Management Objectives in Employee Relations
“Management strategies in industrial relations are the result of constrained rational choice, but are always aimed at maintaining security within the organisation’s decision-making process.” Salamon (1987)
If one is to fully appreciate Salamon’s statement it is necessary to understand the fundamental principles of industrial relations and be aware of relevant factors which have altered the context of the employment relationship, since the traditional ‘master’ and ‘servant’ relationship of the early and mid-nineteenth century. In examining and presenting the evidence which supports the above quoted conclusion, it is hoped that this paper will portray a logical and incisive representation of Salamon’s beliefs in this area.
The situation surrounding the industrial relations process up until 1971 (and indeed for most of the 1970s, following the enactment of TULRA 1974) was very much a ‘voluntarist’ tradition, which enhanced the position surrounding the trade unions and workers, with respect to industrial action legalities. The government’s restoration of trade union tort immunities in an attempt to contrast a corporatist relationship between parties, proved a futile method of precluding the “strike ridden winter of discontent” during 1978, and led to a transformation which could be considered a watershed. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party came to power and introduced wide ranging measures to depoliticise industrial relations and weaken collective organisation and industrial action. One of the most notable features of industrial relations during the 1980s was the shift in power from the workforce to the employer, which has obviously influenced ensuing management strategies aimed at “maintaining management security within the organisation’s decision making process.”
Although the traditional ‘master’ and ‘servant’ employment relationship has long since gone (today’s typical employer being a public or private corporate body and also an
If one is to fully appreciate Salamon’s statement it is necessary to understand the fundamental principles of industrial relations and be aware of relevant factors which have altered the context of the employment relationship, since the traditional ‘master’ and ‘servant’ relationship of the early and mid-nineteenth century. In examining and presenting the evidence which supports the above quoted conclusion, it is hoped that this paper will portray a logical and incisive representation of Salamon’s beliefs in this area.
The situation surrounding the industrial relations process up until 1971 (and indeed for most of the 1970s, following the enactment of TULRA 1974) was very much a ‘voluntarist’ tradition, which enhanced the position surrounding the trade unions and workers, with respect to industrial action legalities. The government’s restoration of trade union tort immunities in an attempt to contrast a corporatist relationship between parties, proved a futile method of precluding the “strike ridden winter of discontent” during 1978, and led to a transformation which could be considered a watershed. In 1979 Margaret Thatcher and the Conservative party came to power and introduced wide ranging measures to depoliticise industrial relations and weaken collective organisation and industrial action. One of the most notable features of industrial relations during the 1980s was the shift in power from the workforce to the employer, which has obviously influenced ensuing management strategies aimed at “maintaining management security within the organisation’s decision making process.”
Although the traditional ‘master’ and ‘servant’ employment relationship has long since gone (today’s typical employer being a public or private corporate body and also an