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Lecture Notes

Back to the industrial relations paradigm, and back to this notion of common and conflicting interests between labor and management, or this mixed motive nature of the relationship between labor and management. There are issues where management and labor have a common goal; for example, both management and labor can benefit from increasing productivity. Higher productivity is better for management, of course, better, higher profits and can lead to a bigger total pie, which we'll talk about later, which means higher wages, but, and this is essential and this is where this paradigm departs from a human resource management paradigm, the unitarist paradigm, no single collective bargaining objective satisfies all parties. The parties have an inherent difference or divergence in the interests that they have, and successful bargaining is bargaining that occurs when the parties are trying to enhance their mutual gains, their ability to enhance common ground while also addressing areas where there are diverging interests, but not letting those areas dominate bargaining.