Essay: Industrial Conflict in Employment Relations and Gig Economy

This essay critically evaluates the statement that industrial conflict is no longer a key issue in employment relations, particularly in the context of the Gig Economy. Beginning with a definition of industrial conflict, the essay explores the nature of conflict in the Gig Economy, examining whether conflicts exist, their forms, and the involved parties. It delves into the factors that contribute to these conflicts, drawing on employment relations theories, such as the pluralist and unitarist perspectives, to analyze the underlying causes. The essay considers the benefits and disadvantages of conflict, exploring concepts like casualization, trade union membership, and wage stagnation. Ultimately, the essay argues whether it agrees or disagrees with the statement, presenting a comprehensive analysis of the changing dynamics of conflict in modern employment landscapes, supported by relevant literature and theoretical frameworks. The essay incorporates various models and theories such as: The pluralist theory, the unitarist theory, The Morton Deutsch Cooperative model, The Roger Fisher and William Ury: Principled Negotiation and The John Burton: Human Need Model.

Running head: Human Resource Management
Human Resource Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Industrial conflict is no longer a key issue in employment relations as can be seen in new
forms of work, such as the Gig Economy.
The Industrial conflicts are known to occur when the employees are expressing their
dissatisfaction with the management over the current state in which they are working in. the
employees might be dissatisfied with the management employee relationships. The main cause
of these types of dissatisfactions are typically those matters which are related with the regular
payment with the wage, salary increment or the remunerations which are paid by the company.
the employees can freely express their dissatisfaction in the informal and both formal ways. the
formals methods mainly includes the actions and methods of organized procedures in advance.
The gig economy is known as a part of shifting the cultural and business environment
which includes the sharing economy, the gift economy and the barter economy. Sharing
economy is also known as the collaborative consumption or the sharing which is based from a
single peer to anther peer. It is a concept in the gig economy which is known to highlight the
ability to rent7 or borrow a good from another employee rather than buying it own. The gift
economy according to the author Kemerink et al (2015)is far better than the sharing economy as
because they rely on the intangible rewards like the sense of proper contribution, community
prestige or honor. The barter economy is a cashless economic system in which the goods and
services are traded at negotiable rates. According to the author Eisold (2017) the barter based
economic system is something which is one of the earliest predating system in the organization.
Also in the gig economy the organizations will be able to save the resources in terms of
benefit which might include the office space and the training centers. They will also save the
employee engagement, time and salary of the employee. They will also save money just by

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contracting a staff who is a freelancer rather than keeping a staffs present in the office. Therefore
ideally the gig economy model is empowered by the independent workers who are rather
selecting the jobs which interest them rather than the one in which they are forced to in the
economy. The organization is obviously benefitted if there are no comfits in the place. The
disadvantages of the conflicts if prevailing in the organization will include stress or getting
distracted in the work of the employees from carrying out their role in the organization. The most
important disadvantage of the conflicts is that the employees might not be able to focus in their
work in the organization,. the conflict are very time consuming when it is coming to resolve any
conflict in the organization. According to the Bryson (2018) in most of the cases the managers
and the leaders of the top management of the organization is known to spend a lot of time in
resolving the conflict in the organization. Also it has been reported by usiness Performance
Improvement Resource that the conflicts contribute to the resignation of half the employees
working in the organization. the turnovers which are resulted by the conflicts are very costly as
the company will have to hire a new member in the place of the resigned employee. Also only
hiring the new employee will not be the end the employee has to go through various types of
training and development procedures which the company have to bear the cost (Gurău 2017).
Few of the factors which might explain why the conflict has occurred in the firm are
misunderstandings, poor or lack of communication among the workers who are working in the
organization. Lack of planning the tasks and poor staff selections will lead to conflicts in the
organization. the employees which are working in the organization might have to face
frustrations, stress and burnout while working. Few of the theories which are used to find out the
factors of the conflicts are:

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The pluralist theory is best understood through the generalization that power is relatively broadly
distributed among more or less organized group of people who are interested to work in the
organization. There tends to be little or very less gap within those members present in the group.
The government of the organization is known to depict the mechanism for medicating and
constantly shifting the interest of the people in the group.
The unitarist are known to seek employment as a relationship between the members of a single
social group or a group which has a common purpose of doing the things. The natural states of
the relationship exist in relationship to group aims and values.
The Morton Deutsch Cooperative model , in this theory the author Morton Deutsch has develop
an insight into the beneficial consequences of the conflicts in the organization. According to the
author the factors like the nature of dispute and the goals which are claimed by each department
are pivotal should be determined by the orientation party (Ye & Gu 2019). The teams should be
brought to the round table conference to negotiate the conflict and problems and solve the
conflict. The author further discusses the types of interactions which should occur between the
negotiating parties. They should evoke an atmosphere of trust which will eventually lead to s a
mutual settlement.
The Roger Fisher and William Ury: Principled Negotiation are from those who have contributed
to the cooperative conflicts of the organization. they have therefore put four principles for the
effective negotiation in the organization. the four principles are :
 Separate the people from the problem by helping them to solve it out.
 Focusing on the interest of the employee rather than positioning them
 Generating a set of options before entering into an agreement

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 Insisting the employees that the agreements are based on the objective criteria of the
problem.
At every stage of negotiation the principles are applied to manage the confliuct between
the groups of the employees
The John Burton: Human Need Model, according to the author Vining (2016) the model of
Human need by John Burton ahs played a very significant role in the field of human need
model. According to the author in order to find out the cause of conflict the top management
has to restructure the relationship between them. This model was very useful in the case of
the Maldives where the employees were causing conflict in the organization.
The Bush, Folger And Lederach : Conflict Transformation is very well noted in the conflict
trans formation model of Bush, Folger And Lederach. The author here uses the term conflict
resolution in peace building. In order to build peace and safe workplace the leaders and the
managers will have to transform the conflict into positive interaction and understand the
needs and situation of the employees.
Few of the concepts which might help to understand the conflict and find out the best
solution are discussed below:
Casualisation is the process through which the employee shifts from a preponderance of ful
time and permanent positions to contractual positions. It is the process through which the
employee can communicate their problems with the top management and change
accordingly.

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Trade union membership and employment – In most of the cases the trade unions are fully
involved in the conflicts which take place in the organizations. Therefore it can be said that
the trade unions can play a major role in managing the conflicts. The trade unions can solve
the problem in the organization so as by bridging the communication from the employees to
the top management of the organization (Vollmer 2015).
Wage stagnation – The wage stagnation is one of the most relevant issue which leads to
industrial conflicts in the industry. According to the author Carnevale (2018) the combination
of a strong growth and stagnation of the wages can lead to falling unemployment. Therefore
it is recommended that the organizations should always keep a high set of wage and salary
percentage so that there is no conflict of employees in the industry.
The theories which are chosen are based on the factors which are found leads to conflict in
the organization. the theories covers various parts of the conflicts in the organization. The
John Burton: Human Need Model, Bush, Folger And Lederach : Conflict Transformation and
Roger Fisher and William Ury: Principled Negotiation were the theories whi0ch covers al the
aspects of the basic conflict in the organizations.

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