How Businesses In Singapore Are Adopting Unitarism Rather Than Pluralism In Employee Relation

Running head: HOW BUSINESSES IN SINGAPORE ARE ADOPTING UNITARISM

RATHER THAN PLURALISM IN EMPLOYEE RELATION 1

How Businesses in Singapore Are Adopting Unitarism Rather Than Pluralism in Employee

Relation

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HOW BUSINESSES IN SINGAPORE ARE ADOPTING UNITARISM RATHER THAN

PLURALISM IN EMPLOYEE RELATION 2

Introduction

Pluralism and unitarism are two aspects of employee relationship in business that differ

from one another regarding their definitions and approach. The two terms are useful in the field

of human resource development. Unitarism refers to the aspect where the workforce,

management or a group of workers work together for the welfare and the good of the

organization (Lan Maria et al., 2002). The employees collaborate with an aim of ensuring that

the company grows rapidly without any disturbance from outside forces.

On the other hand, pluralism is where the several groups of employees make different

demands and have different requirements for the purpose of achieving good industrial relations

(Müller, 2000). In Singapore, many businesses are adopting the aspect of “unitarist” attitude

instead of pluralism to employee relations. This claim is justified since times are changing.

Therefore, this article will provide the arguments having contemporary examples to prove the

validity of the statement.

How businesses in Singapore are adopting the “unitarist” attitude rather than Pluralism in

Employee Relations

Recently, industries in Singapore have been shifting the way they carry out business

activities. The implementation of these changes has taken place for the purpose of improving the

relationship between businesses and the clients. Also, the aim of the implementation is to

maintain a positive term with workers of the organization and help the company earn more

revenue (Yong & Wilkinson, 2004). Nowadays, the majority of companies work towards the

satisfaction of employees. It is because it helps in increasing the quality of production.

HOW BUSINESSES IN SINGAPORE ARE ADOPTING UNITARISM RATHER THAN

PLURALISM IN EMPLOYEE RELATION 3

The Ministry of Manpower of Singapore suggested in 2015 that companies are now

spending a lot of funds every year to nurture and maintain an organizational infrastructure that is

strong (Müller, 2000). For those companies to achieve strong organizational infrastructure, they

are now using unitarism to have a good employee and industrial relations. Such companies

believe that to foster a good reputation, they need to embrace the aspect of unitarist attitude, and

that’s why most of them are shifting towards that side.

According to Osman-Gani (2004), there has been a high level of competition among

business in Singapore. The purpose of this competition has been to see that these companies

acquire global recognition. With this objective, such companies think that the best way to do that

is by boosting the relations between employees and other industries. They believe that they can

only do this by working together with the employees to achieve a common goal of promoting the

organization’s reputation and welfare. Therefore, the appropriate technique of doing this is

through adopting unitarism. The employees are now having a common interest in making their

organization famous.

Price (2007) suggests that reasons for the adoption of unitarism rather than pluralism in

Singapore business are because of the nature of the market and the demand of customers in that

market. A study accompanied by the Ministry of Manpower in Singapore companies shows that

the majority of businesses that earn a considerable amount of profit are the ones that adopt

unitarism employee relation (Müller, 2000). Many customers prefer to buy the commodities they

want from such businesses because they feel that there is some form of proper organization and

coordination as compared to other businesses.

HOW BUSINESSES IN SINGAPORE ARE ADOPTING UNITARISM RATHER THAN

PLURALISM IN EMPLOYEE RELATION 4

Consumers trust the commodities from such businesses because they believe that they are

of good quality. Consumer satisfaction is one of the key factors that cause the rapid growth of

business. Although other businesses produce good quality goods and services, they are afraid

that they may not yield substantial profit due to lack of consumer satisfaction. Consumers have a

notion that a better business is one that has got employees who work as a family or a team.

Otherwise, if the workers have got different motives, then the business will not produce trusted

goods and services.

Therefore, because of the need of businesses to satisfy the needs of their customers, most

of them are shifting towards adopting unitarist attitudes in employee relations. Most businesses

in Singapore feel that there is a need to gain confidence in whatever they do. In order to do this,

they, first of all, need to make the workers work together as a team having a common interest to

achieve a common goal. Pluralism gives the employees a chance to voice out their concerns

about the business (Leggett, 2006). Therefore, the workers may have different opinions about the

business which may seem to affect the business negatively.

Since the objective of most businesses in Singapore is to have all the employees focusing

on one common thing, then pluralism does favor such businesses. That is why most of them are

beginning to adopt unitarism which perceives the whole business as one large family.

Additionally, Wilkinson (2009) suggests that many businesses are shifting towards the adoption

of unitarist attitude instead of pluralism attitude because they want the employees and

management to share a common agenda. Nowadays, in Singapore, the trend in businesses is to

HOW BUSINESSES IN SINGAPORE ARE ADOPTING UNITARISM RATHER THAN

PLURALISM IN EMPLOYEE RELATION 5

see that they achieve a certain goal after a given period. For them to do this, they have to adopt a

better method that ensures that both the workers and the management share a common agenda.

Most experts refer to this aspect of sharing a common agenda as unitary outlook (Yong &

Wilkinson, 2004). Most businesses are failing to adopt pluralism since it does not trust the power

practiced by the management at any point. Since the management plays a very crucial role in

ensuring that the business achieves the set agenda, most companies in Singapore are trying to

take advantage of this aspect. These businesses are aiming a ensuring that there is cooperation of

both employees and the management towards success. Thus, to achieve this, most of them are

adopting unitarism instead of pluralism employee relations.

The other reason businesses are adopting unitarism is because of its paternalistic

approach. This approach anticipates the workers to become loyal to the leadership in the

organization. The loyalty of the employees proves that they are trustworthy and that they are

ready to do whatever it takes to make the business prosper by achieving its objectives. Research

conducted by Kular et al. (2008), the majority of businesses in Singapore recruits workers who

have proved to be loyal to the company.

They usually test the level of loyalty by letting the employee work in the organization

while on probation. The recruit can work for even six months. Through this, the management can

carry out the assessment of the employee to find out whether they are suited for the vacant

position. One of the important determinants considered in the assessment includes their loyalty.

The employee must prove to be faithful to the organization no matter the circumstance they face

HOW BUSINESSES IN SINGAPORE ARE ADOPTING UNITARISM RATHER THAN

PLURALISM IN EMPLOYEE RELATION 6

like the reduction of salary or any other form of penalty (D’Amato et al., 2009). The worker must

also prove that they are ready to defend the organization in every aspect of their operation.

After conducting this assessment, then the company guarantees the recruit a job since

they have proven to be trustworthy. They would have shown that they cannot disclose the secrets

of the business to anyone else apart from the member of the organization. They will have also

proven to respect the company’s regulations without sharing the secrets on how the company

operates with its competitors. On the other hand, doesn’t need the employees to become loyal,

and thus many businesses do not embrace this aspect of employee relations (Leggett, 2005).

Many businesses in Singapore want loyal employees, and that is why they are adopting a

unitarist attitude.

Conclusion

To sum up, unitarism refers to the aspect where the workforce, management or a group of

workers work together for the welfare and the good of the organization. On the other hand,

pluralism is where the several groups of employees make different demands and have different

requirements for the purpose of achieving good industrial relations. In Singapore, many

businesses are adopting the aspect of “unitarist” attitude instead of pluralism to employee

relations because of several reasons. These includes the need of having a common working

agenda and to have employees who are loyal. More so, most customers prefer goods and services

produced by companies that adopt unitarism because they believe that these goods are of good

quality. Additionally, most organizations need to acquire a strong organizational infrastructure

that will help them counter the increased competition.

HOW BUSINESSES IN SINGAPORE ARE ADOPTING UNITARISM RATHER THAN

PLURALISM IN EMPLOYEE RELATION 7

References

D’Amato, A., Henderson, S., & Florence, S. (2009). Corporate social responsibility and

sustainable business. Greensboro, North Carolina: Center for Creative Leadership.

Kular, S., Gatenby, M., Rees, C., Soane, E., & Truss, K. (2008). Employee engagement: A

literature review. Kingston Business School, Kingston University.

Lan Maria, C. S., Debrah, Y., & Cunningham, J. B. (2002). Determining the future challenges in

industrial relations management in Singapore: A Delphi approach. Asia Pacific Business

Review, 5(1), 71-91.

Leggett, C. (2005). The fourth transformation of Singapore’s industrial relations. Reworking,

347.

Leggett, C. (2006). Industrial relations and enterprise unionism in Singapore. Labour & Industry:

a journal of the social and economic relations of work, 1(2), 242-257.

Müller, M. (2000). Unitarism, pluralism, and human resource management in Germany (pp.

125-144). Gabler Verlag.

Osman-Gani, A. M. (2004). Human capital development in Singapore: An analysis of national

policy perspectives. Advances in developing human resources, 6(3), 276-287.

Price, A. (2007). Human resource management in a business context. Cengage Learning EMEA.

Wilkinson, B. (2009). Human Resources in Singapore's second industrial revolution. Industrial

Relations Journal, 17(2), 99-114.

HOW BUSINESSES IN SINGAPORE ARE ADOPTING UNITARISM RATHER THAN

PLURALISM IN EMPLOYEE RELATION 8

Yong, J., & Wilkinson, A. (2004). The state of total quality management: a review. International

Journal of Human Resource Management, 10(1), 137-161.

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