"The Employment Relationship is inherently conflictual.
Work in its essence can be defined, as by Michael Sutherland (2001) as the fulfilment of tasks for someone else. This is the basis of the employment relationship, and the exchange system that operates between the two main parties involved in this relationship, the employees and the employers, the details of which are known as the employment contract. The issue of control is essentially important in the employment relationship and the contract, and this can be seen as to where possible conflict can be initiated, the someone else telling the worker how to do the job. However, first the employment relationship itself must be examined, and the three dominating factors that determine this relationship, the economical, legal and social factors. These factors are the stem of the conflict between the two parties of the employment relationship (Dufty and Fells 1989: 2). The issue of how this inherent conflict is managed also must be dealt with, and this is done through two management ideologies, unitarist and pluralist, as well as legal, economic and social solutions. .
Before one can look at the inherent conflicts surrounding these factors, one must look at the factors themselves, and how they are interdependent pieces in the employment relationship. In theory, the most dominant force in the employment relationship is the economic factor. Firms have to make a profit, otherwise they will not survive, therefore they must use their limited resources in the most cost efficient manner using economic rationality (Goodman 1984: 6). All firms, and subsequently employees are literally at the mercy of the market forces of demand and supply. Supply of labour will be determined in the long run by trade offs between present income and training, investment in human capital, and in the short run by the workers choice between income and leisure (Whitfield 1987 18-20).
