Examination of the extent to which the employment relationship is becoming more individualistic

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Essay from the year 2013 in the subject Leadership and Human Resource Management - Miscellaneous, grade: 72, University of Hertfordshire, course: Industrial Relations. Theory and Practice, language: English, abstract: Trade union membership has been steadily declining since 1979. According to the TradeUnion Membership Statistics (BIS, 2013), a growth of around 59,000 to 6.5 million tradeunion members in year 2012 was recorded. Nevertheless, in the year 2011, for the first timesince the 1940s, trade union membership has decreased below six million. Accompanied bythis development, is the rising trend of individualism in the relationship between employersand employees. The workforce these days is characterised by diverse individual interests,higher expectations concerning the extent of determination in the employment relationshipand accordingly strives for direct say over employment agreements.However, there is some disagreement about the balance of individualism or collectivism inthe employment relationship among industrial relations academics and practitioners (Legge,1989, Purcell& Gray, 1986). For this reason it is worthwhile to scrutinise this aspect in moredetail. The objective of this essay is to critically examine the extent to which the employmentrelationship is becoming more individualistic. First of all, to set the scene for the followinganalysis the key terms individualism as well as collectivism will be defined and the mainperspectives associated with them will be presented. After that, focusing on individualisticand collectivistic aspects, the historical development of the altering nature of the Britishemployment relationship will be outlined. Finally, based on these findings, a conclusion willbe drawn.To begin with, the notion of individualism, according to Purcell and Gray (1986:213), ismarked by [employers] policies based on belief in the value of the individual and his or herright to advancement and fulfilment at work. The concept of collectivism is whereas definedas the recognition by management of the collective interests of groups of employees in thedecision making process (Purcell& Gray, 1986:213). [...]

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