exercise of control affects not just
the economic relationship but also social and ethical aspects of the employment rela-
tionship; this means that ‘the right to manage’ must be exercised in a reasonable manner
(Edwards, 1986: 31–2).
Control over others may be seen in terms of power. Dunlop (1958: 28) thought
that power in the workplace was a reflection of power in the wider society, but this
does not account for differences in individual workplaces within the same societies;
indeed different types of power may be simultaneously wielded in different parts
of the same organisation. For example, in Unilever there are different approaches
to managing the workforce depending on the country and subsidiary in which it is
operating.
Power enables a few individuals to minimise the discretion of many of the workers
by making decisions deemed by the few to be important for their purposes and the benefit
of the organisation. As Fox so memorably put it:
It enables the few, in other words, to manifest distrust of the many by imposing
upon them work roles and work rules which leave little scope for the important
choices – including those determining the whole pattern of rewards, status and
privilege. (1974: 14)
The related concepts of ‘power’ and ‘control’ are

central to the understanding of how the labour pro- NEWS FLASH 2.3
cess is ‘managed’. Yet although the employer has a Abuse of power by senior
degree of power, which he or she may or may not members of staff
choose to exert, employees are not necessarily pow-
‘Just over a quarter (26%) of
erless because the workplace relationship dictates employees believed that a senior
that the employer is dependant upon the services colleague abused their position of
of the employee (Hyman, 1975: 25). The relation- power – and a further 14% believed
ship is therefore symbiotic and interdependent, that they had been deliberately set
despite the fact that, in the main, the employer up to fail a task by a colleague they
did not get on with’, say Canada Life
has more power than the employee. The power of
Group Insurance, after surveying
labour (the employees) is dependent on how much 1,607 nationally representative people
capital (the employer) needs its effort. Such labour employed in the UK in June 2012.
power is unlike any other commodity because it
The survey found that 11% have
is part of a continuous relationship that is, in itself, taken time off work because they
affected by external forces not within its control. As have been treated unfairly by a line
Hyman and Brough (1975: 23) point out, a tight manager, while two-fifths (42%) have
labour market or the possession of scarce skills may witnessed senior members of staff
militate against the power of the employer; the con- abusing their power in the workplace.
(29,172,000 people were employed in
verse, of course, also holds true. The consequences the UK at the time.)
of the imbalances of power have resulted in the for-
mation of groups, such as trade unions, that act as Source: Canada Life, 2012
countervailing forces; governments too have often

intervened, in the form of implementing new legislation, to redress real or perceived

power imbalances in the workplace. Although inequalities of power do result in con-
flict, compromise is more often the outcome because it is not simply a matter of
(management) control versus (worker) resistance, but more a mixture of dissent and
accommodation, conflict and cooperation (Rose, 2008; Blyton and Turnbull, 2004).
Indeed Flanders (1970: 172) pointed out that managements often maintain control
by sharing it, and Oxenbridge and Brown (2004) showed that within the UK union
influence is no longer as reliant on negotiation, with its concomitant and explicit
exercise of power; instead consultation, and a reliance on procedures, are used to
influence the operation of the employment relationship.
Power can be regarded in terms of either the power to do something, or in terms of the
power over someone/something. Both are important within the employment relationship.
The power ‘to do’ may be the result of technical competence/skill, or may involve the
power to facilitate and enable; used appropriately it can engender respect, loyalty and
commitment. The power ‘over’ refers to the ability of a person or group to dictate what
others should or should not be doing and how and when they should be doing it. It relates
to the ability to get someone to do something that they would not otherwise do, perhaps
including doing so against their will (Lukes, 2005). Lukes divides this category into three:
●● power in terms of dominance, for example where an HR manager explicitly tells a line
manager he can or cannot do something, or where a trade union calls a strike in
opposition to management activity
●● the concept of power in terms of decision making, for example setting the parameters for
discussion/negotiation
●● the concept of a more manipulative power, one which controls the ideology or culture
of an organisation, for example, at induction employee expectations are managed
and this is reinforced by regular communications from management, perhaps using
the intranet, newsletters and so on.
The very actions that management take form part of a pervasive ideology, so for
example, if certain behaviours are rewarded, this provides powerful messages about
what is, and is not, acceptable behaviour.
French and Raven (1962), in their classic study, delineated five distinct sources
of power. Two of these sources, expert and referent power, derive from the holder’s
individual characteristics. The other three sources – legitimate, reward and coercive
power – derive from the holder’s position within their organisation.
An individual has expert power when they have specific knowledge and expertise
that others rely upon – where the sharing or withholding of this specialist knowledge
has a direct impact on the organisation. Referent power comes not from expertise
but from the (sometimes inspirational) personality of the holder. Such people are
respected and others want to do their bidding because they want to please them. In
terms of the employment relationship, such people are often able to motivate and
persuade their colleagues to undertake difficult tasks, stay late at work and perform
duties outside their contract merely because they engender loyalty and people don’t

want to let them down. Coercive power is in evidence where threats, explicit or implicit,
are used to effect obedience: in employee relations terms this could be displayed by
a manager deciding to withhold resources, or perhaps bully colleagues, in order to
ensure compliance. The atmosphere created is not one of trust, with people often
performing to the minimum rather than the maximum standard required. Sexual
harassment and bullying can be regarded as forms of coercive power. The trade union
UNISON says that bullying behaviour in the workplace is an abuse of power that is
‘persistent offensive, intimidating, humiliating behaviour, which attempts to under-
mine an individual or group of employees’ (2013: 4).
Reward power is where individuals persuade others to do their bidding in exchange
for something that they want. In employment terms this is epitomised by the pay–
work–bargain (Farnham, 1997: 3), an arrangement whereby employees exchange their
labour for monetary reward. The reward, however, may not be monetary – it could be
promotion, or the opportunity to work on a prestigious project. The strength of the
power that a person holds depends on the perception by others that the ‘powerful’ can
actually deliver (Farmer and Aguinis, 2005). Sometimes, of course, rewards do not
match the expectations of the rewarded and conflict may result.
Legitimate power is where someone’s position within the organisation gives them
the authority to make decisions and control the activities of others. Line managers
therefore have the authority to control the work processes of their subordinates merely
because of their position in the organisation. Perceptions, too, are important here. If
someone is not perceived as being worthy of the position they hold, their power may be
diminished. So, for example, if someone with little experience is brought in to manage
an existing sales team, the perception of the team may be that the person’s inexperience
renders them unfit for the job – non-cooperation, conflict and a breakdown in the
employment relationship can be the result.
Dawson (2010) extends these sources of power, explaining that economic position,
in the form of wealth, ownership of resources, and indeed relative pay along with col-
lective power (i.e. the ability to combine forces), personal power (i.e. an understanding
how the organisation works) and legal power all play an important part in the extent
to which influence may be deployed. Like Lukes, Dawson refers to symbolic power
whereby the pervasive ideology is controlled, and like French and Raven she acknowl-
edges technical power (expert), positional power (legitimate) and physical power (similar
to coercive power).
Exercise 2.3
In 1920, Carter Goodrich wrote a book entitled The Frontier of Control: A Study of
British Workshop Politics. What do you think is meant by the ‘frontier of control’,
and how do you think this relates to the distribution and use of power within an
employment relationship?
(Continued)

(Continued)
Eighty years later, Reed wrote that control within the employment relationship
refers to:
a co-ordinating mechanism based on asymmetric relations of power and

domination in which conflicting instrumental interests and demands are the
overriding contextual considerations. (2001: 201)
●● What do you think are the conflicting interests and demands that are found in
the employment relationship? Give examples of this.
●● What do you think Reed means by the ‘asymmetric relations of power’?
●● How does Reed’s statement relate to the title of the Goodrich book?
Interests
The interests of a government or its agents, of the employers and of the employees,
do not always coincide. It is, of course, normal for a government to want organisa-
tions within its borders to perform effectively, similarly for both employees and
employers to want their organisation to succeed; job security is, after all, associated
with the success of an organisation and employees are aware that a failing organisa-
tion often leads to unwelcome measures, such as pay freezes and/or redundancies.
The relationship between employers and employees is symbiotic, that is, each needs
the other in order to function. However, the interests of these parties do differ.
Employees do not just want security of employment, they want the best available
in terms of pay, benefits and adequate holidays as well as safe and reasonable work-
ing conditions. Many employees also want good promotion prospects and adequate
training and development, as well as a say in what they are doing and how they are to
do it. Employers, of course, might not want to match these demands (Ciulla, 2000;
Kelloway et al., 2004; Kelly, 1998). Individuals in the workplace want to be treated
fairly and equitably.
Budd (2004; Budd et al., 2010) says that the key employee interests at work are
equity and voice: where equity means fair employment practices in terms not only of
how employees are treated but also in terms of what employees are expected to do,
how much reward they receive and the conditions under which employees are expected
to work; and where voice is the capacity to have meaningful input into decisions.
Employers, on the other hand, have an interest in efficiency often to the detriment of
equity and voice.
Linked to employee interests is the extent to which employees have a degree of
autonomy in the ways in which they work. Employees like the sense of being trusted
to work without supervision, although at the same time they do not want to feel aban-
doned. This is especially so when they are sufficiently qualified and competent to make
decisions about how they undertake their work. Such empowerment does not mean
that employees are abandoned to work alone, but instead are offered an environment

in which to work where they can be trusted because they are competent to undertake
tasks without constant supervision and direction (Greasley et al., 2005).Wilkinson
(1998) identified five different types of empowerment – information sharing, upward
problem solving, task autonomy, attitudinal shaping and self-management – that are
all relevant here.
Employers have different interests as unlike employees they would prefer not to pay
their workforce more than is necessary to achieve and maintain consistent and sus-
tained productivity. They want the organisation and those in it to perform efficiently
and effectively and they would like the freedom to take and implement organisational
decisions. Furthermore they would like compliance from employees and commitment
to workplace rules and management decisions.
Governments do not just act as employers in their own rights – they have a wider
remit. Obviously they want to ensure that organisations are contributing to the econ-
omy, providing employment, and operating with the minimum amount of conflict.
The very nature of employment means that it is incumbent upon the state to oversee
and regulate the employment relationship, balancing the rights between shareholders
and employees. In most countries laws (and sometimes codes of conduct) define how
the relationship should be conducted by setting out the minimum components of the
employment contract between an employer and an employee as well as providing an
infrastructure for the settling of disputes, the laying down standards for health and
safety, providing standards for the minimum levels of remuneration and so on. Crucially
the State lays down the corporate governance framework, either by legislation or pro-
cedure, within which an employment relationship is conducted. In this way businesses,
charities and institutions are regulated so that employees are treated fairly and employ-
ers retain a degree of flexibility. Such laws and policies will also impact on workplace
representation, encouraging or discouraging trade union involvement, and for example
promoting works councils or aspects of codetermination.
Exercise 2.4
In both July and August of 2012, motorists in Camden, London, were delighted
because, for a few days, they escaped parking fines at a time when the Olympic
games were held in London. Around 160 traffic wardens, members of the union
UNISON, were taking action (in the form of strikes and a demonstration march run-
ning parallel to one of the Olympic routes) against NSL, the company contracted by
Camden Council to carry out parking enforcement in the borough. The wardens were
seeking pay parity with their co-workers on similar contracts, also operated by NSL
but in other London boroughs. The action, taken during the run up to and during the
Olympics period, was designed to put pressure on the company and encourage the
Council and the London Mayor to do likewise.
●● Who were the primary parties involved – what were their interests?
●● Who were the secondary parties involved – what were their interests?
●● Who were the third parties involved – what were their interests?

Frames of Reference
A ‘frame of reference’ is how one sees the world. The idea of a frame of reference, in
terms of the employment relationship, was first mooted by Fox in 1966. He argued
that attitudes and subsequent behaviours within workplace relationships can be
divided into two mutually exclusive categories: either it is a unitarist relationship, that
is, one that exists to solely satisfy common interests, or it is a pluralist one that exists
to satisfy the different interests of separate but interdependent groups. The frame of
reference with which an individual views the workplace will affect the ways in which
they make assumptions and reach conclusions about events, and this will affect their
subsequent behaviour.
Later, in 1974, in his book Beyond Contract, Fox enlarged the theory to incorporate
a third frame of reference, radicalist, where the employment relationship is perceived as
one merely there to satisfy the interests of the dominant party (class).
Frames of reference are useful analytical devices for divining and categorising the
attitudes, perceptions and values behind the management of organisations. Of course
within a workplace it is possible to have different groups/individuals with different
frames of reference, so for example it is possible for a unitarist management to be
working alongside employees who hold pluralist perspectives, and vice versa.
Unitarism
A unitarist frame of reference is one where the employer views the workplace from
a perspective that assumes everyone within the organisation agrees with its common
purpose – the success of the organisation – and, importantly, everyone agrees with the
ways in which management sets about achieving this success. Management, under
the direction of the employer, is the only source of authority and has the right to
manage; as such this management prerogative is not questioned because everyone
is part of a team, all pulling in the same direction, all with the same aspirations.
This congruence, according to the unitarist perspective, means that there will be
no conflicts of interests and therefore no need to have any mechanisms for dealing
with conflict. Conflict is regarded as irrational, and even pathological. Certainly, so
the view goes, because the workforce is harmonious, unified and behaves as a whole,
there is no need for any outside interference. Trade unions are therefore regarded as
unnecessary intrusions into a ‘happy family’. Where conflict does occur it is ration-
alised in one of two ways: either it happened because communication failed in some
way (had everyone understood properly then there would be no disagreement, no
misunderstanding of managements’ intentions) or because the dissenter was some
sort of nonconformist, perhaps a rebellious, maverick employee who is best dealt
with by dismissal. Such a philosophy has an obvious appeal to managers. It legiti-
mises their decision making and implies that any dissent is not their fault. Here then
the employment relationship is perceived as consensual and cooperation is regarded
as the norm.

Exercise 2.5
●● What are, do you think, the key assumptions behind the unitarist perspective?
●● Do you think these assumptions are valid?
●● Why did you come to your conclusion?
There are a number of criticisms that can be made about the unitarist perspective, not
least the fact that it does not take into account the actual interests of the employees,
merely presuming that these coincide with those of management, while the assump-
tion that management decision making is always rational, and in the best interests of
everyone, is questionable. By discounting alternative viewpoints as pathological, and not
seeing the need for an infrastructure containing mechanisms to deal with conflict, the
unitary philosophy may actually engender discontent.
Pluralism
The pluralist perspective, on the other hand, is a framework that assumes workplaces
consist of a number of individuals and groups, each with different sets of values, needs,
beliefs and loyalties. Such a mixture is unlikely to be homogenous and as a result there
will be differing expectations and allegiances. Consequently conflict is to be expected,
and an organisation will need to find ways of accommodating different viewpoints and
managing any potential disagreements by consultation, negotiation or shared decision
making. Management’s function is therefore to manage by resolving differences and
emphasising consensus and consent. Part of this is to take account of alternative view-
points and have systems in place to listen to representations from the various interested
parties. The result is a joint approach to problem solving where trade union representa-
tion is not anathema. Indeed to have a system where employee interests are formally
represented is a rational response to an awareness of the imbalance of power where
employees could, without a voice, be exploited. There is a recognition that paradoxi-
cally management maintains control by sharing decision making, as Flanders said, ‘The
paradox whose truth managements have found it difficult to accept, is that they can
only regain control by sharing it’ (1970: 172).
Exercise 2.6
●● What are, do you think, the key assumptions behind the pluralist perspective? Do
you think these assumptions are valid?
●● Why did you come to your conclusion?
There are a number of criticisms that can be made about the pluralist perspective, partly
because it is a frame of reference that is not relevant for every managerial decision;

managers may seek consensus on a number of fronts but they do not cede authority
for everything, for example, strategic financial or marketing decisions that may have
an impact on future employment levels and hence on the employment relationship are
rarely shared. Furthermore the interaction between those groups of differing interests
is not equal: management controls the agendas for discussion and, more often than not,
the other interest groups react to management activity and ideas. There is an assump-
tion that for pluralism to work the groups must actually share a set of social norms – if
they were wildly different, the pluralist frame of reference would be untenable.
Ackers (2002) developed the notion of neo pluralism; this emphasises the impor-
tance of cooperation and of partnership between employers and workers, but he
combined it with the duty to promote such cooperation for the good of society as a
whole. This is interesting because it introduces an ethical dimension (i.e. the morality
of social cohesion). Yet it is theoretically lacking because it does not really address
elements of power and the interests of different groups.
Radicalism
The radical perspective is a frame of reference that accepts that economic inequalities
are expressed in social conflict – and at work this is manifest by unrest and conflict
within the employment relationship. Under a radicalist perspective such conflict is ines-
capable; it is class-based and the result of an unequal distribution of power between
those who buy labour and those who sell it. This Marxist way of understanding the
employment relationship regards conflict as inevitable under capitalist economies.
Paul Edwards offers an alternative, non-Marxist yet radical perspective. He says that
employers need to give discretion to employees in order to make best use of their skills
and talents; but, simultaneously, they have to control the same employees in order to
ensure that their work output is maximised. Implicit in the job of managing people
is the requirement to instruct subordinates about how to achieve tasks while at the
same time allowing them sufficient freedom to choose how they undertake such tasks.
The contradiction between these two methods of operation, discretion and control cre-
ates a tension that he called structural antagonism. Unlike unitarism, it recognises that
employees have different interests to those of the employer, and unlike pluralism this
perspective on the employment relationship permits concurrent conflict and consensus.
Edwards states that
the key point about the indeterminacy of the labour contract and strategies of labour
control is that managers and workers are locked into a relationship that is contradic-
tory and antagonistic. It is contradictory, not in the sense of logical incompatibility,
but because managements have to pursue the objectives of control and releasing
creativity, both of which are inherent in the relationship with workers, and which
call for different approaches. The relationship is antagonistic because managerial
strategies are about the deployment of workers’ labour power in ways which permit
the generation of a surplus. Workers are the only people who produce a surplus in the
production process but … they do not determine how their labour power is deployed
to meet the objective. (2005: 16–17)

Exercise 2.7
Design a presentation explaining the three different frames of reference described
above.
●● Make clear any similarities and differences.

●● Include additional information explaining structural antagonism.
●● Include the ways in which different frames of reference impact on the balance
of power.
In your presentation give examples of separate organisations that fit the categories,
and explain why you have classified them in this way.
Exercise 2.8
Below are extracts from two separate job advertisements. What does each tell you
about the frames of reference for the respective organisations? Why did you come
to these conclusions?
Advertisement 1
Role: Employee Relations Advisor
Salary: £25,000 to £27,000 pa
Location: Doncaster
Hours: 37 hours per week
The Role
The Fxxx Group is a market leading company which is looking for an enthusiastic
ER advisor to work in partnership with our fantastic management teams. As the
Employee Relations Advisor your ability to influence stakeholders and commu-
nicate across all levels of the business will be key to your, and our, success. You
will need to be able to manage and prioritise multiple time sensitive deadlines
effectively and to build strong working relationships. You will need excellent
written and verbal communication skills, and be able to effectively influence at
all different levels. Strong coaching and a passion for supporting the Fxxx Group
to deliver success through our people is essential. You will be expected to:
●● Undertake full range of generalist HR activities working together with line

management.
●● Provide advice and guidance on, and manage employee relations issues
such as absence, performance management and other key HR areas
(Continued)

(Continued)
including recruitment, attrition, restructuring, redundancy, redeployment

disciplinary and grievance matters.
●● Lead HR projects and initiatives that are in support of the Fxxx business
strategy.
●● Promote the wider use and value of Performance Matters and personal
development plans, and general learning and development activities.
Support and coach Line Managers by providing standard template letters
and documents relating to key HR and ER activity.
We are looking for a fast paced self-starter who can lead and establish busi-
ness relationships naturally. The ideal candidate will have integrity and the
ability to work autonomously and as part of a team. There will be some travel
involved in this role so flexibility is key to this.
Advertisement 2
Role: Interim Employee Relations Advisor – 6 month post
Salary: £13.50 – £14.50 per hour
Location: The North East
Hours: 37 hours per week
The Role
Immediately available HR Advisor required for a period of initially 6 months
to join this busy generalist HR Team at Sxxx Co. UK. You will be required
to hit the ground running, advising all levels of managers on a challenging
range of HR issues. This is a heavily unionised environment facing a period
of change, so you will have faced similar challenges previously and be con-
fident advising on redundancy, restructure and redeployment. You will be a
proactive and can-do person, with strong customer focus and ideally fully
CIPD qualified (or equivalent). Good interpersonal and communication skills
are essential. This is a great role for someone looking to progress their HR
career as you will gain some fantastic exposure to ER and change within a
well-known employer.
Managerial Styles
The employment relationship occurs within the employers’/managers’ chosen frame
of reference, yet within these frames different managerial approaches are deployed.
Such alternative ways of doing something (Legge, 1995: 31) are known as ‘managerial
styles’. Fox (1974) described six different styles, which were later refined by Purcell and

Sisson (1983) into five: traditionalists, sophisticated paternalists, standard moderns,

sophisticated modern consulters, and sophisticated modern constitutionalists.
The traditionalist style is one where managers with unitarist perspectives have a strong
belief in management’s right to manage without any interference from other parties.
Trade unions are therefore regarded negatively and with distrust, the workforce is treated
in an authoritarian, hard (Storey, 1992), sometimes exploitative way. Management is the
sole source of authority and the managerial prerogative is regarded as a legitimate right.
Small family owned businesses often fit into this category, although it is not unknown
for larger, better-known organisations, like Amazon, to also fit. The perception that the
organisation comprises people with common aims means that conflict is not recognised
(why would it be when management knows best) and, if it does occur, this is thought
to be either the result of a misunderstanding due to poor communication or the result
of a maverick employee.
The sophisticated paternalists, on the other hand, are also unitarists but have a soft
(Storey, 1992) managerial approach. The key to this approach is the belief that if employ-
ees are treated well they will perform well. The managerial prerogative is still regarded as
a right, and unions are still seen as an unwelcome intrusion, but employees are treated in
an enlightened way with high levels of involvement designed to engender trust, lots of
communication and good terms and conditions that are designed to create loyalty and,
in part, to eliminate the need for union involvement. Kerr quotes an employee of the
Australian company, Australian Abrasives, that epitomised this approach: ‘There was no
union, nobody wanted a union we had everything we could want. Mr. Miller was a great
manager, everybody was happy, we respected him’ (2007: 83). Marks and Spencer is a good
example, as are Gillette UK and Hewlett Packard. In some organisations, such as News
International, the fear of external influence from unions leads to the setting up of inter-
nal staff associations. Here the staff have representatives, but these are not independent
entities. In this way everything is kept ‘in house’. (Occasionally a staff association will
gradually gain independence from the employer and register as a union; this happened
with the Britannia Staff Association, which was formed in 1972, became independent
four years later and affiliated to the TUC in 1999. (When workplace representation
evolves in this way, the corresponding managerial style will evolve at the same time –
albeit sometimes reluctantly.)
Those organisations with a standard modern style are pluralist, accepting that there
are groups with different interests within the organisation and that conflict is likely to
occur. Unions are therefore recognised, but not warmly embraced. Union representatives
are dealt with ‘as and when’ necessary, on an adversarial ‘fire-fighting’ basis. Adversarial
bargaining takes place around a fairly narrow range of issues on a win–lose basis and
legislation is frequently used in order to enforce compliance with procedures and/or
to disrupt union actions. Examples of organisations exhibiting this style would be
Carillion, Balfour Beatty, Tata Corus, British Airways, Diageo, Transport for London.
The remaining two groups of sophisticated modern managers, the consulters and
constitutionalists, have strategies, policies and procedures acknowledging that
employees will have different perspectives from management and that the processes

of employee representation will help contain those differences, maintain stability

and reduce/contain conflict. The constitutionalists accept the inevitability of work-
place representation but contain it with rules and regulations, and there is a strong
emphasis on managerial control and relationships with unions, although cordial, are
bounded by procedural regulations. This is found frequently in the manufacturing
sectors where competition is high, and in some public sector organisations such as
NHS trusts. The consulters, on the other hand, have a much less proscribed rela-
tionship with workplace representatives; there is fuller information disclosure, joint
problem solving and more of a partnership approach. For example at Npower, a gas
and electricity generation and supply company where unions and management work
together using problem-solving approaches, there is a very positive employee relations
atmosphere. After negotiating and introducing a new capabilities procedure, ‘the union
reps were heavily involved in the roll-out of training in the new procedure for line-man-
agers’ which succeeded in securing high levels of buy-in from these managers (BERR,
2009: 17).
SUMMARY
This chapter has dealt with a large number of issues showing that the employment
relationship does not stand alone but is affected by the social, economic and legal envi-
ronment in which an organisation is operating, the culture of its workforce and the
ideology and values that the employers and employees bring to the workplace. The
study of employee relations has to take all of these influences into consideration in
order to analyse and understand the processes and events at work. Such critical realism
takes into account the interests and perspectives of the different parties involved, levels
of power (and how it is exercised), managerial styles, ethical behaviours and expressions
of conflict or cooperation.
REVIEW QUESTIONS
1. Do you think conflicts of interest between employees and employers are inevitable?
Why did you reach this conclusion?
2. Is cooperation between employees and employers achievable? Why did you reach
this conclusion?
3. Do trade unions, representing a ‘collective interest’ have a legitimate role to play in
the workplace? Why did you reach this conclusion?
4. Is it desirable for employers to develop employment policies based on ‘individualism’
and greater ‘employee involvement’? Why did you reach this conclusion?
5. Do you think such an approach is manipulative? Why did you reach this conclusion?
6. What is the significance of power relations and the balance of power in the work-
place? Why did you reach this conclusion?
7. How ethical is the use of the traditional hard managerial style? Why did you reach
this conclusion?

Revision Exercise 2.1

Read the following case study about Carlisle Cleaning and Support Services (CCSS)
and then identify:
●● the managerial style

●● the parties involved
●● their respective interests.
What have you learnt about the managerial style at CCSS and what, if anything, does
the exercise tell you about power?
At the end of August cleaners on the TransPennine Express held a 24-hour strike
followed by a two-week ban on overtime and rest-day working. The strikers wanted
a pay increase comparable to the 10 per cent rise in pay won in the previous year
by Carlisle cleaning staff working on Virgin trains. The strike, over what the union
described as a derisory pay offer, occurred after the company, Carlisle Cleaning and
Support Services (CCSS), failed to increase its offer and to meet the RMT union for
further talks at the conciliation service Acas.
RMT general secretary at the time, Bob Crow, said its members working for CCSS
suffer some of the worst conditions in the industry: ‘For a company that boasts about
its commitment to service its attitude to our members is unacceptable and its attempt
to make low-paid workers subsidise its profits is beneath contempt. They have no
sick-pay, no paid meal breaks and no enhanced pay rates for working overtime,
nights, weekends or even bank holidays.’ The strike followed similar action between
RMT members and CCSS in the previous Autumn when cleaners on Virgin Trains’ West
Coast Main Line service covering stations including Birmingham, Manchester Piccadilly
and Liverpool Lime Street also went on strike over a below-inflation pay offer as well
as moves to de-recognise the RMT. Strikes and overtime bans are not the only ‘per-
suasive’ tactics taken by union members: in this case part of the action against CCSS
involved a refusal to empty effluent tanks and replenish fresh water.
Sources: RMT, 2012; Cumbria Crack, 2012; News & Star, 2012
RELEVANT ARTICLES FOR FURTHER READING

Bryson, A. (2005) ‘Union effects on employee relations in Britain’, Human Relations, 58(9):
1111–13.
Ferner, A., Edwards, T. and Tempel, A. (2012) ‘Power, institutions and the cross-national transfer
of employment practices in multinationals’, Human Relations, 65(2): 163–87.
Francis, H. (2002) ‘The power of “talk” in HRM-based change’, Personnel Review, 31(4): 432–48.
Korczynski, M. (2011) ‘The dialectical sense of humour: routine joking in a Taylorized factory’,
Organisational Studies, 32(10): 1421–39.
Renwick, D. (2003) ‘Line manager involvement in HRM: an inside view’, Employee Relations,
25(3): 262–80.
Schuler, R. S. (1989) ‘Strategic human resource management and industrial relations’, Human
Relations, 42: 157.
Wood, G. and Wright, M. (2010) ‘Private equity and human resource management: an emerging
agenda’, Human Relations, 63(9): 1279–96.

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EMPLOYMENT

00_Bingham_Prelims.indd 1 2/24/2016 10:41:34 AM

Los Angeles | London | New Delhi | Singapore | Washington DC | Melbourne

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SAGE Publications Asia-Pacific Pte Ltd

Library of Congress Control Number: 2015952540

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●● provide an overview of the employment relationship

EMPLOYEE RELATIONS – WHAT IS IT?

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A further feature of the employment relationship is

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Case Snippet 2.1 Strike called off at

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Table 2.1 Labour market statistics showing employment rates (percentage)

April April April Jan

Source: OECD, 2015 http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DatasetCode=STLABOUR# (accessed 04.06.2013)

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Workplace Political climate

Social and Fashion – including ethical

Figure 2.1 Influences on the nature of workplace relations

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CHANGES IN THE UK EMPLOYMENT MARKET

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HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT (HRM)

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The related concepts of ‘power’ and ‘control’ are

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intervened, in the form of implementing new legislation, to redress real or perceived

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a co-ordinating mechanism based on asymmetric relations of power and

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●● Make clear any similarities and differences.

●● Undertake full range of generalist HR activities working together with line

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including recruitment, attrition, restructuring, redundancy, redeployment

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Sisson (1983) into five: traditionalists, sophisticated paternalists, standard moderns,

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of employee representation will help contain those differences, maintain stability

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Revision Exercise 2.1

●● the managerial style

RELEVANT ARTICLES FOR FURTHER READING

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Farnham D. (1997) Employee Relations in Context. London: Institute of Personnel and

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