EMPLOYEE RELATIONS

Approaches to IR
Industrial relations has been approached from different perspectives in order to provide a
comprehensive frame work for studying it. It is important to know the various approaches so that
the breadth, depth and and complexity of the subject are appreciated. The theories that the
individuals develop about industrial relations are attempts to construct logically consistent ways of
understanding and explaining social behaviour and real life activities in this complex field.

There are 3 main approaches to IR

1. The unitary approach

2. The pluralistic approach
3. The Radical/ Marxist approach

1. UNITARY APPROACH

The essence of unitary approach of IR is that every work organization is an integrated and
harmonious whole, existing for common purpose. It is assumed, under this approach each
employee identifies with the aims of the organization and with its ways of working. The owners of
the capital and labour are joint partners to the common aim of efficient production, good profit and
high pay . There cannot , therefore be two sides of the industry and there is no space for conflict of
interest between each other. In short work organisations are viewed as :-

• Unitary in structure
• Unitary in purpose
• Having a single source of authority
• Having a cohesive set of participants

As a result , industrial relations is viewed as based on mutual cooperation and harmony of interest
between the management and the employees within the organisation. Collective bargaining and
trade unions are , therefore, perceived as being anti social and anti – managerial.

2. PLURALISTIC APPROACH

The pluralistic approach to IR accepts conflict as inevitable but containable through various
institutional arrangements . Work organisations are microcosms of society . Since society comprises
a variety of individuals and social groups , each having their own social values and each pursuing
their own self interest and objectives, it is argued that those controlling and managing work
enterprise, similarly, have to accommodate the differing values and competing interests within
them. It is only by doing this that enterprise can function effectively. Industrial relations between
employers and unions and between managers and their subordinates has to be recognized as an
endemic feature of work relationship and has to be managed accordingly.
A plural society , in other words , has to accommodate to different and divergent pressure groups to
enable social and political changes to take place constitutionally. This is achieved through
negotiations, concession and compromise between pressure groups. In this approach the power is
distributed and the workers association or Trade unions taken as legitimate. Conflict is regarded as
symbol of growth and change.

3. RADICAL / MARXIST APPROACH

The Marxist interpretation of industrial relations are not strictly theories of industrial relations but
Marxism is , rather , a general theory of society and the social change with implications for the
analysis of industrial relations within capitalist societies. The starting point for the Marxist analysis of
a society are the assumptions that social change is universal; class conflict is the catalytic source of
such change ; and these conflicts , which arise out of difference in economic power between
competing Social groups , are rooted in the structures and institutions of the society itself.

For Marxists , moreover , unlike pluralists and Unitarist political and class conflicts are synonymous
with industrial conflict since “ the capitalist structure of industry and of wage labour is closely
connected with the pattern of class division in society". Thus , the conflict taking place in industrial
relations between those who buy labour and those who sell it is seen as a permanent feature of
capitalism.

Class conflict permeates the whole of the society and is not just an industrial phenomenon and
created through structure and nature of society.

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS SYSTEM

John T. Dunlop credited with the application of industrial relation system. Industrial relations
system essentially comprise four processes : input acquisition, input transformation, output and
feedback. When the system is self – contained with these processes , it is termed as “ closed system
“ that is , it has nothing to do with environment in which it exists. An “ open system “ , in contrast to
a closed system, exists in the context of its environment . If we consider an organisation to be an
open system then we recognize the fact that it exists in a context called environment. The
organization influences its environment as well as gets influenced by the environment. The
environment may comprise factors like social , political , technological and others. The organisation
depends on the environment for essential supply and also depends on the environment to receive
output. The environment also influences the various processes for acquisition, transformation, and
delivery outputs.

Dunlop visualized industrial relations to be a systemic construct , that is, industrial relations systems
as a sub _ system of society. “ An industrial relations system, at any one time in its development, is
regarded as comprised of certain actors, certain contexts , an ideology, which binds industrial
relations systems together and body of rules created to govern the actors at the WORKPLACE and
work community. “

The IR system involves three groups of “ actors" They are

1. Managers and their organizations

 2. Workers and their organizations
3. State and its agencies concerned with work place

The actors function not in isolation but in an environmental context:

1. The technical context of the work place, e.g. , how the work is organized, what the state of
technology is, whether it is labour or capital intensive.
2. The market context or the revenue related context e.g. product demand , market growth ,
number of competitors, margins , profits etc .
3. The power context , that is how power is distributed .

The actors in given contexts establish rules for the work place and the work community including
those governing the contacts among the actors in an industrial relations system. This network of
rules and procedures decides their application in particular situations.

Dunlap’s system approach and model has had its share of criticism , the most important one being
that it focuses more on structural aspects of the model and leaves out the processes leading to
conflict. It also doesn’t dwell upon the human aspects of the actors and their behavior . The
approach is predominantly an analytic one rather than a descriptive one, in the process leaving out
the genesis handling and resolution of conflict.