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Neo-Pluralism:

Neo-Pluralism: as a social science, normative & public policy framework for Employment Relations & HRM Peter Ackers Leicester Business School De Montfort University, UK. Some definitions & clarifications.

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Neo-Pluralism:

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  1. Neo-Pluralism: as a social science, normative & public policy framework for Employment Relations & HRM Peter Ackers Leicester Business School De Montfort University, UK

  2. Some definitions & clarifications • Fox’s Frames of Reference remain central to the intellectual pluralism of IR as a field • Contrast Clegg’s ‘new intellectual dynamic’ (Ackers BJIR 2011) to the frozen world of 1970s US IR or current Economics • Define Radical as Political Marxism: (1) critique of capitalism (2) political strategy to overthrow & (3) alternative Socialist system. Most Radical-Pluralists stop at (1)

  3. My main argument • Neo-Pluralism offers a comprehensive sociological framework for understanding the employment relationship (see Ackers IRJ 2002, IJHRM 2014, Edwards 2014) • NP supersedes traditional Pluralism & provides a superior academic social science theory to Unitarism & Radicalism • NP combines full range of social science, normative & public policy elements

  4. What’s wrong with Unitarism? • The dominant frame of reference for US win-win HRM/OB & exported globally • Assumes employers & employees naturally share the same interests & that workplace co-operation is unproblematic • Conflict at work is pathological and/or introduced from the outside by agitators • Employees don’t need any independent Voice (see Johnstone & Ackers 2015)

  5. What is IR Pluralism? • A framework developed in the 1950s in the US & UK: Dunlop Kerr Fox Clegg Flanders • Social science: employers & workers have different interests which has the potential for conflict; empirical research tradition • Normative: strong trade unions protect workers & create Industrial Democracy • Public Policy: integrative bargaining is the key to efficiency, equity & voice (Budd)

  6. Pluralism was a response to Radical failure: Clegg 1960 Ackers BJIR 2007 a practical and empirical creed, the creed of democracy achieved, of trade unionism which has arrived. They are fine doctrines to encourage men to protect what they have achieved from the corruption of Fascism or Communism…The new theories are both pessimistic and traditional. They are rooted in distrust – distrust of power. They argue that the political and industrial institutions of stable democracies already approach the best that can be realized. They return to traditions of liberal thought which preceded the rise of socialism

  7. What’s wrong with IR Pluralism? • IRP was almost exclusively focused on trade unions & collective-bargaining • IRP was too arms-length adversarial • IRP was underdeveloped as a political sociology of employment relations • IRP has limited contemporary reach as a social science, normative & public policy framework (shrinking world of IR & expanding world of Unitarist HRM)

  8. Is Radicalism an alternative again? 3rd wave anti-capitalism v inequality? • Social science: Still looking for Marx & Engel’s Proletariat? Over-collectivised, over-conflictual, simplistic view of our highly fragmented class structure • Normative: No credible model of Socialist society compatible with free trade unions, liberal democracy & economic prosperity • Public Policy: Militancy merely hastens union decline & strengthens neo-liberalism

  9. What does Neo-Pluralism add?As Social Science • A more complex, balanced & empirically open approach to conflict & co-operation:- Hybrid systems of Voice (Heery JIR 2015) • A ‘context-sensitive’ method (Edwards IRJ 2005) open to diverse interests & values (Weber on class, see also Greene 2015) • External links to societal work-life tensions which shape workplace relations: ‘family-friendly’ (see Kahn & Ackers IJHRM 2004)

  10. What does Neo-Pluralism add?As a Normative vision & argument • The employment relationship is not just an economic or bargaining relationship, but also an ethical relationship. Values stress • With reciprocal notions of duty & responsibility: ‘a fair days pay for a fair days work’ eg. Living Wage case • A constructive vision of a co-operative, productive ER; no return to 70s/80s social disorder & conflict. Win public opinion!

  11. What does Neo-Pluralism add?As Public Policy • A way out of IR’s negative agenda by proposing viable, broadly social democratic reforms within current society (as Pluralism did in 1960s) eg. NMW • Organizing for Partnership? A union strategy that builds on political influence rather than crude bargaining power • A credible alternative to Unitarism for HRM among employees, managers, trade unions & state policy actors

  12. So what does Neo-Pluralism add?A new Sociological definition of ER • After Durkheim & Weber etc (Ackers 2015) • Free of rigid Marxist IR assumptions • Not fixated with one type of institution • Employment Relations is the study of the social institutions involved in the normative regulation of the employment relationship and business’s interaction with other stakeholders in society (Ackers 2002: 19)

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