UNDERSTANDING

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
 IR DIFFERENT APPROACHES

SYSTEMS MODEL (Dunlops approach)

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.

Actors
A hierarchy of managers and their representatives in
supervision
A hierarchy of workers and any spokesmen
Specialized government agencies

contd2.
 IR DIFFERENT APPROACHES (CONTD.)
Environment
Technical characteristics of the work place and work community
(Manufacturing/Service)

Market or budgetary constraints, which impinge on actors

(Competitive/Monopoly)

Locus and distribution of power in the larger society (Who holds power)

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.
Rules are needed to manage this situation
How are these rules made?
 PLURALIST APPROACH

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 concentrates on the nature of society surrounding the
organization
Assumes & emphasizes that the orgn. 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
 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

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
-Diverts attention from the structures of power and interests,
and the economic, technological and political dynamics of
the broader society
-Stress on institutions loose sight of real people who are
involved (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