Employment Relations

COERA1-B44

Eduvos (Pty) Ltd (formerly Pearson Institute of Higher Education) is registered with the Department of Higher Education and Training as a private higher education institution under the
Higher Education Act, 101, of 1997. Registration Certificate number: 2001/HE07/008
Week 1: Lesson 1
Introduction

Welcome to your Labour Relations course. Labour relations is the interdisciplinary

and somewhat diffuse study of the institutions and rule-fixing processes of the
labour-market in South Africa. By interdisciplinary, we mean the subject
incorporates a number of subjects such as Human Resource Management,
Industrial Relations and even Industrial psychology and (Labour) law.
In the week 1 we will be setting the foundation for Labour Relations focusing on
theories of Labour Relations and the context of Labour Relations.
Week 1: Lesson 1
What will be covered in today’s lesson?
LEARNING OUTCOMES:
1.1 Demonstrate an understanding of, and insight into, the concept and nature of
the field of study of employment relations and the way that it has evolved from
traditional industrial relations. (1.1)
1.2 Illustrate the implications of different ideological and theoretical perspectives
on the conflict/common-ground dynamics in employment relations. (1.2)
1.3 Describe the multidimensional nature and social embeddedness of the
contemporary employment relationship and show how these have relevance and
can be applied in everyday employment relations practice. (1.3)
1.4 Name five employment relations role-players or stakeholders, and briefly
describe the three primary role-players. (Chapter 2)
1.5 Demonstrate the implications of the nature and importance of justice
perceptions for the theory and practice of employment relations. (1.4.1)
1.6 Briefly discuss and illustrate the relevance and nature of conflict dynamics in
an employment relations context. (1.4.2)
1.7 Apply a continuum ranging from ‘warfare’ to ‘partnership’ to demonstrate the
nature and importance of different modes of interaction between labour/trade
unions and employers/management. (1.4.3)
Case Study
TITLE: Employment Relations in South Africa: a Complex Landscape!
Introduction: South Africa, a nation rich in diversity and historical significance, exhibits a complex tapestry of employment relations
that reflect its unique socio-economic context. The subject of employment relations in South Africa is a multifaceted study, delving
into the intricate interactions between employers and employees within the broader framework of the country's political, historical, and
cultural landscape.
Historical Context: To comprehend the current state of employment relations in South Africa, one must delve into the historical
underpinnings of apartheid, which left a lasting impact on the labour market. The dismantling of apartheid in the 1990s marked a
significant turning point, setting the stage for the evolution of labour relations in a democratic South Africa. The post-apartheid era
brought about legislative changes aimed at fostering inclusivity and addressing historical injustices.
Legislative Framework: A cornerstone of the employment relations landscape in South Africa is the Labour Relations Act (LRA) of
1995, which governs collective labor relations, dispute resolution, and the right to strike. The Basic Conditions of Employment Act and
the Employment Equity Act further contribute to shaping the employment environment, emphasizing fair labour practices, non-
discrimination, and equal opportunities.
Key Themes:
1.Transformation and Equity: The legacy of apartheid has necessitated a focus on transformation and equity in the workplace.
Employment relations in South Africa often center around initiatives to redress historical imbalances, promote diversity, and ensure
equal opportunities for all.
2.Collective Bargaining: Collective bargaining plays a crucial role in employment relations. Labour unions and employers negotiate
terms and conditions of employment, reflecting the balance of power between workers and management.
3.Strikes and Industrial Action: South Africa has a history of labour strikes as a means for workers to voice their concerns.
Understanding the dynamics of strikes and industrial action is integral to comprehending the ebb and flow of employment relations. 4.
Globalization Impact: In an era of globalization, the South African job market is not immune to external forces. Employment
relations must navigate the challenges and opportunities presented by global economic trends, technological advancements, and the
interconnectedness of markets.
Employment relations in South Africa are deeply intertwined with the nation's historical narrative and ongoing efforts towards social
justice. As the country strives for economic development and inclusive growth, the study of employment relations continues to evolve,
reflecting the dynamic interplay between legislation, social dynamics, and global influences. A nuanced understanding of these themes
is essential for stakeholders seeking to navigate the complexities of the South African labour landscape
Questions for Discussion

1.Which subjects are incorporated into Employment Relations?

2.What are the challenges for Employment Relations in South Africa?
3.Is conflict in the work pace always a negative factor?
4.Is a Marxist approach still relevant to employment relations?
 DEFINITION OF EMPLOYMENT
RELATIONS
• Dunlop (1958: 7) defined industrial relations as follows:
[It is] comprised of certain actors [managers, workers and
specialised governmental agencies], certain contexts
[technological characteristics, the market and the
distribution of power in the society], an ideology which
binds the industrial relations system together, and a body of
rules created to govern the actors at the workplace and work
community.
 DEFINITION OF EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS

• From this it is clear that the focus was traditionally on the conflict
regulatory dimensions and the institutions involved in the rule-
making and work-control processes in an employment
context.During the 1990s there were attempts to rechristen the
field as employment relations.
• Employment relations brings together two study areas that have
long developed their “separate ways”, namely human resource
management and industrial relations.

Employment relations
= human resource management + industrial relations
 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES &
IDEOLOGIES

Pluralist perspective
• This perspective views the employing organisation as a coalition
of individuals and groups with diverse objectives, values and
interests.
• Individuals in an organisation combine into a variety of distinct
section groups, each with its own objectives, interests and
leadership.
 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES & IDEOLOGIES
Pluralist perspective

• The different groups are competitive in terms of leadership,

loyalty and authority.
• This conflict puts the organisation in a permanent state of
tension.
• It recognises the mutual dependence of groups.
• Conflict between management and labour is not so fundamental
and unbridgeable that the parties will fail to cooperate.
• The key lies in the regulation of the employment relationship and
how to institutionalise conflict in order to contain and control its
impact.
 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES & IDEOLOGIES

Unitarist perspective
• This perspective views the organisation as an integrated group of
people having a unified authority structure with common values,
interests and purpose.
• Management has the legitimate authority and right to manage,
and is therefore expected to provide appropriate leadership.
• Conflict is regarded as unnecessary as employees are expected to
be loyal to management and “their” organisation.
• The underlying assumption is that people working in an
organisation are in basic harmony, and conflict is undesirable and
a result of miscommunication.
• Trade unions are regarded as unnecessary and dysfunctional.
• There is no need for an outside body to intrude on the
employment relationship.
 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES & IDEOLOGIES

Radical perspective
• This perspective is related to Marxist thinking and reflects a class
conflict world view.
• Workers are oppressed for the sake of capitalist interests and
hence there is an emphasis on the class struggle between the
“haves” and the “have nots”.
• Radicals see the imbalance of power both within society and at
the workplace as central. Those who own the means of
production have a power superiority over those who sell their
labour.
• Conflict is always rooted at a macro level and is sociopolitical and
economic.
• Trade unions are viewed as an unavoidable response to
capitalism.
 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES & IDEOLOGIES

Corporatism and concertation

Societal corporatism
• Extension of pluralism and sometimes referred to as tripartite
coordination or cooperation.
• The two primary parties (management & labour) are no longer
viewed as interacting on a purely competitive basis.
• Interdependence between all three parties (including the State) is
acknowledged, each of whom values consensus building
interaction rather than adversarial relations.
• Conflict and common ground are blended, and a mutually gainful,
long-term view is favoured above short-term, win/lose modes
of interaction.
 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES & IDEOLOGIES
Corporatism and concertation

State corporatism
• There is an emphasis shift from a tripartite coordination or
cooperation to a situation where the State moves into a
paternalistic or authoritarian mode to demobilise and coopt
organised labour (trade unions) into government structures.
• This perspective is closer to unitarism because conflict between
business and labour is viewed as undesirable, and in a certain
sense the legitimacy of the role of trade unions is abandoned.
 THEORETICAL PERSPECTIVES & IDEOLOGIES
Corporatism and concertation

Concertation

... means an institutional role of interest organizations (mainly

economic) in the formulation and implementation/regulation of
state policy (Baskin 2000: 48).
SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE OF
EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS (ER)

Social embeddedness of the multidimensional

employment relationship
• Roots of employment relations are embedded in the relationships
between employers and employees, and these parties are integral
to modern society.
• Organisations exist to deliver need-satisfying products and
services to the members of that society, who are also the very
same people who set up and work in those organisations –
individual dimension.
 SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE OF EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS (ER)
Social embeddedness of the multidimensional employment relationship

• The theory and practice of employment relations revolve around

how the parties arrange their relationship, organise and execute
the work, and distribute the fruits that accrue from these
productive processes.
• ER is concerned with the fairness and justice of these
arrangements, with the ways in which the parties integrate,
regulate, balance and institutionalise their partly divergent and
partly convergent interests and objectives, and with the formal
and informal dynamics that go along with this.
• Key ingredients to the employment relationship are the
simultaneous conflict and common–ground elements that are
built into any employment relationship.
• The heart of conflict is built on the economic dimension of any
employment relationship – the exchange of labour for pay.
 SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE OF EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS (ER)
Social embeddedness of the multidimensional employment relationship

• This explains the importance of power in the relationship

between employers and employees.
• The party with the most power is in the best position to get the
other party to agree on its definition of a fair exchange of wages
and conditions of service for the work done in the context of the
employment relationship.
• The power imbalance led to employees joining forces and forming
representative bodies to negotiate with employers on their behalf
– labour or trade unions.
• This is where the collective dimension of employment relations
comes into play and impacts on the individual dimension of the
employment relationship.
 SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE OF EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS (ER)
Social embeddedness of the multidimensional employment relationship

• The centrifugal forces of the conflict between the employer and

employee parties are balanced by the existence of shared
interests (e.g. survival of organisation).
• Both collectively and as individuals, the parties interact and make
use of informal dynamics, such as communication and power, as
well as formal dynamics, such as courts, legal processes and
quasi-legal processes, in order to regulate and maintain their
relationship.
• Formal dimension of ER: legal and formal rule-making and
application aspects.
• Informal dimension of ER: behavioural dynamics involved in ER.
 SOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVE OF EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS (ER)

Role-players and stakeholders in ER (a preview)

KEY INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE ER
DYNAMIC
Centrality of justice perceptions in ER
Distributive justice
• This refers to “the distribution of the conditions and goods which
affect individual (psychological, social and economic) well-being”
(Deutsch 1975: 137).
• Based on three criteria:
– Equality: everyone gets exactly the same distribution
– Need: based on who needs it the most
– Equity: based on how much person contributes or invests
 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE ER DYNAMIC
Centrality of justice perceptions in ER

Procedural justice
• This refers to the perceived fairness of the processes and
procedures followed in reaching certain decisions or outcomes.
• Six criteria are central to procedural justice:
– Consistency: equal application of rules and procedures to all
concerned over time
– Bias suppression: prevention of self-interest in the decision-
making process
– Accuracy: making of decisions on the basis of accurate
information
– Correctability: modification or correction of a decision, if
appropriate
– Representativeness: representation of all stakeholders or
parties concerned in the process
– Ethicality: reflection of current ethical and moral principles in
the process
 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE ER DYNAMIC
Centrality of justice perceptions in ER

Interpersonal justice
• This refers to the manner in which outcomes are communicated
to employees at an interpersonal level.
• Greenberg (1990) describes two aspects of interpersonal justice:
– Interpersonal treatment: treatment received from decision
makers
– Adequate causal accounts: the use of adequate explanations
for the outcomes or decision reached
• Three elements that are central to interpersonal justice:
– Neutrality: implies openness and honesty, function of the
decision maker
– Trust: the degree to which people believe the decision maker
will be fair
– Standing: refers to the individuals’ concern with their status in
a group
 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE ER DYNAMIC

Conflict
• Conflict in employment relations may be regarded as an inherent
part of the interaction between the parties.
• Conflict interplays with other dynamics and it often leads to some
changes in employment relations.
• Causes of conflict:
– Different values, attitudes or perceptions
– Different objectives or methods of achieving them
– Differences in information or communication blockages
– Lack of resources (scarcity)
– Skew distribution of resources (structural imbalances)
– Personality differences
 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE ER DYNAMIC
Conflict

• Different types of conflict:

– Perceived and real conflict (manifest conflict)
– Constructive (functional) and destructive (dysfunctional)
conflict
– Frictional conflict: spontaneous result of interaction within the
formal structure of an enterprise
– Strategic conflict: consciously generated by people in order to
manipulate the allocation of resources, status, authority and
power
 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE ER DYNAMIC

Power
• It can be seen as a medium through which divergent aims and
interests are mediated and resolved.
• Interpersonal power may be understood as “one person’s ability
to influence another person’s behaviour or thinking, so that they
do something that they otherwise would not have done” (Robbins
1998: 407).
• Social unit power is “the realistic capacity of a system-unit to
actualise its interests within the context of system-interaction and
in this sense exert influence on processes in the system” (Parsons
1960: 23).
 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE ER DYNAMIC
Power

• Bases of power:
– Legitimate power: emerges from the right to issue directives
– Reward power: emerges from the capacity of the group or
individual to confer or withhold rewards
– Coercive power: capacity of an individual or group to use force
or coercion through the use of sanctions or by withholding
desired commodities
– Knowledge power: based on the possession of specialised
knowledge or skills
– Referent power: arises out of the force of an individual’s
personality
 KEY INGREDIENTS THAT MAKE ER DYNAMIC

Converging and diverging interests

• ER is not solely concerned with the divergent interests and
conflict in employment relations.
• Coexistence, shared interests and common ground are equally
important.
• The fundamental common ground is that human needs have to
be satisfied.
• People need products and services, and these have to be
delivered.
• This is a basic shared interest and explains why parties come
together.
THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN ER AND
THE ITS BROADER ENVIRONMENT
– MACRO-EXTERNAL FACTORS
AND SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS
• Factors such as the country’s economic growth rate, inflation,
taxation and interest rates may have an effect on ER.
• The country’s socioeconomic dynamics are also intertwined with
developments on the global front.
 THE INTERPLAY BETWEEN ER AND THE ITS BROADER ENVIRONMENT – MACRO-EXTERNAL
FACTORS AND SOCIOECONOMIC FACTORS

Sociopolitical factors
• There is usually much interplay between ER and sociopolitical
variables and factors.
• The political environment as such is crucial, as government
promulgates and enforces all the relevant legislation that impacts
directly on ER.
• Organised business and organised labour are engaged directly to
take part in the processes of drafting and/or amending labour-
related legislation.
• The increasing value attributed to aspects like transparency and
democratic processes holds potential implications for the ways ER
is managed.
• A society’s value system regarding the physical environment is
also important.
 Activity

Theoretical definition
Match the definition to the theoretical perspective
perspectives,
ideologies
1) Radical a) the State moves into a paternalistic or
authoritarian mode to demobilise and co-
opt organised labour (trade unions) into
government structures.
2) Pluralist b) Extension of pluralism and sometimes
referred to as tripartite coordination or
cooperation.
3) Unitarist c) This perspective views the organisation as an
integrated group of people having a unified
authority structure with common values,
interests and purpose
4) Societal corporatism d) Trade unions are viewed as an unavoidable
response to capitalism.
5) State corporatism e) This perspective views the employing
organisation as a coalition of individuals and
groups with diverse objectives, values and
interests
Quiz
Question 1

Indicate the INCORRECT statement regarding the difference between employment relations and industrial relations:

a. Employment relations has its origins from industrial relations

b. Industrial relations as a subject would have included the study of strikes
c. Industrial relations as a subject would have excluded the study of strikes
d. Employment relations brings together two study areas that have long developed their
“separate ways”, namely human resource management and industrial relations

Question 2

Indicate the INCORRECT statement regarding the pluralist approach to employment relations:

e. Pluralism as a concept refers to a condition or system in which two or more states, groups, principles, sources of authority, etc., coexist
f. The pluralist perspective views the employing organisation as a coalition of individuals and groups with diverse objectives, values and interests.
g. The pluralist perspective denies struggle and conflict as a necessary condition of group inter play.
h. The strength of the pluralist approach recognises the mutual dependence of groups.

Question 3

Mr Barth is the owner of a sun product manufacturing plant. He acknowledges that management and employees have conflicting objectives, but he is aware that
they are interdependent (i.e., dependent on one another). Mr Barth also views conflict in the organisation as rational and inevitable, and trade unions as a
necessity to channel conflict and represent employees' interests. What perspective does Mr Barth follow in his organisation?

i. Pluralist perspective

j. Radical perspective

k. Unitarist perspective
Question 4
Quiz Answers
• 1. c
• 2. c
• 3.b
• 4. b
• 5. d