Deck 1: What Is Employment Relations

Question 1

What is the key underlying rationale of the 'employment relations' approach to understanding the employment relationship?

Answer 1

Employment relations, the fourth approach, adopts a different set of analytical tools that flow from an 'institutionalist' theoretical tradition (for more detail, see Chapter 2). This assumes that the attitudes and behaviours of employees and employers can best be understood by focusing on the 'rules' that regulate the employment relationship. In other words, rather than assuming that individual employees and employers are driven by rational economic decisions based on market forces (neo-classical economics) or by organisational policies that align the psychological motivations with organisational goals (HRM), employment relations assumes that the attitudes and behaviours of both parties are heavily influenced by social norms and expectations, especially those within the workplace.

Question 2

The Marxist approach assumes the ownership and means of production are centred on class relations, but how might this radical ideology influence the employment relationship?

Answer 2

Employees and employers are assumed to have few common interests because the inherent structure of capitalist organisations is so unequal. Anything that benefits the employers will only succeed in better controlling workers and achieving profits and capital accumulation for employers. Independent, collective representation of workers is seen as vital, although trade unions are considered by many Marxists as insufficient because they are limited to negotiating for their members minor improvements in terms and conditions of employment. Revolutionary change led by political parties-thereby creating a more equal society-is required, rather than trade unions in the workplace.

Question 3

Despite the sensational, collectivist and conflictual interpretation of industrial relations, the reality is quite different. Discuss.

Answer 3

The reality is that the vast bulk of industrial relations consists of routine, everyday actions and practices within workplaces rather than the drama of strikes and confrontations taking place in courtrooms or as portrayed in the media. The latter are, in fact, rare events. While collective action by groups of employees seeking to promote and protect their wages and working conditions is an important part of industrial relations, it is by no means the whole story. The absence of a trade union or collective action by employees does not mean that industrial relations will suddenly disappear. Individual employees are constantly negotiating with their fellow workers and supervisors over new patterns of behaviour within the workplace or over compliance with existing rules-the relations between individual employees and managers and within non-union workplaces have long been important topics in the study of industrial relations. Finally, the everyday world of industrial relations is dominated by routine cooperation rather than conflict.

Question 4

What is meant by the 'indeterminacy' of the employment relationship?

Question 5

When is an employment relationship created?

Question 6

Identify and briefly discuss the two analytically separate steps in the realisation of the employment relationship.

Question 7

Employment relations primarily concerns the study of:

A) trends in employment.
B) organisations with employees from the same family.
C) the employment relationship.
D) None of the options given here is correct

Question 8

What constitutes a market transaction in the context of the employment relationship?

A) A negotiated agreement between two employees of the same employer
B) An expectation by the seller of labour that the purchaser will provide that job into the future
C) An agreement between the seller of labour and the purchaser of labour, with a focus on price and conditions
D) An agreement between two separate businesses where one will purchase the other

Question 9

A production relation in an employment relationship is defined as:

A) a collective agreement struck between an employee and an employer.
B) the ongoing and ever-changing relationship between an employee and an employer in respect of the circumstances under which the work is performed.
C) the quota required by the employer for the production of goods or services per unit of employee time.
D) an agreement between the employer and the employee about the use of technology within the workplace.

Question 10

There are two main ways to separate the different theoretical approaches to the study of the employment relationship. Provide examples.

Question 11

What does the term 'employment relations' mean?

Question 12

What are the two main ways to separate the different theoretical approaches to the study of the employment relationship?

A) Analytical tools and ideological perspectives
B) Analytical tools and theoretical perspectives
C) Critical approaches and ideological perspectives
D) Critical approaches and theoretical perspectives

Question 13

While neo-classical economists privilege the 'market transaction' aspects of the employment relationship, what ideological perspective do they take?

Question 14

Briefly explain the proposed solutions for the decline in the vitality and relevance of industrial relations.

Question 15

Identify and briefly discuss the dominant analytical tools and key ideological perspective of the HRM approach to the employment relationship.

Question 16

Which of the following descriptions have become associated with the term 'industrial relations'?

A) Conflictual and collectivist
B) Harmonious
C) Sensational and dramatic
D) Both conflictual and collectivist, and sensational and dramatic

Question 17

Identify the key analytical tools and ideological perspectives of the neo-classical economics approach to the employment relationship.

A) Class struggle and control within the labour process and the radical ideological perspective
B) The organisational leadership and policies required to satisfy the psychological needs to employees and the unitarist ideological perspective
C) Rational economic decisions by individuals based on market prices and the egoist ideological perspective
D) The rules that regulate the employment relationship and the pluralist ideological perspective

Question 18

The vitality and relevance of industrial relations has been undermined by:

A) the traditional preoccupation with the study of trade unions.
B) the traditional preoccupation with collective bargaining.
C) the decline in union membership and power.
D) All of the options given here are correct.

Question 19

Why has the term 'industrial relations' increasingly been replaced with 'employment relations'?

Question 20

According to the institutionalist theoretical tradition, employment relations is best described as:

A) the study of new institutions and their impact on relationships at work.
B) the study of informal relationships at work.
C) the study of formal rules governing employment standards, and the processes by which such rules are determined.
D) the study of informal and formal rules regulating the employment relationship, and the social processes that create and enforce these rules.