INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Multidisciplinary field

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 Employment relations

Importance of non-industrial
employment relationships

Many also equate IR to labour relations and believe that IR

only studies unionized(forming a group) employment situations, but this
Is an oversimplification(more simpler)

Human relations refers to the whole field of relationship that exists

bcoz of the necessary collaboration of men and women in the
employment process of modern industry. It is that part of mgt which is
concerned with the management of enterprise –whether machine
operator, skilled worker or manager. It deals with either the relationship
btwn the state and employers & workers organisation or the relation
between the occupational organisation themselves.
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 IR

Science Problem Ethical

building Solving

1.part of the social sciences 1. IR seeks to design 1. IR contains strong

policies and institutions to normative principles
help the employment relationship about workers &
work better employment relationship,
2.Understand employment relationship & especially the rejection
its institutions through high-quality, rigorous of treating the labour
research as a commodity in favor
of seeing workers as
3.IR scholarship intersects with scholarship human beings in
in labor economics, industrial sociology, democratic communities
labor & social history ,HRM, political science, entitled to human rights
law, & other areas

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 HISTORY
Roots
massive economic and
Industrial Revolution social changes

producing free labor markets & large-scale industrial organizations with

thousands of wage workers

created the modern Labour problems

employment relationship

Low wages, long working hours, high employee turnover,

monotonous and dangerous work, and violent strikes, and the
abusive supervisory practices threat of social instability

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 HISTORY – Intellectual & Institutional
• Industrial relations - end of the 19th century - as a
middle ground btwn classical economics & Marxism, with
Sidney Webb and Beatrice Webb’s Industrial
Democracy (1897) being the key intellectual work. IR
thus rejected the classical econ

academic industrial
John R. Commons relations program

University of
Wisconsin in 1920
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 HISTORY – Financial Support

John D. Rockefeller, Jr (Financial support)

progressive labor-management
relations

aftermath of the bloody strike at a

Rockefeller-owned coal mine in
Colorado

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 HISTORY – Chairs

Montague Burton
@ Leeds, Cardiff &
(Britain)
another progressive industrialist Cambridge in 1930

Formalized in 1950

endowed chairs in industrial

relations

Allan Flanders & Hugh Clegg

formation of the Oxford School

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 HISTORY – Cont..
• Formed with a strong problem-solving orientation that
rejected both the classical economists’ laissez
faire(Noninterference in the affairs of others) solutions to
labor problems & the Marxist solution of class revolution.
It is this approach that underlies the New Deal legislation
in the United States, such as the National Labor
Relations Act and the Fair Labor Standards Act.

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• Workplace Relations - the relationship btwn an
employer & its employees that governs the employment
& non-employment elements such as terms of
employment, working condition, welfare, rights and
obligation to each other, and so on.
• Purpose - unite the group of employees and employer
as one big, happy family.
• Principle -behind the IR is the collective bargaining
between the employee’s union and the employer to
achieve a collective agreement

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• IR is not the same as the Employment Act in the sense that the
interaction process btwn an employer & the employees is not
much bound to legal & technical aspect of an employment, but
rather to achieve a compromise agreements and stands.

• IR executives & managers act as the middlemen btwn the

union & the employers, and in an ideal world, they strike a
balance between the two.

• Sometimes, the union fights hard and in response the employer

would take a tough stance. As a result, negotiation stalls and
the outcome can be potentially unhealthy. It’s true they say
strong worker’s union can make the employer’s life miserable
and cripple the company’s operation.

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 Employee Relations
• Involves the body of work concerned with
maintaining employer-employee relationships that
contribute to satisfactory productivity, motivation,
and morale.

• Employee Relations is concerned with preventing

& resolving problems involving individuals which
arise out of or affect work situations.

• Relationship of employees with the organization

and with each other
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Advice to supervisors correct poor performance
& employee misconduct

progressive discipline
and regulatory
requirements

disciplinary actions and in resolving

employee grievances and appeals

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 promote a better understanding
of management's goals &
policies
Information to
employees
to employees to assist them in correcting poor
performance,
on or off duty misconduct, and/or to address
personal issues that affect them in the workplace.

applicable regulations, legislation,

and bargaining agreements
Advise to
employees

about their grievance and appeal rights

and discrimination and whistleblower
protections

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• Developing,implementing,administering &
analyzing
the employer-employee relationship;
• performing ongoing evaluation of it;
• managing employee performance;
• ensuring that relations with employees comply
with applicable federal, state and local laws and
regulations;
• resolving workplace disputes

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• Include
• HR careers,
• communications,
• legal and regulatory issues,
• technology, metrics and
• outsourcing in the employee relations field, as well
as effective employee relations practices and global
employee relations issues
• Does not include matters involving
• union organizing,
• union elections,
• collective bargaining and
• ongoing union-management relations,
which are encompassed in the Labor Relations Discipline.
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 Theories of IR
• System Theory

• Oxford Theory

• Structural Contradiction Theory

• Gandhian Theory

• Human Relations Theory

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 System Theory (by John Dunlop)
Focuses on
Participants in the process
Environmental forces
Output

And their inter-relationship.

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 System Theory (contd.)
Environmental Outputs
Participants
Forces
(i) Market or Budgetary
Restraints Union –
Management
Rules of the
(ii)Technology
Workplace
(iii)Distribution of Government
Power in Society

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 System Theory : Participants
The main participants are
 Workers and their organisations

 Management and their representatives

 Government agencies

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 System Theory :Environment
Three types of environments
Technological characteristics of workplace
(Technological sub-system)

The market or economic constraints

(Economic sub-system)

The ‘locus’ and ‘balance of power’ existing in

society (Political sub-system)

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 System Theory : Output

Output is the result of interaction of the

parties/actors of the system which is
manifested in the network of rules,
country’s labour policy and labour
agreements etc. that facilitate a fair deal to
workers.

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System Theory (contd.)
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(Set of Ideas and Beliefs)

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 The Oxford Theory
• Flanders – Conflict is inherent – Collective
bargaining required – CB central to IR system –
determined thro’ rule making process of CB
• r = f (b) or r = f (c)
where r – rules governing IR
b – collective bargaining
c – Conflict resolved thro’ CB
• Criticism – too narrow (comprehensive for
analysing IR) – overemphasis political process of
CB – insufficient wt deeper influence in
determination of rules
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• E
STRUCTURAL CONTRADICTION
THEORY - Hyman(1971)

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 Cont..
• Inherent deprivation cause conflict of trade unions
with employers in politico-economic structure
• Analysis – focus on not only structure but also
deprivations & socio-economic inequalities
(inherent components of capitalist mode of
production)

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 Gandhian Approach
• Truth, Non-violence, Non-possession, Non co-
operation (Satyagarah), trusteeship...

• Workers’ right to strike.

• Concept of equality

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Th
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Gan
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Human Relations Theory – KEITH DEVIS

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What Influences Human To Work
• Style of leadership
Autocratic style
Democratic style

• Motivation (satisfy the dissatisfied needs)

Physiological needs (food, water, clothing, shelter)
Safety needs (physical, finance and job security)
Social needs (belonging, affection)
Egoistic needs (self-esteem and esteem from
others)

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