Critique of Global Trends in Industrial Relations and Their Significance to Australia - Essay Example

Part 1 Critique of “Global trends in industrial relations and their significance to Australia” The presentation titled “Global trends in industrial relations and their significance to Australia” covered the important trends in industrial relations in various regions of the world and examined how the trends could influence the future of industrial relations in Australia. A number of important points were highlighted in the presentation. First is the historical developments in industrial relations since the industrial revolution in Europe in the 19th century, including the pluralistic view of industrial relations, the rise of collective bargaining between employees and employers in Britain in the 1970s, reduction of the power of trade unions in Britain in the 1980s, and the current state of industrial relations that is shaped by factors such as globalisation. The second point is the global trends in industrial relations, where it is noted that countries such as the US and Canada have witnessed a great decline unionisation in the private sector because of the increased use of employee choice. Similarly, Asian countries like India have witnessed changes with respect to collective agreements, participation of workers in management and alignments of labour policies. The third point is the lesson that Australia can learn from the global trends in industrial relations, which include the need to consider the attitudes of employers towards labour unions during formulation of labour policies, the need to treat individual and collective agreements as complements rather than substitutes, and the need to address issues to do with employee satisfaction in workplaces through trade unions despite the declining level of trade union membership. The major conclusion of the presentation is that Australia can learn from the changes taking place around the world with respect to industrial relations to develop its industrial relations policies. The presenter used a variety of sources for the research including journal articles and books. The research was sufficient going by the fact that it covered and compared industrial relations in different parts of the world. Also, the presenter used theory as reflected by the historical background of industrial relations that is provided. The theory is well linked to practice since the presenter also delved into the current state of industrial relations including the impact of current affairs such as globalisation. This is further demonstrated by the fact that the presenter assessed the situation in countries such as the US, the UK, India and Canada and linked the same the same to the transformations in industrial relations in Australia. All arguments in the presentation are based on literature from the aforementioned sources and this demonstrates the strength of the content of the presentation. The advice that I can offer the presenter is that he/she should increase the scope of the research by conducting a study of industrial relations in more countries. This is because the current research is limited by the few countries that were analysed. Although the presenter meant to present findings about global trends, he/she presented details from only a few countries and even ignored some continents. The option for further research is therefore to conduct studies about as many countries as possible in all the continents of the world to get a better idea of global trends. The weakest part of the research is the limited scope of study while the strongest aspect is the good analysis of findings from the few counties that that were covered. My advice to the presenter is thus to widen the scope of the research to include more countries. Part 2 The week one lecture entailed various classroom case studies which reflected on the industrial relations in a number of countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, and Asian countries like India. The reading for lecture 1 provided information to support the notion that factors such as globalisation have changed the nature of employment relations in many countries, including Australia. In particular, the fast food sector, which is largely dominated by multinational companies, is adopting standardised employment and production practices like job design and standardised products and services in many countries where these companies operate. This is clearly reflected in the week one reading which evaluated the employment relations in Australia’s fast food industry. Connected to this topic is the issue of employee choice, which was part of the lecture 2 discussion. Employee choice implies that employees have the discretion to choose whether they want to be represented by a union or not. The assumption in the contemporary world in most cases has been that most employees do not want union representation. It is for this reason, and as was witnessed in lecture 2, that with the increased adoption of employee choice, there has been a sharp decline in unionisation in the private sector in many countries around the world, notably the United States and Canada. Lecture 3 provided information to the effect that the situation in Australia has been characterised by declining power of trade unions, passage of radical amendments to legislations governing industrial relations issues in the country, and development of new management strategies that do not require the interventions of trade unions. In particular, it was noted that the decline in union membership in Australia was partly due to the reduction of unionised industries like manufacturing and the growth of non-unionised industries such as the services sector. The turn of events in Australia was caused by growth in professional services in the country and reduction in manufacturing, which led to the decline in trade union activity and membership. The lectures also revisited industrial relations in Asia. In particular, it has been observed that changes have occurred in various areas of industrial relations including collective agreements, participation of workers in management and alignments in the labour policies of many countries in Asia. In particular, several readings based on the week four lecture highlighted the industrial relations in countries such as South Korea, Taiwan, the Philippines, China, and Malaysia. The general trend in Asia as reflected in the various readings highlighting different countries in the continent is that industrial relations systems are being transformed due to the impact of globalisation. Read More