Development of Industrial

Relations
 Industrial Relations
( The Background)

• The relations between the master

craftsman & his co-workers

• The relations were personal,

contacts were close, disputes were
settled amicably
 Industrial Relations
• Change in the relations between
management & workers.

• As the years rolled by, this relationship

turned into a complex problem.

• The introduction of limited liability

system of investment – distinguished the
owner of the company’s capital, its
management & its workers.
 Industrial Relations
• The personal relations came to a virtual
end in modern industry as a result of
dynamism in economic relationship.

• Consequently the old master –servant

relationship gave place to an improved
version of the same thing called
employer-employee relations –
commonly known as Industrial
Relations.
 Origins of Industrial Relations
• Under feudalism we had a master and
serf relationship
• Serfs were bound to the service of the
lord or landowner and remained
attached to them
• If the ownership of the land changed the
serfs were transferred to the new owner
• The serfs worked part of the week for
the lord and part of the week for
themselves
 Origins of IR
• In return they received the protection
of the land lord

• The serfs were not slaves in that they

were not owned by the lord and they
had freedom of movement

• However their economic freedoms

were often limited and they were
bound to the land lord economically
 Origins of IR
• Under there also existed the master
craftsman, who worked independently and
created useful items
• For example: furniture, ox wagons, boats, and
this was sold on the market
• Two predominant forms of work under
feudalism:
– Agriculture/serfdom,
craftsman/independent labourer
• Under feudalism there was no industrial
relations
 Origins of IR
• The change from feudalism to
capitalism saw the emergence of
industrial relations as a discipline.
• To understand the emergence of
industrial relations we have to
understand the evolution of work under
capitalism.
• The change from feudalism to
capitalism was marked by the industrial
revolution.
 Origins of IR
• This process began in the 14th & 15th
century in Britain.
• The full impact of this was felt in the
middle of the 18th and the 19th century.
• Craft work and agricultural work the major
form of production.
• Relationship was between landowner and
tenants and between craftsman and
apprentice.
 Origins of IR
• Industrial revolution changed the nature of work,
forms of work organisation and nature of
production.
• The first stage of the reorganisation of production
was bringing together many craftsman under one
roof.
• This is referred to as the stage of cooperation.
• The craftsman, for various reasons, were deprived
of their tools and brought together by the factory
owner under one roof.
 Origins of IR
• The next stage was the stage of manufacture
• This is when work tasks are broken down or
fragmentised and division of labour is
introduced. (E.G. Making a chair)
• The factory owners attempt to increase
productivity by removing some of the skills
of the craft work by breaking down work into
simpler steps
• This process is called deskilling
 Origins of IR
• The craftsman is still in charge of the work
and has skill but his skill is being eroded
and simplified.
• The artisan is now being transformed into
a worker and this changes the social
relation between the factory owner and
the worker.
• Two processes begin to take place at this
stage:
• The first is de-qualification where the
skills of the artisan is broken down.
 Origins of IR
• This takes away control of the work
from the worker.
• The second is hyper-qualification of a
few individuals who in turn are in
charge of systematically fragmentizing
the work of the masses.
• They are also involved in adapting the
tools of the trade to a narrow focus so
as to increase efficiency.
 Origins of IR

• Craft workers and their apprentice

were placed under a single roof.
• This was the formation of the factory.
• Skilled work was slowly broken down.
• We enter the world of mass
production.
 Origins of IR
• Society now becomes divided between
the working class on the one hand and
owners and managers on the other
hand.
• Human beings now have to sell their
labour power in order to survive – wage
labour.
• We now enter the era of mass
employment and also soon mass
unemployment.
 Origins of IR
• In the area of work we find new
patterns of work organisations
emerging.

• Emergence of the assembly line and

dull repetitive work.

• 1914 Henry Ford introduced the

assembly line (via conveyer belts).
 Origins of IR
• Ford fixed the worker at one place
and made the object of work (or
product) flow.
• This meant more control over the
labour of a worker.
• This also allowed for control over
the rate with which work was
produced –(productivity).
 Origins of IR
• We also see the emergence of
Taylorism or scientific management.
• What Taylor did was measure the
amount of work done by a worker in a
given period of time.
• His aim was to scientifically determine
the best way of performing a task.
 Origins of IR
• Taylor attempted to do two things:
• Increase the amount of work within a
specific period – productivity.
• Simplify work by breaking it down into
simpler part – deskilling.
• In order to achieve his tasks Taylor
conducted a series of time and motion
studies.
 Origins of IR
• The aim of Taylor was to fragment work
down to its most basic motion.

• His experiments lasted over 26 years.

• Taylor’s work need to be understood within

the context of the great depression, mass
unemployment, falling profitability and social
upheaval.
 Origins of IR

• Reaction to Taylor’s work came in the

form of the Human Relations
Movement.
• Taylor was criticised for being over-
rational and dehumanising.
• Between 1927 –1932 a series of
experiments were conducted at the
Hawthorne Works of the Western
Electric Company in Chicago.
 Origins of IR

• What these experiments established

was that work conditions and monetary
incentives did not have a direct relation
to output and behaviour.

• What it found instead was that informal

work organisation and work groups had
an effect on output and behaviour.
 Origins of IR
• Elton Mayo who conducted the experiments
argued that the worker should be seen as a
human and social being.

• This gave rise to the Human Relations school.

• Mayo used the Hawthorn experiments to

argue that social disorder and conflict rose
from the breakdown of established society
 Origins of IR

• He promoted the idea of training

managers and administrators in social
skills that would allow for the
maintenance of “spontaneous co-
operation” in industry.
• This was the beginning of the Human
Relations School (HRS).
• The HRS was criticised for
misunderstanding the causes and nature
of industrial conflict.
 Origins of IR

• The HRS was also criticised for

ignoring trade unions and
industrial relations.
• It was out of the criticism of Mayo
and his HRS that studies into
industrial relations grew.
 Definition
• Industrial Relations refers to all types of
relations that exist in an industrial
enterprise, and they are constituted by
employer & employees.

• It denotes all types of intra-group

relations within and inter-group relations
between these constituent group.
By Edwin Flippo
 Definition
• Industrial Relations, includes
.. individual relations and joint
consultations between employers
and work people
.. at the place of work, collective
relations between employers and
their organisations and the trade
unions and the part played by the
State in regulating these relations.
J H Richardson 1954
 Definition

• Industrial Relations refer to the

multilateral relations between
employees,employers and
government.

Jucius in “Personnel Management”

 Industrial Relations

• These relations can be

• Formal
• Informal and
• mixed
 Industrial Relations
• Formal Relations :
- established among individual an an
industry by the rules & regulations
of the enterprise.
- Formal relations are functional and
are determined by the hierarchical
order.
( supervisor & worker relationship)
 Industrial Relations
• Informal relations:
- The Personal & individualized
relations among the members of
the management & employers are
called informal relations.

( Between two workers)

 Industrial Relations
• Mixed Relations
- neither formal nor informal
- established between two persons in
the course of the performance of their
professional duties.
- partly personal, partly functional
( mutual adjustment for relieving each
pother for tea etc.) sense of belonging
 Determinants of Industrial
Relations

• Interpersonal Relations
• Attitudes
• Job satisfaction
• Employee’s Opinion
• Labour Turnover
• Industrial Absenteeism
• Strikes & Lockouts
• Worker Participation
• Grievances
 Industrial Relations Machinery
Comprises of
• Conciliation
• Arbitration
• Adjudication