Types of Collective Bargaining
According to Walton and McKersie, “a collective bargaining process generally consists of four types of activities explained below:
(i) Distributive/Conjunctival Bargaining
It involves haggling over die distribution of surplus. Under It. the economic Issues like wages, salaries and bonus arc discussed. In distributive bargaining, one party’s gain is another party’s loss.
(ii) Integrative/Cooperative Bargaining
This involves negotiation of an issue on which both parties may gain, or at least neither party loses. For example, representatives of , employer and employees may bargain over a better training programme or a better job evaluation system.
(iii) Attitudinal Bargaining
This involves shaping and reshaping some attitudes like trust or distrust, friendliness or hostility between labour and management. When there is a backlog of bitterness between both die parties, attitudinal structuring is required to maintain smooth and harmonious industrial relations.
(iv) Intra-Organisational Bargaining
This is a type of maneuvering to achieve consensus with the workers and management. Even within the union there maybe differences between different groups. For Instance, skilled workers may feel that I they arc neglected or women workers may feel that their Interests are not looked after properly. Within the management also there may be differences. Marketing manager may urge the union to stop strike and produce to protect die interest of customers. On die other hand, the finance manager may oppose increase In wage on the ground that it will spoil the company’s financial position. Trade unions manoeuver to achieve consensus among the conflicting groups.