ASSIGNMENT 4B

1. in the decade: 1970-1980, which of industrial relations theory or theories that are able
to explain industrial and employment relations situation in the Gold Fish Company.
Give reasons and examples to justify your answer (5 marks).

Gold Fish Company is fishing company .The company catches fish in Pacific Island countries
and does canning in the factory. It has been operating over the last 40 years. The production
system, industrial and employment relations at the factory have been changing in the few
decades three decades.Thus, the theory that was able to explain the industrial relations and
employment relation situation in the gold fish company was Frederick Taylor scientific
management theory. This theory was form to increase productivity line and help reduced
labor cost and eventually is about telling men what to do and done at the best of their ability
in the cheapest way. So according to this company of gold fish Frederick creates this theory
to help with its employees in the factory because they are facing challenges such as the
working hours the works spent in canning fish and completing the task in the given time, the
working conditions, raise in wages. However the workers have same hours to complete the
task, but most workers there are women so the company should do better for them, Frederick
Taylor theory affects both employees and management in stressing in control of the labor
force. Therefore this theory tries to help resolve the workers disputes and tries to help the
workers to reduce the hours of their works and increase their production and helps the
management to makes decisions and bring about peace in the organization. For example the
Industrial disputes in Fiji have influenced industrial relations system in a variety of ways the
dispute was to do with the number of trade disputes reported was above the 100 mark.
However, it was below this mark from 1988 to 1995. From 1996 to 2001, it again rose above
the 100 mark. Major conflicts also expose weaknesses in existing labour legislations. The
institutions, laws and conventions that evolved were products of, and responses to, conflicts,
negotiation and accommodation between the parties (Prasad and Hince, 2001). Other theories
that complies with explaining this industrial employment relations is pluralist theory because
they accept conflicts as an interest, so according to this issues with the fish company is the
workers actually went to the union to deal with their issues. However this company the
workers seems to do the same task over and over because according to this theory the
production line do not need much skills

2.  in the decade: 1981-1990, which types of industrial relations theory or theories that
are able to explain industrial and employment relations situation in the Gold Fish
Company. Give reasons and examples to justify your answer (5 marks).

First of all industrial and employment relation are about the relationship between workers and
the management in the workplace at all levels. It involves the power and the rights with
responsibility and how as management can raise the performance that best fit the workers.
Therefore Employment relations occur when a person provides or performs work in return for
the remuneration under certain terms and conditions. Thus the type of industrial theories that
are to explain the industrial relation situation in gold fish company on the decades of 1981-
1990 are unitary theory, Pluralist theory sand scientific theories. In this decade all this
theories tries to figure out what can be done to be very productive and efficiency in the
organisation/ factory. According to those theory mention they try to help the situation of
labour resources were being used and as the highest around of skilled and unskilled labour.
For instance the unitary tries to seduce the workers where the management of the company
discourage them to join the union which 200 of its workers are part of the union. However to
that the union reject that because what the company is doing for its 350 workers is giving
them more after working hours for less rate. Thus the line of production Frederick Taylor
makes it harder for the workers and that they are tired for example the women garment works
here in Fiji works so hard nonstop. Therefore the employment relation and industrial relation
in this was that this company only deals with non-unionised relationships because the
management of the fish gold company want to take control of full labour but his is not likes
by half of the workers for example the boss tells the workers not to used phones when
working or go to the toilet during working hours especial factories such as the fish gold
company. On the other hand the pluralist theory tries to explain the industrial and
employment relation in the sense that to protect the interest of the workers that they can
legitimately help with the conflict and bargained over to solve the working conditions and
influence the management decisions because the IR and ER will act as to set rules and
regulations as to compromise with the oppositions.

3. in the decade: 1991-2000, which types of industrial relations theory or theories that
are able to explain industrial and employment relations situation in the Gold Fish
Company. Give reasons and examples to justify your answer (5 marks).

The type of industrial relation theory or theories that explains industrial and employment
relations situation in the gold fish company was the Marxist theory because this theory
explain IR and ER as the objective of profit where proposition of economics activities such as
production , manufacture and distributions are majority governed. However as the company
had to increase productivity to survive this theory focus on the labor processes because of
losing some of its market, so to increase for the loss they have to transform more raw material
to finishing goods. So whatever decision made will impact on the IR and ER. Thus situation
was to maximize profit so as workers should can strive to productivity and control the price.
Workers on the other hand are the important tool for the company and therefore the means of
production which used workers as a way to exploit profit thus us to IR and ER it focus on
maintaining stability and regularity in the industry. For example selling their energy to buy
labor and complete the task and that if union and bargaining not involve then they should
increases the cost and allow the working environment to be friendly and fair ness. Another
theory can be strategic choice theory whereas management can play as the main key in the
industrial elation and the employment theory will be on decision making thus this theory
supports the scientific management processes. therefore it’s about the choices that can be
made to argue about the changes on the assembly line for the gold fish canned company to do
new polices and strategy to maintain harmonized industrial relations in the company. Just
because the difference in the markets are driven in Asian and Latin America IR has
historically viewed trade unions and collective bargaining as critical institutions for worker
representation, giving voice to workers and balancing power in employment relationships

4. in the decade: 2001-2010, which types of industrial relations theory or theories that
are able to explain industrial and employment relations situation in the Gold Fish
Company. Give reasons and examples to justify your answer (5 marks).

The theories that were able to explain this was unitary scientific management, Marxist theory,
strategic theory and global theory and labour processes. This theory explains that IR and ER
situation for the gold fish company were that it is an abstraction that can't take into account
all of the factors that affect human behaviour or the complexities of society as a whole.
Consequently, theories on industrial relations can only highlight some important aspects of
employer-worker relationships and do not provide a full picture of those relationships. From a
Marxist perspective, the inevitable result of this clash is a worker revolution, where workers
take control of companies, eliminating the capitalist altogether. However, understanding
these theories and the aspects of the relationships on which they focus can give employers
and workers important insights about their own workplaces. owner approaches workers in a
spirit of cooperation, she will likely find that the employees she chooses to hire will respond
in a similar way. On the other hand, if the business owner views workers as people whose
wages reduce profits, it shouldn't be surprising if workers respond with conflict or animosity.
As for global theory emphasized that IR and ER are examining that the structure, social,
political and economic practices so it has argues that to increase the importance of
international product and capital market have impact and saying that it’s converging. For
example they can say the form of flexibility at the organisation. Due to that if the cost of
labour decrease then the union has negotiate to strive for survive.

5. in the decade: 2011-2020, which types of industrial relations theory or theories that
are able to explain industrial and employment relations situation in the Gold Fish
Company. Give reasons and examples to justify your answer (5 marks).

The theories that were able to explain this was unitary scientific management, Marxist theory,
strategic theory and global theory and labour processes. This theory explains that IR and ER
situation for the gold fish company were that it is an abstraction that can't take into account
all of the factors that affect human behaviour or the complexities of society as a whole.
Consequently, theories on industrial relations can only highlight some important aspects of
employer-worker relationships and do not provide a full picture of those relationships. Thus
this question is similar to quest 4 so the theories mention in that question is the same for this
question for example one class were the senior management and owners of the factory, and
the employees were see as working class. The workers rebelled through a big strike and the
company owners left and workers and govern began to operate the factory. The workers were
owners of factory not like before. Such strategic choice theory is designed to support
scientific management theory with the process. Also focus on wha the company wants.