Battle between the Pluralist and Unitary of Reference in Australia Essay

Battle between the Pluralist and Unitary of Reference in Australia - Essay Example The most commonly discussed frames of references for analyzing the employee relations include the unitary and pluralist perspectives. These two concepts bear contrasting differences with respect to each other and help the management deal with situations and conflicts in an effective manner. This paper shall discuss the workplace relations in Australia with respect to the unitary and pluralist frames of reference. 2. Differences between Unitary and Pluralist Perspective The unitary perspective includes the concept of shared goals and unified vision among all the employees and employers. According to Agarwal (2008), the believers of this perspective are under the impression that success can be attained only if the members of the organization possess the same views and business objectives, in spite of their differing job descriptions and nature of tasks. Whereas according to Edwards (2003); some school of thoughts believe that unitary frame of reference bears minimal degree of practical ity for most situations since it holds the assumption that all employees are loyal to the organization and the management makes all decisions in accordance with the best interests of their employees. Such organizations do not promote the concept of trade unions, rather stress on the efforts involving team building and management. Trade unions are discouraged so that the probability of occurrence of conflicts is minimized. Budd and Bhave (2006) explained that any conflicts that may arise in the organization will be simply an outcome of poor management or misunderstanding, rather than conflict of interests. In the modern times, human resources management has taken over to monitor the employee relations of organizations. On the contrary, pluralist frame of reference caters the self-interests of employees that might cause competition and motivation of fulfillment of personal goals more than harmony and common interests. Individuals with common goals and interests may develop unions to s upport each other in the presence of conflicts. Edwards (2003) stated that whenever different sources of authority are present, the probability of greater conflicts is witnessed. Some of the conflicts of interests might arise due to the employees’ demand for higher salaries and employers’ demand for lower wages etc. The conflict of interests creates dissimilar visions and objectives and thus, ends up affecting the productivity and revenues of the organization. The management (of such frame of reference) is often witnessed to serve more time in coordination and motivating employees, rather than controlling and improvising. 3. Workplace Relations in Australia Australia is counted amongst the regions that had been under the affect of plurality frame of reference since the initial years of the twentieth century. This was the time when unions played a vital role in influencing the structure of the employee and industrial relations. Leigh (2005) provided an estimate to highl ight the degree of integration of unions in Australia at that time; at least 2 from 5 employees were known to be a part of some union in their organization. The gradual introduction of policies and systems by the government caused changes in the traditional structure of Australian employee relations; their intervention has resulted in the