INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

Meaning:
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.”
Definition:
“Employer-employee relationships that are covered specifically under
collective bargaining and industrial relation laws”.
“Concerned with the systems, rules and procedures used by unions &
employers to determine the reward for effort & other conditions of
employment.
Objectives of industrial relations:
1. To enhance economic status of worker.
a. To avoid industrial conflicts and their consequences.
b. To extend and maintain industrial democracy.
c. To provide an opportunity to the worker to have a say in the
management decision making.
d. To regulate production by minimizing conflicts.
e. To provide forum to the workers to solve their problems
through mutual negotiations and consultations with
management.
2. To encourage and develop trade union in order to develop workers
collective strength.
Scope of IR
Management – Union relationship
Employer – Employee relationship
Relationship amongst various groups of employees
Effect of extraneous factors like state, socio-political- economic
factors on workplace relationships.
Approaches to Industrial Relations
• Unitary Approach
• Pluralistic Approach(Conflict Approach)
• Marxist Approach
• Systems Approach
• Psychological Approach
• Sociological Approach
• Human Relations Approach
• Giri Approach
• Ghandian Approach
Unitary Approach
• IR is grounded in mutual cooperation, individual treatment, team
work and shared goals.
• Work place conflict is seen as temporary aberration, resulting from
poor management
• Employees who do not mix well with organization culture
• Unions cooperate with the management
• Management’s right to manage is accepted because there is no ‘we
they” feeling
• Participation of Govt, tribunals and unions are not sought or are
seen as being necessary for achieving harmonious employee relation
Pluralistic Approach (Conflict Approach)
• Pluralism is belief in the existence of more than one ruling principle,
giving rise to a conflict of interests.
• The pluralist approach to IR accepts conflict between management
and workers as inevitable but containable through various
institutional arrangements ( like collective bargaining, conciliation
and arbitration etc) and is in fact considered essential for innovation
and growth.
• It perceives organizations as coalitions of competing interests ,
where the management’s role is to mediate among the different
interest groups.
• It perceives trade unions as legitimate representative of employee
interests
• It also perceives stability in IR as the product of concessions and
compromises between management and unions.
• Employees join unions to protect their interests and influence
decision making by the management. Unions thus balance the power
between management and employees. In pluralistic approach a strong
unions is not only desirable but necessary

Marxist Approach
• Marxists like pluralists also regard conflict as inevitable but see it as
a product of capitalistic society where as pluralist believe that the
conflict is inevitable in all organizations
• For Marxists IR has wider meaning. For them conflict arises not
because of rift between management and workers but because of the
division in the society between those who own resources and those
who have only labor to offer.
• Marxist approach thus focuses on the type of society in which an
organization functions.
• Industrial conflict is thus equated with political and social unrest
• Trade Unions are seen both as labor reaction to exploitation by
capitalists, as- well-as a weapon to bring about a revolutionary social
change. Wage related disputes as secondary
• For them all strikes are political and they regard state intervention (
via legislations and creation of Industrial Tribunals ) as supporting
management’s interests, rather than ensuring a balance between the
competing groups.
Systems Approach
•IR - a social sub-system within the econ. & political systems
•Components
• Actors
• Contexts (influences & constraints on decisions & action e.g.
market, technology, demography, industrial structure)
• Ideology - Beliefs affecting actor views - shared or in conflict
• Rules - Regulatory Elements i.e. the terms & nature of the
employment relationship developed by IR processes
PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACH
Differences in the perceptions of labor and management wrt factors
influencing their relations i.e. wages. Benefits, services and working
conditions etc Dissatisfaction compels workers to turn aggressive and
resort to strike, lockouts and gherao etc.
SOCIOLOGICAL APPROACH Sociological factors such as value
system, customs and traditions etyc affect the relations between labor
and management
HUMAN RELATIONS APPROACH
Human behavior is influenced by feelings, sentiments and attitudes.
As per this approach humans are motivated by variety of social and
psychological factors like economic and non-economic awards to be
used.
GIRI APPROACH
Collective bargaining and joint negotiations be used to settle disputes
between labor and management. Outside interference to be avoided.
GANDHIAN APPROACH
Workers right to strike but cautioned that this right be exercised in
just cause and in a peaceful and non- violent manner for minimum
wages etc like ‘satyagrah’- Non violent non- cooperation