THE FIELD OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
| Date | 01 June 1963 |
| Author | Hilde Behrend |
| Published date | 01 June 1963 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8543.1963.tb00983.x |
THE
FIELD
OF
INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
HILDE
BEHREND*
I
THE
term industrial relations is used in two different senses: it is
sometimes used as an all-inclusive term and sometimes as a term
restricted to collective relations.
In the all-inclusive sense industrial relations are defined as
a12
the
relationships between management and employees in the community.
This is the sense in which they are defined in the syllabuses of many
university courses on industrial relations. In this sense, the field
of
industrial relations covers relations between individuals such as the
individual employer and employee, and between organized groups such
as trade unions and employers. It also covers unorganized or informal
relations, and organized or formal relations.
In the restricted sense, the term industrial relations is used to
denote only collective relations between trade unions and employers.
This usage
is
illustrated by the following extract from an I.L.O.
meeting:
l
‘
Labour-management relations include all the relations between
workers and management or employers, and between workers’ organ-
isations or representatives and the representatives of the employers
or their associations or federations
.
.
.
a deficiency in the conduct
or
spirit of either personal relationships, which we may call human
relations, or of group or collective relationships, sometimes referred
to as industrial relations, can each have a detrimental effect on labour
management relations.’
It
is doubtful, however, whether the different types of relations can
easily be separated from each other, for interpersonal human relations
take place against the background
of
group and collective relations and
the borderline between formal and informal, collective and personal,
relations is not clear-cut-there is constant interaction between them.
It
would seem more correct
to
view the relations as a wide range
of
different mixtures
of
the formal and informal. In the least organized
form of relations we have practically no verbal communication. In
the most organized
form,
the relations are defined in legal contracts
and in government legislation. Formal rules for regulating relations
and behaviour may be strictly enforced, but they may also be ignored.
Goldner, for instance, relates that the
‘
no smoking
’
rule was enforced
Lecturer in Industrial Relations, University
of
Edinburgh.
1
Meeting
of
Experts
on
Industrial and Human Relations, organized by the
I.L.O.
in
Geneva, July,
1956.
383
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