The unitary perspective is based on the assumption that the organization is an integrated group of people with single authority/ loyalty structure and a set of common values, interests and objectives shared by all members of the organization.

1. Approaches to Industrial Relations
Industrial Relations

2. Prepared By
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Manu Melwin Joy
Assistant Professor
Ilahia School of Management Studies
Kerala, India.
Phone – 9744551114
Mail – manu_melwinjoy@yahoo.com

3. Approaches to Industrial Relations

4. Unitary Perspective
• The unitary perspective is
based on the assumption
that the organization is an
integrated group of people
with single authority/ loyalty
structure and a set of
common values, interests
and objectives shared by all
members of the organization.

5. Unitary Perspective
• Management’s prerogative
is regarded as legitimate,
rational and accepted and
any opposition to it is seen
as irrational.

6. Unitary Perspective
• The organization is
not regarded as a
them and us situation
– as Farnham and
Pimlott put it.

7. Unitary Perspective
• There is no conflict
between the interests of
those supplying capital to
the enterprise and their
managerial
representatives, and
those contributing their
labor.

8. Unitary Perspective
• The underlying
assumption of this view
is that the organizational
system is in basic
harmony, and conflict is
unnecessary and
exceptional.

9. Unitary Perspective
• This has two implications.
– Conflict is perceived an
irrational activity.
– Trade unions are regarded as
intrusions into the
organizations from outside
which compete with
management for the loyalty
of employees.

10. Unitary Perspective
• Managements clings to
this view because.:
– It legitimizes its authority role by
projecting the interests of
management and employees as
being the same and by
emphasizing managements role
of governing in the best interest
of organization as a whole.

11. Unitary Perspective
• Managements clings to
this view because.:
– It reassures managers by
confirming that conflict,
where it exists, is largely the
fault of the government
rather than management.

12. Unitary Perspective
• Managements clings to
this view because.:
– It may be projected to the
outside world as a means of
persuading them that
management’s decisions and
actions are right and the best in
the circumstances and that any
challenge to them is subversive.

13. Pluralistic Perspective
• Fox believed that this
view of the organization
probably represents the
received orthodoxy in
many western societies
and is often associated
with a view of society as
being post capitalist.

14. Pluralistic Perspective
• This perspective is based
on the assumption that the
organization is composed
of individuals who coalesce
into a variety of distinct
sectional groups, each with
its own interests,
objectives and leadership.

15. Pluralistic Perspective
• The organization is perceived as
being multi structured and
competitive in terms of
groupings, leadership, authority
and loyalty and this gives rise to
complex tensions and competing
claims which have to be
managed in the interests of
maintaining a viable
collaborative structure.

16. Pluralistic Perspective
• The underlying assumption of
this approach is that the
organization is in a permanent
state of dynamic tension
resulting from the inherent
conflict of interests between the
various sectional groups and
requires to managed through a
variety of roles, institutions and
processes.

17. Radical Marxist Perspective
• The radical perspective,
which is also referred to
as the Marxist
perspective, concentrates
on the nature of the
society surrounding the
organization.

18. Radical Marxist Perspective
• It assumes and emphasizes that
the organization exists within a
capitalist society where product
system is privately owned and
profit is the key influence on
company policy and control over
production is enforced
downwards by the owner’s
managerial agents.

19. Radical Marxist Perspective
• The Marxist general
theory of society
argues that:
– Class conflict is the
source of societal change
– without such conflict,
society would stagnate.

20. Radical Marxist Perspective
• The Marxist general
theory of society argues
that:
– Class conflict arises
primarily from the disparity
in the distribution of and
access to economic power
within the society.

21. Radical Marxist Perspective
• The Marxist general theory
of society argues that:
– The nature of the society’s
social and political
institutions is derived from
this economic disparity and
reinforces the position of the
dominant establishment
group.

22. Radical Marxist Perspective
• The Marxist general
theory of society argues
that:
– Social and political conflict
in whatever from is merely
an expression of the
underlying economic
conflict within the society.

23. A comparative picture of three approaches

24. A comparative picture of three approaches