THEORIES IN INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS (original) (raw)
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Unitarism, Pluralism, Interests and Values
British Journal of Industrial Relations, 1996
The paper notes that in both management theory and pluralist political theory there has recently been increased emphasis on culture and values. The implication is that the ideas of unitarism and pluralism in industrial relations
BA7034 Industrial Relations and Labour welfare A Course Material on
The Term -Industrial Relations‖ commonly denotes -employee -employee relations‖, in both organized and unorganized sectors of the economy. Industrial Relations (also known as labourmanagement relations or labour relations) will be treated here as the study of employeeemployer relationship and the outcome of such relationship.
UNITARISM, PLURALISM, RADICALISM... AND THE REST ?
The academic field known in the English-speaking world as 'industrial relations' (IR) has little institutional presence in the universities of continental Europe and those other parts of the world where anglosaxon modes of analysis are not dominant. Rather than focussing on wider questions of social relations, it has historically concentrated on worker and employer organization and collective behaviour, workplace conflict over work-related matters, and (in particular) the regulation of the formal employment relationship, whether via the law or collective bargaining. Thus, for example, during the 1980s, IR research in the UK was dominated by analyses of the effect of the Thatcher administration's labour law reforms on collective bargaining and industrial action and on the responses of unions to 'attacks' on their established institutional position and prerogatives.
TRADE UNIONS and THEIR SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE FUTURE[#508606]-619439.pdf
TRADE UNIONS and THEIR SEARCH FOR ALTERNATIVE FUTURE, 2018
In a time when change is accelerating and an awareness that dictates that values and organisations to be reconsidered, and the concepts of the industrial society such as workmanship and employership are being restudied as phenomena that change with new transitions, union managers too clearly state the need for restructuring. Due to technological development, the rate of white-collar workers in the workforce has risen against the blue-collar workers. An important change that has been a factor and a result of the change in economic prosperity and transition to high technology has been the rise of average levels of education and learning. The workforce, comprised mostly of highly-skilled white-collar workers who are better educated than previous generations and possess a higher income level, has seen a change in attitude and behavior in the matters of unionization and labor struggle. In addition to this, business managements also develop management techniques such as human resources management that enable employees to participate, and develops conflict free relationships by establishing a direct dialogue with employees with applications such as quality circles, team work and satisfaction surveys. Trade unions are required to create new organizational structures to satisfy the needs of rapid change in technology and the new position of the workforce with knowledge. On the other hand, developments in the aftermath of the 1980s led to neo-liberal policies taking over the whole world. Dismissals under the name of flexible labour market, subcontracting, precarious work and unregistered employment are becoming more and more common. The working class has lost the benefits it gained through organized struggle. In the face of the fact that traditional trade union organization is constantly weakening, it is a necessity to discuss alternative searches. If the workers’ unions will exist in the future, it will be extremely difficult for them to achieve this with their current traditional identities. In this respect, the time for the workers’ unions to create a new vision is long overdue. In this study, a conceptual study on alternatives for the future vision search of unions will be presented.
Relations industrielles, 2000
The relevance and continuing existence of industrial relations, as a field of academic study, is facing a number of challenges, particularly in English-speaking countries, as union membership declines, collective bargaining coverage shrinks and the number of strikes wanes each year. Yet issues of employment and workplace relations remain significant to economic prosperity and social harmony, particularly with the changing nature of work and of employment contracts. Furthermore, there are a number of other means by which employee voice is heard, through the agency of non-government organizations, community groups and various consultative bodies. In order to reinforce its relevance, industrial relations needs to include new actors, cover a wider range of issues and adopt a multi-level approach which incorporates both local and global dimensions.
HARNESSING THE POTENTIALS OF LABOUR UNIONS AS CHANGE PARTNERS
Labour Unions are major stakeholders in the production process, national evelopment and transformation. They are key agents of social change and are still playing active roles as representatives of not just the workers but of the ordinary people, in change and transformation agenda of government. The importance of their partnership with nationalists like Dr.Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo etc in bringing about Nigeria’s independence cannot be overemphasised. In fact, without the labour unions involvement, the independence struggle of most African Countries would have ended as a disaster. Labour Unions also partnered civil society groups and provided a platform for the resistence of the Military dictatorships and for the emergence of democratic rule. Labour Unions have continued to provide a ‘voice’ for the ordinary people and ‘shocking’ the Government into ‘shape’ whenever the need arose. Clearly therefore, the antecedents of labour unions as agents of social change have broadened the roles of labour unions from that of traditional collective bargaining agents to more developmental and transformational roles. These changing roles of labour unions have long been recognized by the government, civil society groups, political pressure groups, faith-based organisations and other social agents. However, the management of industrial organisations as another major actor in industrial relations can only harness these potentials of labour unions as change partners through a relationship that is built on mutual trust and mutual respect with effective communication which will facilitate the implementation of change programmes in the workplace. This paper unravels the potentials of labour unions as change partners. How these potentials can be harnessed and their challenges. The aim of this paper is to safeguard the interests of labour as well as of management and by extension, that of the industrial organisation, by securing the highest level of mutual understanding and goodwill between all sections in the industry which take part in the process of production.