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Labor Relations HR - schools of thought mainstream, HR management, industrial and critical industrial

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McGraw Hill, /Chapter 2 Labor Unions: Good or Bad? http://highered.mheducation.com/sites/dl/free/.../988356/bud29430_ch02.pdf

There are four schools of thought that help HR professionals understand how to create labor relations strategies for their organization. Each school of thought listed below has a different view on labor unions.
Mainstream Economics School
Human Resource Management School
Industrial Relations School
Critical Industrial Relations School

Using the Internet research information on these four schools of thought, and analyze each by identifying the following:

Its view on unions (e.g., positive, negative, necessary, unnecessary) and its rationale for this view.
Its approach to labor relations and providing employees a voice in bargaining.
Your own views on each school of thought (e.g., Do you agree with this school of thought? Why or why not?)

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Solution Summary

A review of how the named theories in the assignment consider unions/labor relations.

Solution Preview

I have provided you with a lot of information to choose from. Some of the articles in the references make minimal impact on the theory, but they should be read and some of the references within them might be of value. You will want to narrow the information to make a more coherent essay. I used the questions posed as the outline format.

Mainstream Economics
Its view on unions (e.g., positive, negative, necessary, unnecessary) and its rationale for this view.
The mainstream economics view is negative. It does not single out unions, but instead combines it with any intervention into the market, such as government intervention like minimum wage laws. Unions are seen as hampering the supply of labor. Because the mainstream economic view is based on competitive markets being the perfect market, unions limit the supply of labor to business.
For the mainstream economic view, the relationship between organizations and employees is perfect. The labor works for the employer and the employer supplied the workers with work. If the arrangement is unsuitable for either side, then one or the other terminates the employee. Employees can quit or employers can let go to return the situation to perfect balance.
However, markets are not perfect and in imperfect markets, the employment relationship is imperfect. There is either not enough labor or not enough jobs. In the mainstream economics sees the union as creating the human supply problem or as limiting the actions of companies to rid themselves of labor to balance stakeholder and shareholder interests. Unions create imbalance in the competing interests.

Its approach to labor relations and providing employees a voice in bargaining.
According to mainstream economics, individual voices become more pluralistic in bargaining when unions are involved. Since mainstream economics follows a rational choice theoretical base, it assumes that people make decisions based on maximizing their own good. Unions then, as an organization of many individuals, will make decisions based on what is good for only employees and not what might be good for the companies the union and other employees work with. Unions are therefore, uncaring of the impact of employees "needs" and value, on the company where compensation is concerned. Unions also, do participate in bargaining for the employees. They seldom strike and often continue to bargain and strive to reach realistic settlements with organizations, sometimes after the previous contract ends.

Your own views on each school of thought (e.g., Do you agree with this school of thought? Why or ...

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