Unitary Rather than Pluralist Ideology Now Dominates Management Approaches to Employee Relation - Term Paper Example

UNITARY RATHER THAN PLURALIST IDEOLOGY NOW DOMINATES MANAGEMENT APPROACHES TO EMPLOYEE RELATIONS. DISCUSS. Management can be defined as the art of creating industrial relations of any kind, between people engaged in the industry, such as relation between employers and employees, relation between individuals entering into commercial contracts, relation between investors and debtors etc, in order to maintain true cooperation of all concerned. Efficiency of management lies in not only making the employees to work, but to make them work willingly, sincerely and consciously, by employing new knowledge, new methods, new designs, new machines and novel techniques of production and by allaying mistrust and antagonism. (Anand, 2006) The unitary ideology introduced in human resource management is a part of scientific management. Some critics feel that scientific methods are not applicable in the art of management, which mainly concerns human beings. According to them efforts to manage industry scientifically has worsened the relation between the employers and the employees. But it is not so. In fact, using of scientific methods, need trained mind which is used to unbiased observation and is not amenable to hasty conclusions and untenable theories. Scientific management instruct the managers to be detached an impartial. (Sen, 2004) The development of industrial relations so as to make a company productive is an evolutionary process and depends on the initiative, constructive thinking and discipline on the part of all engaged in the industry. The form of relationship between the employee and the management with which the unitary ideology is concerned is about hundred years old issue. Today management is dominated by unitary approach. The Unitary frame of reference is basically a concept, which assumes attitudes, values and practices relating to management and organisational membership. A fundamental supposition of unitary managerial approaches is that the whole staff of the organisation including both the management and the workers, equally contribute to the common purpose, share the common objective and have full attention in progress of the organization. (Roy, 2003) According to the assumptions of the unitary approach, organizations should have the capacity to influence their members as well as bind them together in a composite unit, as a family or a community. Few guidelines prescribed by the unitary approach are: Management should have recognition towards the efforts of the workers, and have co-operative attitudes towards them. The emphasis should be on working together as a team to achieve the ultimate purpose. TO pursue this goal management should compromise and understand the purposes and values of the employees. Disagreement and unconcealed divergences between management and employees, disruptive behaviour and even strike action of the employees and such problems in an organization can be alleviated using the "unitary" frame of reference. (Rogers, 2006) This approach is helpful in curing unnecessary, deviant damage of the organisation. The staff of a suffering organization should be made to realize that stoppages and obstructions are meaningless. (Border, 2002) The benefits of lingering useless momentary disagreements and conflicts disturb the environment of the organization. Misinterpretation and Passions that procreate conflict are indeed enhanced by detrimental, marginal splinter groups and provocateurs. The unitary frame of reference portrays management as a perfect guardian of the employees, having the paramount interests in well being of the staff, at heart. Decisions are taken with consent of the employees Of course misunderstandings and incongruity may arise from time to time but these are not helped by marginal splinter groups and provocateurs who distort the efforts of management. Effectiveness of the management can be judged by its capacity to bind the workers and at a time keep them satisfied, to fulfil a greater cause of success of the business. Efficient and participative managements can keep the employees satisfied and interested in progress of the company. With good will, rationality and sensitive communication the organizations can keep trade unions away and survive securely. Because of poor and irrational practices of the managements and lack of communication between the employees and the management, workers unite against the managements to form trade union, which can fight for their causes and interests. (Berkowitz, 2005) In the modern unitary frame of reference it is assumed that the organizations should be team flavoured performance oriented, managerially led and very competitive. Along with all these qualities the organizations should have humanitarian working environment. Organizations should have flexible working conditions. Business process should be improvement oriented, employees should be efficient and milt skilled so that they can tackle the increasing pressure and new challenges in work as required in today's organizational infrastructure. If a trade union is exists in an organization, its function is to create a link between the employees and the management. It can create an environment in which communications can be held between groups of employees and the organization. (Bandura, 2006) Due to steady Industrialization and accelerating competition in market, today organizations have to face tough time to survive. Such an environment gives rise to organizational conflicts. Such as conflict of power verses moral values, which include raising standards of production along with humanizing the workplace, Managerial prerogatives with ownership policies such as system, reliability, hierarchy, uniformity etc conflict with sensitivity, responsiveness, interactive ness, novelty and sub optimization. In this competition organizations are gradually loosing their ethnic values and morals. Today competence of an individual or a corporate is judged by his/her ability to cope up with constant fundamental changes in the organizational structure. All over the world, organizations aligning new products engineering teams around 'pit crew' model. Cross functional teams to design, manufacturing sales and service engineer's work along with the workers, who at some point of time have stake in the product. (Madhav, 2006) This ensures manufacturing and sales people having their say all through the design process and building up the manufacturing capability early on that is currant engineering. The goals are simple, such as speed, equality and competitive price. Commodities have become international for most industries and the impact of engineering is significant. In many organizations, the learning curve in engineering has become an unaffordable luxury. Competitive pressures mandate finding ways to reduce the total time required to introduce new products in the market. Competition along with more complex production and distribution environments requires identifying and reducing necessary costs, such as costs associated with development, manufacturing, distribution and service. Working conditions in some industries are very hazardous. The precipitation areas in industries have caustic vapours these cause skin problems. In some industries people work in fluoride environment .Continuous exposure to fluoride leads to a disease Fluoric in which bones and teeth are effected. In all these less attention is paid towards the interests of their workers, hence the relation between the management and the workers get seriously damage. (Cook, 2006) Guide lines of unitary stance for the for employees The emphasis should be on good relationships and sound terms and conditions of employment between employees and the organization with consent of both the parties. Determining the work-pay relationship with the method of Collective bargaining is too back dated and should be removed from the organizations. It is required by the organisation to reveal its gratitude and recognition of their efforts of its employees. Individuals and groups of employees should be rewarded properly for their particular contributions in the organization. The package rewards may include both tangible and intangible rewards. (Podolski, 2006) Working in a renowned and progressive company, which can be pride of an employee can be a significant reward element. The participation of the whole staff in the process decisions making in the workplace can boost up the interests of the employees. This authorize the employees in their duties and give emphasis to team work, creativity, innovation, and discretion in solving problems, improvement in quality of production etc. As the purpose of any organization is to thrive and be persistent in its endeavours, every employee of the organization must appreciate it, realize the competitive nature of the business, try to solve problem and take possession of their contribution to presentation and quality, which is totally focused on customer service. (Dos, 2006) Managers must be efficient and intelligent. Let us take the example of Peters and Waterman, who in "In Search of Excellence" thought of "being visible" and "management by walkabout". The dexterity and expertise of managers should support the endeavours of the Staffs. Staffs should feel that they are guided by the managers in perusing their duties. By sound management techniques the ambitions of participative leadership and the human relations school can be achieved. (Deb, 2005) Provisions of unitary stance for the for employers Staffing policies should be formulated by organizations to unify the efforts of the employees, as well as to inspire and motivate them in their jobs. All the objectives and decisions of the organization should be properly discussed and communicated with the staff. To promote and secure loyalty and commitment from the stuff, well designed reward systems should be implemented in organizations. Line managers should be appointed to take possession of their teams and staffing responsibilities and not forward the related problems to the personnel department, which do not interact with the workers and remain unaware of their problems. Technical and legal advice and administrative support regarding stuffing policies should be provided to the line managers by forming special personnel support service comities in the organization. (Roberts, 2006) Special personnel support service comities in the organization must concentrate on providing support to line managers in solving the problems like conflicts between management of the organization and the staff groups. In the point of view of the unitary framework the root of these problems arise from lack of information, incompetent presentation of management's policies. It is also enhanced by unhealthy, marginal factions - agent's provocateurs and staffs whose attitudes and intentions are against the organisation. (King, 2004) Thus systematic attention should be given while recruiting staff and should be confirmed that their personality and personal orientation match with culture and environment of the organisation. It is essential that through proper training, communications, conferencing and team activities that individuals become incorporated in company norms and get habituated with ways of doing things in that company. According to McGregor's Theory Y, personal objectives of each and every person employed in the company should be considered, discussed with other employees and incorporated with the organisations needs. An important element in the unitary (new HRM) organisation is Job planning and performance review. IT creates a supportive and developmental atmosphere in the organization. To "empower" the Staff in pursuit of their goals proper training and development support opportunities should be provided to them by the company. (Dollard, 2006) The ideas and visions of Douglas McGregor, which has been in scripted in his theory Y, have been closely followed by the unitary framework of management. The unitary ideology can be more clearly described as a new approach in the field of human resource management. According to the principles in scripted in Douglas McGregor's theory Y, management should integrate the requirements of each and every staff with requirements of the organization as a whole. (Kar, 2006) Evaluation of advantages and disadvantages of the unitary approach in management The unitary framework emphasizes the need for consensus and harmony in the relation between the employees and the management of a company. Individuals should be trained and socialized by the organization, so that they can comprehend team culture and easily adopt it. As unitary ideology is basically a new human resource management technique, it emphasizes on providing full respect to the employees in the organizations, and appropriate appreciation for their integrity band dignity. (Roberts, 2005) The unitary ideology provides that the management should integrate hard and soft, social and technical decisions and activities within the company. Non conforming employees however can not be easily accommodated using unitary approach. The individuals whose ideas do not integrate with ideas of other employees and who concentrate separately more on their self interests are the ones due to whom unitary ideology could not succeed to the required extent. In a company there exist employees with varying degrees of commitment, loyalty and willingness to serve with their all or hold back some of themselves from assimilation into the unitary culture. The unitary team approach is a little friendly group approach. (Lamb, 2004) In a company various employees might have various line of thinking over a single matter, which according to them is the right way to follow. Integrating all these employees into a single team may result in problems like distrust, conflicts etc. Before the advent of unitary ideology pluralist perspective was followed by the managements of the companies. On arrival of unitary ideology existing organizational norms and universal directions have been criticized. In unitary framework though workers get absorbed into the unitary culture, but still the feeling of individuality remains in them. This is a reason behind their half hearted contribution in the progress of the organization. (Mukherjee, 2004) The business approach of the companies is corporate in nature. Company's interest always lies in large programs of production and in give and take of large amounts of money. In this race companies generally pay less attention towards the interests of their workers, which causes dissatisfaction among them and thus give rise to revolts and strikes.(Harold, 2005) The unitary also tend to reduce conflicts of interests which arise generally in employee-employer and manager-stuff situations. It can be concluded with that healthy relations between the management and the employees only can bring prosperity to the company. Thus the unitary frame of reference is not simply about trade unions and industrial relations between managements and employees. (Madhav, 2006) In fact it is a definition which portrays the projection and maintenance of understanding, togetherness, and essential values and ethics as accepted by both the management and the workers of the companies. Thus it is basically a managerial frame of reference which does not easily bring itself together with companies or social positions which are distinctively more politically influenced. Instead of all drawbacks unitary framework of management has numerous facilities. Thus this approach could be adopted by the companies for finding solutions of their management-employee problems. (Fletcher, 2004) References: Anand, V; (2006); The Process of Thought and Perception; HDT Ltd. 55. Bandura, A. (2006). Social Learning Theory. Englewood Ciffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall Inc. Berkowitz, L., (2005) Management Aggression: Its Causes, Consequences, and Control. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Border, S; (2002); Fire of the Mind; National Book Trust. Cook, V. I; 2006; Being Personal: The Business Showcase; Large Alliance Publishers; Deb, S; (2005); Evaluation techniques; ABP Ltd. Dos, M; (2006); The Future of Thought Process; Alliance Publications. Dollard, John (2006) Frustration and Aggression. New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Fletcher, R; (2004); Beliefs and Knowledge: Believing and Knowing in Management; Howard & Price. Harold, Tim; 2005; The Essence of Better Living: The Perspective of Management Counseling; NBT Ltd. Kar, P; (2006); History of Corporate Psychology and related application of Psychology; Dasgupta & Chatterjee. King, H; (2004); Corporatism Today; HBT & Brooks Ltd. Lamb, Davis; (2004); Cult to Culture: The Development of Civilization on the Strategic Strata; National Book Trust. Madhav, S. (2006). The Effective Measures in Thinking. Psychology Today; Alliance Publishers. 3 (6). 17, pare 6 Mukherjee, Sachin D; (2004); Thought Strategies In Management; IBL & Alliance Ltd. Podolski, V; (2006); Public Perception of Perceptions: An Approach Towards Financial Intelligence; IBL & Alliance Ltd. Roberts, O M; (2005); Outline of Management; National Book Trust 43 Roberts, O M; (2006); Creating Future for Business Intelligence; National Book Trust. Rogers, W. (2006) Financial Intelligence: A Critical Agenda. Polity Press, Cambridge. Roy, D P; (2003); Birth of Thought: The Evolving Management Trainer; Part II; HDT Ltd. Sen, S; (2004); Thinking and Acting in Fiscal Fitness; ABP Ltd. Read More