Unitarist and Pluarist

A unitarist approach implied that employees should have one source of legitimate authority, which is usually the management, and there are no oppositionary leaders within the organisation (Ross and Bamber 2009).

The unitarist perspective believes that employing organisations and it individual employee of the organisations can come together as one that work for common interests, values and objectives and that are integrated and harmonious (Ackers and Payne 1998, and Burchill 1997), cited in Dzimbiri 2008). The entire organisations is deem as coherent integrated teams and as a whole working together for the same goals and common purpose, and there are also no conflicts of interests between labour and management.conflict between both is viewed as aberration, inevitable, being not necessary and do can be avoided (Leat 2001).

The role of management should be focus on cultivating commitment and loyalty among workers (Farnham,1993 and Ackers and Payne,1998). Conflict is seen as a manifestation of poor human resource management policies or interpersonal clashes such as personality conflicts. The unitarist believes with the input of the right management policies can definitely align everyone’s interests for the benefit of all, and there isn’t much need to consider employee rights( Budd, John W. 2009).The assumption that conflicts and different views in the organisation are perceived negatively; they are dysfunctional and cannot exist in the workplace, because it lead to disloyalty from employee, thereby impairing the well-being of the company (Giles, 1989 Farnham,1993 and Curseu et al. 2009.

Trade unions are view as unwanted ‘third parties’. Intervention by trade union spoil a productive employer-employee relationship, are not seen as essential for the harmonious managing of conflicts. Management will try to persuade their employees that they do not need a trade union to represent them and that management will look after them (Ackers and Payne 1998, and Dzimbiri...