Unitarist Approach
Worker and Management share common objectives
Conflict is temporary, unusual and the product of a few trouble makers
Trade Unions are unwelcome intruders because they divide loyalty.
String leadership is needed to gain worker loyalty by convincing them of management concern for employee welfare
Communication is a vital management tool
Criticism
Avoids consideration of conflict over distribution of proceeds
Avoids consideration of security of employment
Avoids consideration of the status of labour as a factor of production
Avoids consideration of issues of power and control in industrial decision making
Marxist Approach
Karl Marx – radical
A fundamental conflict of interest exists between workers and capital based on the division of power within society
Those who own the means of production have a power superiority over those who sell their labour
The state is not a guardian of “public interest” but plays an integral role in protecting the interest of power-holders and maintaining the major structural features of society, the “national interest” lies with protecting the health and capital
Conflict is total under a capitalist market economy and requires social revolution to retify
Criticism
Focus on polarized class struggle may have been a valid interpretation of 19th century capitalism, but it does not explain the complex economic, political and social conflicts of welfare-state capitalism of the later 20th century
Capital comprises a numbers of heterogenous and often competing elements and cannot be considered as one
Underestimates the independence of the state
Pluralist Approach
Competing groups with divergent interests seeking their own goal
Conflict is inevitable and normal and can be contained by an appropriate network of rules and regulations
Union are welcome vehicles of the expression of diversity
Power said to be diffused among the main bargaining groups is such a way that no party dominates the other
The state is regarded as an impartial guardian of the “public interest” whose role is largely to protect the weak and restrain the power of the strong
Criticism
Assume that labour and capital have the same amount of power
Focuses attention on the types of rules, regulations and processes and trends to become a study of job regulation
Assumes impartiality of the state
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