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.

 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, it is 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."

 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

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 sphere of 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, drugaddiction, 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.

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 win ground 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 social satisfactions. 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:

This approach 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 the view 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:

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 skillcentred 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 midAugust 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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