business in canada (chapter 2) not on midterm

The standard employment relationship (SER):
is a traditional economic structure where employees work full-time hours at a single employer, receive periodic pay raises, and receive health benefits and pension plans. This relationship is governed by government regulations and a strong social security net, funded by employer contributions.

Non-standard employment (NSE):
is less stable and characterized by part-time, temporary, or variable working hours, lower pay, and fewer employer-provided benefits.

- This suggests that competitive markets are the best way to organize complex economies and societies.
- They believe that self-interest drives people and businesses to maximize their interests, leading to economic and social prosperity.
- Neoclassicists assume labor markets are perfectly competitive, and allowing them to operate without government intervention will produce optimal market outcomes.
- Therefore, Canadian governments - and, indeed, governments around the world - are misguided in their attempts to "protect workers" through regulation such as minimum wages, overtime pay, human rights laws, health and safety rules, and laws that permit or even encourage unionization and collective bargaining.
- Neoclassicists argue that none of these laws is necessary to protect workers, and in fact they do more harm than good.
- invisible hand of the market (by adam smith)

- The managerial perspective is closely related to modern human resource management.
- It shares a belief with the neoclassical perspective that government intervention in the governance of work and employment should be minimal.
- In the managerialist perspective, employment standards and employment regulation should be kept to a minimum since these laws inject rigidity into the work relationship and impose unnecessary costs on employers.
- Unions and collective bargaining are an unnecessary impediment to managerial prerogative and flexibility in the managerialist perspective and should not be promoted by governments.
- Since it is in the interest of management to treat workers fairly, there is no need for workers to look to unions for protection.

I- t emphasizes the imbalance of power between workers and employers, and the value to society and economies of striking a reasonable balance between the efficiency concerns of employers and the equity concerns of workers. (bounded rationality)
- For the pluralist, the relationship between a business/employer and a worker/ employee involves the bearer of power, on the one hand, and subordination on the other.
- In most cases workers lack the necessary bargaining power to engage in meaningful bargaining about conditions of employment, with the result that the business purchasing their labour can set the working terms unilaterally.
- In contrast with neoclassicists and managerialists, pluralists support an activist government that intervenes in the work relationship to promote decent working conditions and worker "voice" in the determination of those conditions.
- Pluralists support minimum employment standards to ensure decent working conditions because they reject the neoclassical belief that market forces alone will produce a fair balance between equity and efficiency concerns.
(the benefits on pg. 55)

- The focus of the critical perspective is the inherently exploitive nature of the capitalist system.
It argues that the interests of labour (workers) and capital (the owners and managers of economic organizations) are irreconcilably in conflict.
- Since workers depend on capital for their basic needs in a capitalist system, and there are almost always more workers than jobs, labour is inherently disadvantaged and subject to exploitation at the hands of the more powerful capitalists.
- In fact, these measures can actually be harmful to worker interests insofar as they can blind workers to their exploitation and distract them from the more important objective of building class consciousness, which will be necessary to challenge the capitalist model and replace it with a more egalitarian one.
- From the critical perspective, the managerialist perspective glorifies the manipulation of labour by capital in an attempt to mask the inherent conflict between labour and capital.

- Classical management theories focus on execution and maximizing productivity through external rewards.
- Behavioural management theories view the workplace as a social environment. The theory seeks to increase human potential through skills training and promoting collaboration.