28 SITUATING HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT
different interest groups to seek support in the ballot box for their various
policies.
In the workplace and in the employment relationship, the existence of
different, pluralist interests between employer and employee is understood
and accepted as a fundamental aspect of modern economic theory. However,
there are different ideas about how the plurality of economic interests should
be managed. Different ideas about the appropriate management of pluralism
at work lie behind the major political and legislative conflicts of the twentieth
century, and are still relevant today to the analysis of ethical behaviour at work.
The great policy debates in Western IR through the twentieth century can be
summarized in terms of the differences between different variants of pluralist
theory, in particular between various liberal and corporatist ideas. To summa-
rize these great debates, and relate them to the question of ethics and HRM,
this chapter contrasts theoretical approaches of: (a) liberal-individual plu-
ralism, (b) liberal-collective pluralism, and (c) coordinated, neo-corporatist
pluralism. Each of these three social theories provide different analyses of
conflict at work, and have advocated different solutions to the question of
achieving fair and ethical relationships at work.
Liberalism and the Western tradition of liberal thought developed in the UK
and USA from the seventeenth century and still flourishes as the dominant
political theory of the USA, even though in current use, the term is being
used by US conservatives to attack what Thatcher in the UK would have
called ‘the wets’. Classical liberal theory rests on the importance of individual
freedom to express and act in support of human needs. It puts faith in the
power of freedom of choice, the balancing impact of markets, and the ability
of democratic political processes to ensure that social outcomes will be fair
and equitable. In the work environment, liberalism accepts the inevitability
of conflicting interests between sellers and buyers of labour. It sees labour
markets and contracts of employment as the mechanisms through which these
conflicts of interest can be resolved in a fair, equitable, and ethical manner.
Provided labour markets are competitive, and workers have freedom of choice,
then Adam Smith’s concept (1999 [1776]) of the market’s ‘guiding hand’ can
be expected to move people and resources around the labour market in ways
that enable employees to improve their position, while encouraging employers
to avoid the worst employment practices or forms of exploitation.
Classical liberalism is still the basis of our modern economic and politi-
cal democratic thought. However, the faith in the market’s ability to ensure
fair outcomes is rarely absolute and, faced with difficulties in implementing
the liberal ideal, people have developed various interpretations of liberalism,
advocating different solutions in the name of achieving greater social justice.
Two pluralist variants have had considerable impact on employment rela-
tionships, and the conflicting solutions of liberal individualism and liberal
collectivism need to be explained.