Introduction
Employer/employee relations involve communication and cooperation that exist between workers and employers in the organization. These relations are of great significance as they contribute to motivation in the workplace, improved reputation, increased efficiency, output, and profit levels. The employer/employee relations encompass such issues as grievances, pay, production targets, bonuses, work schedules, hours of work, disputes, health, and safety. In addition, such issues determine not only the success of the individual employees of the organization but also the success of the whole society.
Functionalism Perspective
This perspective suggests that society functions as a whole due to the interdependence of each of society’s functions. This theory argues that effective socialization is necessary in maintaining the existence of social order, thereby preventing the occurrence of social disorders. The employee/employer relations can be improved through socialization, which makes it possible for the parties to learn organizational and societal rules. This enhances cooperation, which leads to people accepting certain norms and values associated with their cooperation with other people. Social integration is another concept that entails employees’ ties to their employers and to the organization, which helps in employees to socialize, as well as integrates them into the society thereby, reinforcing their respect for its rules.
Functionalists argue that the relations that occur between employees and their employers are, in one way or another, translated into the general functioning of the society. The provision of health and safety working environments by employers will directly influence the performance of the employees. Thus they will become motivated and able to increase their productivity and efficiency levels. The increased productivity benefits the employers who, in turn, may end up improving employee benefits. Improved employee benefits imply that employees will become more responsible when paying taxes. The government, by offering important societal resources and infrastructures such as roads and schools may use, the paid taxes. The infrastructures will not only benefit the children of the employees but also help the employer in transporting their materials to the workplace. Hence, functionalism emphasizes the importance of employee/employer relations that help in the production of a stable society (Giddens & Griffiths, 2006).
Conflict Perspective
The theory argues that society is filled with ever-changing conflicts. Conflict theorists usually encourage social change, challenge the status quo, as well as believe that the rich usually force social order on the poor. In the employee/employer relations, each party acts in such a way as to satisfy their own interests rather than the overall interests of all the parties. Employees generally try to push for those issues that generate benefits to them while in the organization.
On the other hand, employers try to emphasize the issues related to the employees that enhance the maximum output in the organization. It is s a result of the individual interests in the employee/employer relations that conflict erupts between them. For instance, employees would fully engage in advocating for improved changes in their pay, bonuses, health, and safety. On the other hand, employers would constantly increase employees working hours, production targets, as well as an organization working schedules so as to get the very best from their employees. This may ultimately result in conflicts because employees may see that they are compelled to working extra hours at the expense of their low pay or benefits. Employers’ main goal is to maximize profits. In contrast, the employees may become conscious of the class differences, thereby making them look for ways of eliminating all forms of oppressions and exploitations towards them (Andersen& Taylor, 2008).
Interactionism
The interactionism perspective focuses on the decisions of employees as on the kind of relations with their employees, such as the amount of pay, working hours, and schedules. It also focuses on the way in which employees interact with each other. This may influence or reinforce their relations with the employer. The perspective also investigates the way employees would behave when their employer enforces some relations on them. In order to improve employee/employer relations, the perspective would advocate for programs to increase the opportunities for interaction between the employees and employer. Cultural issues may influence the extent to which employees forge their interactions with one another. Such programs may include regular meetings to discuss work performance improvements, as well as ways of handling grievances in the workplace (Reynolds& Herman-Kinney, 2003).
Conclusion
In summary, in order to fully understand the issue of the employer/employee relations, one needs to analyze the views of all the three perspectives, because, as the perspectives look at the issue, they do so in different ways. The paper has critically evaluated the three sociological perspectives on the issue of employer/employee relations.
References
Andersen, M. L., & Taylor, H. F. (2008). Sociology: Understanding a diverse society. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning. Web.
Giddens, A., & Griffiths, S. (2006). Sociology. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Web.
Reynolds, L. T., & Herman-Kinney, N. J. (2003). Handbook of symbolic interactionism. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press. Web.