The Unitary perspective of industrial relations views the organisation as a team ‘unified by a common purpose’, namely the success of the organisation. This perspective views all the people in the organisation as part of one big team. Unitarists view everyone within the organisation as part of one team with one loyalty structure. This immediately says that there are no barriers between different groups and departments which could lead to poor communication and animosity, which would go against the notion of common values and common goals as that would not be advantageous to the common goal, of the success of the organisation. The set of common goals and values that are put in place are there to try to create and maintain the order within the organisation, the ‘common’ set of values and goals are important so that all of the employees are working in unison. This is important as it makes employees at the bottom of the organisation feel valued too as they have the same set of values and goals to achieve as the people at the top of the organisation.
Unitarists believe that the sectional interest of the employees is important too however they are very much secondary to the general profitability and the success of the organisation. They see the states as an external agency which they can take their beliefs into. This means they that they believe the notion of the common values and goals should not be confined to organisations but to the nation so that we all have a set of common values which are in the national interest. One of the main factors for conflict within the organisation is the lack of communication and Unitarists see this as dysfunctional and counterproductive. The Unitarists believe that conflict is not inherent in employee relations as it does not make good sense for the organisation. They see conflict as an opposite to what they stand for because it is not structural and not organised, they see it as frictional as it can cause rifts and create different sub-cultures within an organisation which goes against their notion of the whole organisation working together as members of one team. Trade unions can also be seen a potential source of conflict as they are an external factor which are an intrusion to the organisation. They are viewed as not necessary within the organisation as they can create an alternative misplaced focus for some employees. The employee may see the trade union as part of the organisation thus placing their loyalty with them also, which could be tested if the trade union we unhappy with something and chose to strike. For this reason they are seen as an unnecessary external factor.