UNDERSTANDING

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
 Understanding IR

How do we make sense of what’s happening

Briefly,
Individuals, groups, organizations & institutions
making decisions that shape or regulate the
relationship between employers & employees.
Some rules (Formal & Informal) are there which
govern the involved people & the workplace.
Understanding this relation of employment is the
essence of understanding industrial relations
However any social phenomenon can be looked at
from different perspective.
 UNITARIST APPROACH
Basic assumption:
Each organization is an integrated harmonious entity
with a common purpose and a shared goal.
Role of management is to provide strong leadership and
consequently the rules of the workplace
Role of employee is to be loyal to the organization and
its management in recognition of their common
objective
Which implies
The employment relationship is based on mutual
cooperation and harmony of the interest between
employers & employees. There is no fundamental
conflict between those who own capital & those who
supply their labour since they all are a part of the same
team. No possibility of conflict and they work as a team
to attain the common goal. contd. 2
 UNITARIST APPROACH

Any conflict that may occur is seen as a result of

misunderstanding or mischief.
Industrial conflict is seen as an aberrant behavior induced
by trouble makers, poor management, bad
communications etc.
Since there exist a direct relation between employer &
employees trade unions are seen as unnecessary.
Unions are judged to be in direct competition with
management for the loyalty of employees.
The orientation and application of rules may be managerial
but employees are expected to be sincere & loyal to the
organization.
 SYSTEMS MODEL

Dunlop stated
An industrial relations system at any one time in its
development is regarded as comprised of certain actors,
certain contents, an ideology, which binds the industrial
relations system together, and a body of rules created to
govern the actors at the workplace and work community.
These rules take a variety of forms in different systems.

Actors
A hierarchy of managers and their representatives in
supervision
A hierarchy of workers and any spokesmen
Specialized government agencies
contd…2.
 SYSTEMS Model (contd.)
Environment
Technical characteristics of the work place and work community

Market or budgetary constraints, which impinge on actors

Locus and distribution of power in the larger society

The system is bound by
Ideology or understanding(s) shared by all the actors, and
Rules are established (Rules : Procedural rules / Substantive rules)
The establishment of these procedures and rules is the centre of attention
in an Industrial Relations System (IRS)
IRS is a network of rules which governs workplace and work
community
 PLURALIST APPROACH

Orgn. is composed of individuals who coalesce into a variety

of distinct sectional groups, each with its own interest,
objectives & leadership.
More than one centre of power.
Orgn. is perceived as being multi-structured & competitive in
terms of groupings, leadership, authority & loyalty; and
this gives rise to ‘complex of tensions & competing claims
which have to be managed in the interests of maintaining
a viable collaborative structure’.
Orgn. is in permanent state of dynamic tension resulting from
the inherent conflict of interest between the various
sectional groups & requires to be managed through a
variety of institutions & processes.
Here also rules are needed to manage this situation
How are these rules made?
 PLURALIST APPROACH (contd.)

How are these rules made?

“The rules of the system are determined through the rule
making process of collective bargaining which is a
political institution involving a power relationship between
the employers and employees.” – A Flanders

IR is the study of institutions of job regulation

 Structural Contradictions Perspective
Sometimes called the Radical perspective / Marxist
perspective.
This includes on the society surrounding the organization
Emphasizes that the organization exists within a
capitalist society, where the production system is
privately owned, profit is the key influence on
company policy, & control over production is enforced
downwards by owners’ or their managerial agents
Argues that:
Class conflict arises primarily from the disparity in the
distribution of & access to economic power within the
society – principal disparity being between those who
own capital & those who supply their labour.
They emphasize the importance of class conflict
 Structural Contradictions Perspective

IR part of total social relations and is determined by relations of

production (ownership)
Capitalist enterprises PROFIT EXPLOITATION
builds CONFLICT
(between actual producers and the owners)
Those who actually produce want to CHANGE
Therefore Struggle for control
IR is the study of processes of control over work relations
 In brief

UNITARIST APPROACH

Employment relations is essentially harmonious, punctuated

by occasions of temporary and illegitimate conflict
PLURALIST APPROACH

Potential for conflict is inherent in the employment

relationship, but it is manageable and can be contained by
appropriate rules and regulations.

STRUCTURAL CONTRADICTIONS PERSPECTIVE

Employment relations is basically embedded in the structural

contradictions in the larger society and it is a class conflict
 In brief

SYSTEMS MODEL:

IRS is a network of rules which governs the workplace and

work community

PLURALIST APPROACH :

IR is the study of institutions of job regulation

STRUCTURAL CONTRADICTIONS PERSPECTIVE :

IR is the study of processes of control over work relations

 Criticism

SYSTEMS MODEL
-Concentrates on the structures of the system ignoring the
processes within it
-Emphasizing the stability of IRS rather than the conflict and
dissidence within them
-No account is given on how the inputs into the system are
converted into outputs

PLURALIST APPROACH
-Pays less attention to the structures of power and interests,
and the economic, technological and political dynamics of
the broader society
-Stress on institutions which will promote rational efficient and
effective conflict management.
(contd..2.)
 Criticism (contd.)

STRUCTURAL CONTRADICTIONS PERSPECTIVE

-Concerns with the transformation of society as a whole,
which need not concern workers (or Trade Unions) who
should essentially be involved in reforming the system of
industrial government
 Some learnings
There are different approaches to study IR and each
has its own ideological perspective and each has its
own set of analytical tools
The unitarist approach emphasizes the psychological
contract between employers & employees,
organizational structures and performance. The focus is
on individual employees having universal psychological
needs for happiness, social interaction etc.
Whereas others stress more on conflict and its
resolution in industrial relations, and that the labour
contract is an open-ended arrangement and that the
work-effort bargain is subject to processes of
negotiation and contestation (sometimes even going
beyond the workplace).
 As a HR student let us not forget

Industrial Relations is a set of phenomena,

operating both within & outside the
workplace, connected with determining &
regulating the employment relationship
It has two sides – cooperation & conflict; a
continuous feature in industrial systems
and the change that takes place between
the parties.
It is an art which the parties learn by living
with each other (the skills of adjustments)