Theories of HR: Contribution to Pluralist Perspective

This essay delves into the contributions of various Human Resource (HR) theories to the pluralist perspective. It begins by defining the pluralist theory, which emphasizes the existence of multiple power groups within an organization, including management and trade unions, and acknowledges that conflicts are normal due to differing perspectives. The essay then explores Dunlop's theory, which focuses on improving relationships between employees, unions, and management to reach mutually acceptable agreements, highlighting its contribution to the pluralist perspective by recognizing the importance of agreement among power groups. The institutional theory is examined, emphasizing the need for organizations to conform to social norms for legitimacy, and how it contributes to the pluralist perspective by providing a framework for understanding organizational behavior. Finally, the corporatist theory is discussed, which views employees and employers as distinct organizations, analyzing its contribution to the pluralist perspective through its focus on coordinating interests and promoting discussions among different groups. The essay concludes by referencing the Australian employment relations scenario, which prioritizes the pluralist theory and conflict resolution techniques.

Running head: CONTRIBUTION OF HR THEORIES
CONTRIBUTION OF HR THEORIES
Name of student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Response to question 1:
The pluralist theory focuses on the existence of power groups within the organization.
These groups have different opinions, different leaders and different requirements (Kaufman
and Gall 2015). These groups comprise of management and trade unions. This perspective
explains that conflicts within and outside an organization is normal due to different
perspectives of people and different leaders. This perspective is focused on showing the
bargaining power of employees due to the trade unions and the dual responsibility of the
employees towards the management and the trade union. Dunlop’s theory was developed for
improving the relationship between the three main actors of the organization- the employees,
the union and the management and for the purpose of solving various problems related to
these two groups and reaching an agreement that is acceptable to all the three actors (Bluen
2015). According to the Dunlop’s theory the industrial relationship is a sub set of industrial
nation and thus the logic applying to the industrial nation will apply to the industrial
relationships also. He calls it a systems theory because the elements of the industrial relations
are dependent upon each other and they all work together for achievement of a few common
goals collectively (Sen and LEE 2015). The three main factors that are to be considered while
applying the Dunlop’s model include: the first factor to be considered are the environmental
factors such as technological, social, political and other factors that affect the actors, the
second factor to be considered is the interaction between all the employees and the third
factor to be considered is the formulation of rules as a result of the interaction between the
different actors (Roberts 2017). Henceforth, the conflicts between the three actors can be
resolved logically than through chances because industrial relationship are a part of the in the
industrial nation. Dunlop’s theory was focused on reaching an agreement between the three
actors as the main part of the analysis and this is how the theory is different from the previous

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theories where collective bargaining and conflict resolution between the actors was
considered as a main part (Guest 2016). Dunlop said that the main factor that binds these
three different actors together is their ideologies or beliefs about the society and others. For
example: there are three main groups in an organization. Employers group, the employees
group and the government body or the trade unions. The employees bargain for wages which
is fair according to them, the employer’s bargains to give wages that are fair according to
them then the government body tries to arrive at a fair wage rate and determine other rules for
work place that is agreeable to both by negotiating with them. However the environment
comprising of technological factors, market factors and power distribution affects the
bargaining process. The ideologies or the beliefs bind them together such as culture, politics ,
religion and others. This is how Dunlop’s Theory contributes to the pluralist perspective
because in the pluralist theory the main aim is at improving the relationship and reaching an
agreement. The Dunlop theory just like the pluralist perspective recognizes the existence of
the three power groups in an organization (McQuarrie 2015). This concept focuses on
reaching an agreement just as the pluralist theory thus it contributes to the pluralist
perspective. The institutional theory provides a social structure and it lays down the norms,
rules, schemes, routines for guiding the social behavior (Locke 2018). The most important
characteristics of the institutional theory is conformity. The organizations need to conform to
the social norms and rules in order to establish its legitimacy. The different elements of the
institutional theory specify how they are formed and how they finally decline. The
institutions under the institutional theory are social structures formed through different
elements and give meaning to the social lives (Orril 2016.). According to the institutionalism
theory, different business react differently to similar problems and those organizations
perform well which get institutional support. Powell and DiMaggio in 1991 combined the
concept of sociology and organization theory to create the theory of new institutionalism as

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against the traditional concepts of actors (Richter 2015). It seeks to provide explanation to
organizational and social concepts. This theory suggests that organizations that want to
survive have to adhere to the rules and regulations of the environment in which they are
operating. Institutional support for both procedural and structural can lead to organizational
conformity to rules and regulations. For example: when an organization decides to enter
another country called as the host country it has its own rules and norms and the organization
has to adapt itself to those norms to avoid conflicts and to have better employment
relationship with the employees of the home country by understanding their requirements.
The organizations try to understand the working environment of the employees of the host
country so that better employment relationship and engagement relations can be there. This
concept provides an advanced approach to the pluralist theory. The corporatist theory
considers employees and the employers as two different organizations controlling and
representing people under them. This theory explains that the relationship between the two
group moves from pluralist bargaining to corporatism bargaining to authoritarian corporatism
finally. For understanding the industrial relation in the corporatism theory, we need to
understand the relationship between organized labor and capital in the capitalist market
(Kaufman 2018). The relationship between labor and capital economy covers the relationship
between the subsets. The issues in the organization arise from the relationship between the
labor and capital. These issues can be resolved through bargaining between the two groups.
The concept of organized means that the capital is represented through individual
organizations rather than a group of firms in the whereas labor exists in groups especially at
the time of wages bargaining- this bargaining binds the labor together and forms organized
labor (Naughton and Tsai 2015). There exists an imbalance between the two groups- labor
and capital. Labor is put at a much weaker position than capital, which has power because of
the role that they play. Labor can however play a powerful role if they can come together and

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become organized. Corporatism is a theory of state and the advantages of the theory is that it
helps to identify the problems and solve the problems by understanding the relationship
between the two organized components but the disadvantage of this theory is that it fails to
recognize the role of the state at an early stage. The state becomes active only in areas where
there is a problem between the labor-market relationships (Orril 2016). Both success and
conflicts between the two elements is contained in the wider labor and capital relationship.
The labor and capital relationship starts with conflict because of the power differences
between the two groups. However, the relationship between the labor and capital is simplest
in case of a zero-sum game that is if one party wishes to get advantage over the other the
same amount has to be given up by the other as a disadvantage. The introduction of Italian
fascist gave opportunities for creating corporate states. The main aim of corporatism is to
form social organizations that can help in harmonious class participation for improving the
economic productivity. The corporatism theory contributed to the pluralist theory because it
was focused on achieving the coordination through the discussion between the different
corporations representing interests of different groups. The pluralist theory also focuses on
achieving some agreement by discussion between the three power groups and reaching an
agreement. The Italian fascist understood the importance of creating an agreement between
the two groups. The Industrial employers of Italian fascism were not ready to form single
syndical confederation. However, it was decided that syndical confederation would be
formed in each major filed one for the employers and one for the employees. Each groups of
employees and employers were required to form a collective contract of bargaining
representing the people under them. In addition, these syndical confederations of employees
and employers were to be placed under the jurisdiction of a ministry of corporations whose
verdict would be the final regarding issues of bargaining contracts. The main work of these
syndical confederations was to not just do the administration of the bargaining contracts but

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also for promoting the interest of the groups of their respective fields. Above these
confederations were the councils where both the parties has equal chance of representation.
However, it was found that the work of the councils and that of the ministry of the
corporation was same. The idea obtained from the Italian fascist corporatism was that other
western countries adopted the same technique to improve the relationship between the trade
unions and the organizations. This is how the corporatism theories contributed to the pluralist
perspective because this theory also gave importance to the power groups and improving the
relationships between the groups and reaching an agreement.
Response to question 2:
Dunlop’s theory of industrial relations was different from the previous approaches
and the other classical theories because they focused on resolution of conflicts as a main
purpose of their study (Joseph 2015). Dunlop focused on improving the relationship between
the three main actors- the employees and workers, the employers or management and the
trade union. His theory was focused on creating an agreement between all the three actors.
According to him, there are ideologies, which bind all the three together (Wood 2017). These
ideologies are the beliefs that are held commonly by them regarding the society, power
distribution and others. A pluralist theory is one which recognizes the existence of the three
power groups within the organization. These power groups represents their respective group
opinions and demands and then bargaining takes place. Dunlop’s theory is the one which was
used most widely in the classic era and his theory was considered better as compared to other
theories of the classic era because he supported the concept of agreement between the three
power groups in the organization (Bayar 2017). The contribution of the dunlop’s theory to the
pluralist theory is that it recognizes the importance of conforming to the rules, norms, the
regulations and other regulations. The main aim of the institutional theory was to explain the
importance of combing sociology with the structure of the social organization. Institutional

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support to the procedural and structural helps the organization to confirm with the norms,
rules and regulation of the society. The new institutionalist theory is focused on
understanding the way the society influences the organization and the way the organization
influence and affects the society (Greenwood et al., 2017). This theory contributes to the
pluralist theory because according to the institutionalist theory the society has the main power
to influence the organization. According to the corporatist theory, the employees and
employers are divided into corporations for the political representation and for controlling of
the interests of groups, they are presenting (Adams 2018). It contributes to the pluralist theory
because it helps in the representation of the interest of a particular section of the organization
and the pluralist theory deals with the presentation of the interests of the organizational
groups. The corporatist theory concentrated on improving the coordination between the
groups through the process of discussions between the groups and through democracy
(Wiarda 2016). The present scenario of the Australian employment relations is that the
country gives importance to the pluralist theory of employment relations and says that it is
common to have conflicts within the organization and that it is normal in case of all industries
and companies (Hajkowicz et al. 2016). However, these conflicts in the organization between
the employees and the employers can be resolved with the application of various conflict
resolution technique. This approach also recognizes the existence of various actors and says
that the organization of the actors is such that each actors support other for achieving their
individual objectives. However, the present employment relation approach used in Australia,
which once recognized the important role of the trade unions for presenting the interests of
the people, is now losing its importance (Kryger 2015). The trade unions in Australia these
days are not getting the required membership and even if it is getting members they do not
have the protection and presentation of interest of the minority groups as their objectives.
There are still many segments in Australia which remain unrepresented by the trade unions.

7CONTRIBUTION OF HR THEORIES
The country is focusing and giving importance to non-union representation of employees.
The decreasing density of the trade unions meant that most of the employees remained
unrepresented. Henceforth, this non-union employee representation can help in protecting and
promoting the interests of the organization. These are sanctioned by the state. Moreover the
existence of the occupational health and safety(OH&S) ensures that there is proper
relationship between the employees and the employers. occupational health and safety in
Australia requires organization to provide healthy and safe workplace and thus covers risk
management under it (Bogna, Dell and Raineri 2018). The main problems with trade union in
Australia is that due to the low membership of the Australian trade unions, these unions are
incapable of addressing the issues related to reducing workers power and the inequality in
treatment of employees. In an economy where the density of the union is weak and with the
existence of competitive products, the union are unable to do rent extraction. The role of the
Australian union was reduced under the Rudd-Gillard government of ALP. The government
neglected the Australian unions. ALP politics took up the time of the union officials.
Manufacturers occupied about seven percent of membership in unions (Kelly 2015). Those
sectors which occupied the unionism are no more the same and they are replaced by different
sectors which are unacceptable to the employees. Liberal reforms have raised economic
problems which has put the workers in a more disadvantageous position and it remained
unsolved by the union in Australia. Many Governance issues were faced by the unions.
Misbehavior amongst the leaders and officials is similar to that of non-profit organization
(Rawling 2015). Some degree of corruption existed within the unions. Henceforth, the role of
the unions in Australia is getting weaker as shown in the instances given above. Is it seen that
the Australian employment relations system only focuses on a part of the pluralist theory that
is the employment relations of Australia assumes the existence of industrial conflicts as
normal. The Australian employment system ignores the role of trade unions in improving

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employment relations. There are numerous advantages of the unions such as- they represent
the interests of the minority groups in an organization such the workers. They help the
employees to earn more days of vacations, to earn proper leaves. They can ask for increasing
the wages of the workers to the employers, thereby protecting the employees from any form
of exploitation (Preston 2018). At the tribunals they are the ones who represent the
employees. The unions can help to provide benefits to the families of the employees as well
by giving them medical benefits. It has been reported that employees who are unionized they
get better benefits than employees who are not unionized. They can help to bring new work
practices for the employees and the workers and thus help in improving the efficiency and
effectiveness of the workers. These unions help to resolve the conflicts between the
employees and the employers and bring them closer. The problems that Australian workers
are being faced today are the economic problems and they are not getting extracted rents.
These problems can be solved only by some government bodies like trade union that can
bring up this issue in front of the management. Retirement benefits are major issue these days
and the unions can help to solve these problems by providing retirement benefits including
the pension and others. Employees who are not covered under trade unions find it difficult to
get these retirement benefits. Contractual employment or at will employment is a major
employment problem that employees are facing. If an employee is employed under at-will
then the can be terminated by the employer for any reason without proper justification and
that will be legal. Whereas if the employees are covered by the trade unions than they cannot
be terminated without any justified evidence of any illegal act or misconduct done by the
employees. The Australian workers can take advantage of these benefits if they can create a
well-regulated trade union in Australia and some governmental bodies to look after the work
of Australian unions. The pluralist theory can thus provide a number of advantages for
Australia if the trade unions are made a part of power groups of all organizations such as it

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can provide protection of employees, employee benefits and many more but looking at the
present state of the country where the trade unions are becoming weaker due to less number
of members there can be some alternative to look after the issues of employment relations.
The workers of Australia are not ready to work under trade unions due to the recent failures
of the union to look after a number of issues in Australia such as- rent extraction, poor
economic activities, protection of employees and others. Moreover, the unions do not have a
future in Australia because of non-acceptance by employees; the officials of trade unions take
part in corruption activities. The main reasons for decline in the role of trade unions in
Australia is that- organization structures are changing that is people are shifting towards self-
employment, contract jobs and other alternatives where the traditional role of unions are
declining, unions dependence on the legislation of the country that is if the union depends on
legislation any change in that can affect the unions negatively and any employer strategies
formulated by the organization can also affect the trade unions (O’Sullivan et al. 2015). If
these disadvantages can be overcome then the pluralist theory can be adopted which suggests
the existence of three main power groups and to reach some agreements for the conflicts.

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