approach of industrial relapproach-of-industrial-relationation

7/29/2019 Approach of Industrial RelAPPROACH-OF-INDUSTRIAL-RELATIONation

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AN

ASSIGNMENT

ON

APPROACHES TO INDUSTRIAL

RELATION

SUBMIT TO: PROF.ALPABEN MEHTA

DEPARTMENT OF LABOUR WELFARE,SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCE,

GUJARAT UNIVERSITY,

AHMEDABAD.

SUBMIT BY;

NIKUNJ.B.PATEL

ROLL NO. 19

Jr.M.L.W.


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INTRODUCTION:

Industrial relations has become one of the most delicate and complex

problems of modern industrial society. Industrial progress is impossible

without cooperation of labors and harmonious relationships. Therefore, itis in the interest of all to create and maintain good relations between

employees (labor) and employers (management).

The term Industrial Relations comprises of two terms: Industry and

Relations. Industry refers to any productive activity in which an

individual (or a group of individuals) is (are) engaged. By relations we

mean the relationships that exist within the industry between the

employer and his workmen.

DEFINATION:

1) Industrial Relation is a relation between employer and employees,

employees and employees and employees and trade unions. and

the process by which people and their organizations interact at the

place of work to establish the terms and conditions of employment.

- Industrial dispute Act 1947

2) The Oxford Dictionary defines industrial relations (IR) as the

"interaction between employers, employees, and the government;

and the institutions and associations through which such

interactions are mediated."


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APPROACHES TO INDUSTRIAL RELATION:

Several systematic attempts have been made by industrial

sociologists & industrial relations theories to develop theoretical

perspectives or approaches to analyze industrial relations & trade

unionism. It might be useful to examine some significant approaches to

the analysis of industrial relations in order to be able to develop an

appreciation of the alternative industrial perspectives. The seeds of what

has been termed as the Transformational Process Model are to be

found scattered of the approaches. Which are below:

1. The System Model (Dunlops approach)

2. The Pluralist Approach

3. Webers Social Action Approach

4. The Oxford Approach

5. The Industrial Sociology Approach

6. The Psychological Approach

7. The Marxist Approach

8. The Human Relations Approach

9. The Gandhian Approach

10. Human Resource Management Approach

11. The Unitary Approach

12. The Multidisciplinary Approach


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1.The System Model (Dunlops approach):

One of the significant theories of industrial labor relations was put forth

by John Dunlop in the 1950s. According to Dunlop industrial relations

system consists of three agents management organizations, workers and

formal/informal ways they are organized and government agencies. These

actors and their organizations are located within an environment defined

in terms of technology, labor and product markets, and the distribution of

power in wider society as it impacts upon individuals and workplace. Within

this environment, actors interact with each other, negotiate and use

economic/political power in process of determining rules that constitute the

output of the industrial relations system. He proposed that three parties

employers, labor unions, and government-- are the key actors in a modern

industrial relations system.

He also argued that none of these institutions could act in an

autonomous or independent fashion. Instead they were shaped, at least to

some extent, by their market, technological and political contexts.

2. The Pluralist Approach:

In pluralism the organization is perceived as being made up of powerful

and divergent sub-groups - management and trade unions. This approach

sees conflicts of interest and disagreements between managers and

workers over the distribution of profits as normal and inescapable.

Consequently, the role of management would lean less towards enforcing

and controlling and more toward persuasion and co-ordination. Trade

unions are deemed as legitimate representatives of employees. Conflict is

dealt by collective bargaining and is viewed not necessarily as a bad thing


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and if managed could in fact be channeled towards evolution and positive

change.Realistic managers should accept conflict to occur. There is a

greater propensity for conflict rather than harmony. They should anticipate

and resolve this by securing agreed procedures for settling disputes.

The implications of this approach include:

The firm should have industrial relations and personnel specialists

who advise managers and provide specialist services in respect of

staffing and matters relating to union consultation and negotiation.

Independent external arbitrators should be used to assist in the

resolution of disputes.

Union recognition should be encouraged and union representatives

given scope to carry out their representative duties.

Comprehensive collective agreements should be negotiated with

unions.

3.Webbers Social Action Approach:

The social action approach of Weber has laid considerable importance

to the question of control in the context of increasing rationalization and

bureaucratization. Closely related to Webers concern related to control in

organizations was his concern with power of control and dispersal. Thus a

trade union in the Webers scheme of things has both economic purposes

as well as the goal of involvement in political and power struggles. Some of

the major orientations in the Weberian approach have been to analyze the

impact of techno-economic and politico-organisational changes on trade

union structure and processes, to analyse the subjective interpretation of

workers approaches to trade unionism and finally to analyse the power of


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various components of the industrial relations environment government,

employers, trade unions and political parties. Thus the Weberian approach

gives the theoretical and operational importance to control as well as to

the power struggle to control work organisations a power struggle in

which all the actors in the industrial relations drama are caught up.

4.The Oxford Approach:

According to this approach, the industrial relations system is a study

of institutions of job regulations and the stress is on the substantive and

procedural rules as in Dunlops model. Flanders, the exponent of this

approach, considers every business enterprise as a social system of

production and distribution, which has a structured pattern of relationship.

The institution of job regulation is categorised by him as internal and

external the former being an internal part of the industrial relations

system such as code of work rules, wage structure, internal procedure of

joint consultation, and grievance procedure. He views trade unions as an

external organisation and excludes collective agreements from the sphereof internal regulation. According to him, collective bargaining is central to

the industrial relations system.

5.The Industrial Sociology Approach:

The industry is a social world in miniature having a community made

up of various individuals and groups with differing personalities,

families, education, emotions likes and dislikes etc.

Though the workers carry out their jobs in given industrial

environment, their work behavior is largely monitored by various social

factors. Further the social consequences of industrialization like


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urbanization, social mobility, disintegration of family structure etc

influence the adjustment and development of IR and require a structural

change in the basis IR systems as well.

Certain social evils like delinquency, gambling, drinking, drug-

addiction, stress and strain etc do influence workers efficiency and

productivity that in turn influence IR system as a whole.

The process of change and modernization of IR are complex in

character from a sociological perspective. such a perspective may be

useful in understanding and appreciation of diverse roles and

predictable attitudes of interests of groups in Industrial Relations.

6.The Psychological Approach:

The problems of IR have their origin in the perceptions of the

management, unions and the workers.

The conflicts between labour and management occur because every

group negatively perceives the behaviour of the other i.e. even the

honest intention of the other party so looked at with suspicion.The problem is further aggravated by various factors like the income,

level of education, communication, values, beliefs, customs, goals of

persons and groups, prestige, power, status, recognition, security etc

are host factors both economic and non-economic which influence

perceptions unions and management towards each other.

Industrial peace is a result mainly of proper attitudes and

perception of the two parties.


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7.The Marxist Approach:

This view of industrial relations is a byproduct of a theory of capitalist

society and social change. Marx argued that:

Weakness and contradiction inherent in the capitalist system would

result in revolution and the ascendancy of socialism over capitalism.

Capitalism would foster monopolies.

Wages (costs to the capitalist) would be minimized to a subsistence

level.

Capitalists and workers would compete/be in contention to winground and establish their constant win-lose struggles would be

evident.

This perspective focuses on the fundamental division of interest

between capital and labor, and sees workplace relations against this

background. It is concerned with the structure and nature of society and

assumes that the conflict in employment relationship is reflective of the

structure of the society. Conflict is therefore seen as inevitable and trade

unions are a natural response of workers to their exploitation by capital.

8.The Human Relations Approach:

Human resources are made up of living beings but not machines. They

need freedom of speech, of thought, of expression, of movement and of

control over the timings. This approach implies that the relationship

between employee and employer as between two human beings. The

term human relations include the relationship during the out of


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employment situations.

In the words of Keith Davies, human relations are the integration of

people into a work situation that motivates them to work together

productively, cooperatively and with economic, psychological and socialsatisfactions. According to him, the goals of human relations are:

To get people to produce,

To cooperate through mutuality of interest, and

To gain satisfaction from their relationships.

.The Gandhian Approach:

Thisapproach to industrial relation is based upon fundamental principal

of truth, non-violance and non-possission. This approach presumes the

peaceful co-existance of capital and labour. Gandhiji emphasized that if

the employers follow the principal of trusteeship than there is no scope of

conflict of interest between labour and management, Gandhiji accepted

the workers right to strike,but cautioned that they should exercise this right

for a just cause and in a peaceful and non-violence manner and this

method should only be resorted when all methods failed in getting

employers response. He also appealed to the workers to behave as

trustees, not to regard the mill and machinery as belonging to the

exploiting agents but to regard them as their own, protect them and put to

the best use they can. In short, the theory of trusteeship is based on theview that all forms of property and human accomplishments are gifts of

nature and as such, they belong not to any one individual but to society.

Gandhiji advocated the following rules to resolve industrial conflicts:


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Workers should seek redressal of reasonable demands through collective

action.

Trade unions should decide to go on strike talking ballot authority

from all workers and remain peaceful and use non-violent methods. Workers should avoid strikes to the possible extent.

Strikes should be resorted to only as a last report.

Workers should avoid formation of unions in philanthropical

organization.

Workers should take recourse to voluntary arbitration to the possible

extent where direct settlement failed.

10.Human Resource Management Approach:

The term, human resource management (HRM) has become

increasingly used in the literature of personnel/industrial relations. The

term has been applied to a diverse range of management strategies and,

indeed, sometimes used simply as a more modern, and therefore more

acceptable, term for personnel or industrial relations management. Some

of the components of HRM are:

1. Human Resource Organisation;

2. Human Resource Planning;

3. Human Resource Systems;

4. Human Resource Development;

5. Human Resource Relationships;

6. Human Resource Utilisation;

7. Human Resource Accounting; And


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8. Human Resource Audit.

This approach emphasises individualism and the direct relationship

between management and its employees. Quite clearly, therefore, it

questions the collective regulation basis of traditional industrial relations.

11.Unitary approach:

In unitarism, the organization is perceived as an integrated and

harmonious system viewed as one happy family. A core assumption of

unitary approach is that management and staff, and all members of the

organization share the same objectives, interests and purposes; thus

working together, hand-in-hand, towards the shared mutual goals.

Furthermore, unitarism has a paternalistic approach where it demands

loyalty of all employees. Trade unions are deemed as unnecessary and

conflict is perceived as disruptive.

a) From employee point of view, unitary approach means that:

Working practices should be flexible. Individuals should be business

process improvement oriented, multi-skilled and ready to tackle with

efficiency whatever tasks are required.

If a union is recognized, its role is that of a further means of

communication between groups of staff and the company.

The emphasis is on good relationships and sound terms and

conditions of employment.

Employee participation in workplace decisions is enabled. This helps

in empowering individuals in their roles and emphasizes team work,

innovation, creativity, discretion in problem-solving, quality and

improvement groups etc.


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Employees should feel that the skills and expertise of managers

supports their endeavors.

b) From employer point of view, unitary approach means that:

Staffing policies should try to unify effort, inspire and motivate

employees.

The organization's wider objectives should be properly

communicated and discussed with staff.

Reward systems should be so designed as to foster to secure loyalty

and commitment.

Line managers should take ownership of their team/staffing

responsibilities.

Staff-management conflicts - from the perspective of the unitary

framework - are seen as arising from lack of information, inadequate

presentation of management's policies.

The personal objectives of every individual employed in the business

should be discussed with them and integrated with the

organizations needs.

12.Multidisciplinary Approachss:

A multidisciplinary approach to problem solving involves drawing

appropriately from multiple disciplines to redefine problems outside of

normal boundaries and reach solutions based on a new understanding of

complex situations.

Multidisciplinary working is often seen as revolutionary by skill-

centred specialists but it is simply a fundamental expression of being


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guided by holism rather than reductionism, as described by Jan Smuts in

his 1926 book Holism and Evolution. One of the major barriers to the

multidisciplinary approach is the long established tradition of highly

focused professional practitioners cultivating a protective (and thus

restrictive) boundary around their area of expertise. This tradition has

sometimes been found not to work to the benefit of the wider public

interest, and the multidisciplinary approach has recently become of

interest to government agencies and some enlightened professional

bodies who recognise the advantages of systems thinking for complex

problem solving.

The use of the term 'multidisciplinary' has in recent years been

overtaken by the term 'interdisciplinary' (a Google ratio of 86:214 in mid-

August 2006) for what is essentially holistic working by another name. The

former term tends to relate to practitioner led working while the later term

tends to carry a more academic overtone.


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