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

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 Trade

Union Membership Statistics (BIS, 2013), a growth of around 59,000 to 6.5 million trade

union members in year 2012 was recorded. Nevertheless, in the year 2011, for the first time

since the 1940s, trade union membership has decreased below six million. Accompanied by

this development, is the rising trend of individualism in the relationship between employers

and employees. The workforce these days is characterised by diverse individual interests,

higher expectations concerning the extent of determination in the employment relationship

and accordingly strives for direct say over employment agreements.

However, there is some disagreement about the balance of individualism or collectivism in

the employment relationship among industrial relations academics and practitioners (Legge,

1989, Purcell & Gray, 1986). For this reason it is worthwhile to scrutinise this aspect in more

detail. The objective of this essay is to critically examine the extent to which the employment

relationship is becoming more individualistic. First of all, to set the scene for the following

analysis the key terms ¿individualism¿ as well as ¿collectivism¿ will be defined and the main

perspectives associated with them will be presented. After that, focusing on individualistic

and collectivistic aspects, the historical development of the altering nature of the British

employment relationship will be outlined. Finally, based on these findings, a conclusion will

be drawn.

To begin with, the notion of individualism, according to Purcell and Gray (1986:213), is

marked by ¿[employers¿] policies based on belief in the value of the individual and his or her

right to advancement and fulfilment at work¿. The concept of collectivism is whereas defined

as ¿the recognition by management of the collective interests of groups of employees in the

decision making process¿ (Purcell & Gray, 1986:213). [...]